Fuse

General

This has been kindly posted by a Hamburg fan on the site:

Important information for Ajax Amsterdam and Aston Villa supporters:

Due to UEFA safety-regulations we hereby inform you, that we won´t process any online-bookings for away-supporters during the UEFA-Cup group stage. All bookings from abroad therefore will be cancelled. For ticket bookings we kindly ask you to contact your club. Please be aware, that away-supporters buying tickets in other areas will be expelled from the stadium!

Thank you very much for your understanding & cooperation.

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Myself and 7 others have booked flights and travel for the game (all of us season ticket holders bar one lad who shares a season ticket with his Dad) All told with hotels we have spent over £3000 to follow the Villa. I have seen how many people have struggled to get tickets for Prague and I hope the club asks Hamburg for more tickets than the paltry 1500 we have for the Slavia game. Talking to people before the game on Sat I would say more pople are planning the Hamburg trip than Prague.

Can you put my mind at ease that we will be ok to get tickets having already spent the money to go? It would be awful if their are many of us ticketless on the night of the game.

Thanks

General

The pricing for the Uefa cup games is brilliant. No other club has a board who listen to the fans and aim to please them as much as we do.

Thank you.

General Krulak here:

1. First off, I think we got a pretty good draw. I can't wait for the Ajax game at Villa Park. We recognize that there will be many fans who want to travel and that there are many fans who are looking for ticket sales dates, any game day changes, etc. etc. We will be using the OS to ensure a rapid dissemination of info...so please keep checking. I will also try to post info as it comes in.

General K

This is a plea to the club to not get caught out when it comes to securing as many tickets as possible for the two away games, by that I mean more than the UEFA rules of 5%.

Might not be so bad in Prague as they are not a massively supported club but Hamburg are so we need to get as many as we can for this one.

I would expect we will be taking upwards of 4-5000 to each and many will travel by their own means (myself included)

The last thing we all would want is fans traveling to support the club and not being able to get tickets.

General K

You have to answer many questions about the catering situation after most games and as you rightly state the biggest problem is the concourses themselves and the lack of space and facilities (or the ability to add them). With this in mind can I ask if there are plans to redevelop some of th current stands at Villa Park? We have had for many years plans for the redevelepment of the North Stand but would and are the club considering redeveloping the Holte End and/or Witton Lane stands also?

I realise there would be a huge cost involved but I am interested in what the clubs thoughts are on dealing with the state of the current facilities.

Many thanks

Fuse

7 for me. Happy with the signings we made but i'm taking points off mainly for the fact we sold Maloney and to make matters worse didn't buy a striker, also none of the signings we got have got my pulse racing.

So lack of a striker and no exciting players signed are downfalls for me.

Sums it up for me too.

How the **** Petrov is favourite in this poll to be dropped God only knows. On today's showing it should be Barry who is dropped as both NRC and Petrov were superb. Amazing what competition can do for you.

Oh to have competition up front!!

General,

Welcome back, glad to hear your father is on good form.

I have a question regarding the Holte Hotel. Last season it was accessed on match day by invite only and the capacity was limited to a certain number. Is there going to be a change for the new season (hopefully a 1st come, 1st served policy) or will the access be the same as last season. Also will any changes be in time for the Intertoto next week? If not is there any chance my name might get picked out the hat some time soon

We need to be looking to increase the capacity. I have family who would like a season ticket but would want to sit by me. There are no seats available anywhere close by and because of that they wont get one. If we added another 15000 seats then I am sure there would be lots of families who would buy tickets together.

Any news on when we might get the info back from HOK General K?

General,

Are we getting close to any players arriving? I'm talking days rather than weeks.

I have a feeling they won't be threatening a return to the Premier League for a while.

General Krulak here:

1. There is no doubt that there are some aspects of the Premiership Transfer concept that is more convoluted than the US. At the same time, much is the same. The role of the Agent is gaining more and more "importance" in British Football...it has already been very important in the US. The "old" interface between the Club and the Player now has become a "triangle" and not always a "love triangle."

2. MON's comments on the Barry issue pretty much tell the tale. It is now up to the fans as to who they believe. I can state, unequivocally, that MON hit the nail on the head....and was kind to Barry in doing so. We have tried very hard to be professional in all of this...and we will continue to do so. L'pool knows our price...they either will pay it or not.

3. Randy supports MON!! Randy does NOT require MON to sell ANYONE to buy ANYONE. Transfers are the sole purview of MON...with the total, unabridged backing of Randy. The economy doesn't matter, the Browns don't matter, acorns doesn't matter....Randy WILL support.

General,

Thank you for your answer. Would you say that with the increasing involvement of the agent that we have an advantage as Randy has dealt with this for many years in the NFL? If so is Randy himself getting involved in dealing with the agents and their demands this summer? Has he himself been involved in this since he bought the club?

Many thanks

I wonder if it'll be with Jermaine Defoe and SWP

I doubt it. We aren't in for them anymore.

Sidwell will be signed this week I am told, probably by Thursday.

General,

Thanks for responding to my question about the NOTW article and also well done to Villa for a prompt response from MON/club on the matter. In my opinion we have again got the moral high ground and have put the ball firmly back in Liverpool's court. They now really have nowhere to go other than putting up or pulling out.

Does anything like this go on in American sports and do you think we will ever see contracts meaning anything to football players in the future other than to see how much money they are going to get paid each month?

General,

Can I point you in the direction of this article in today's News of the World here http://tinyurl.com/6k7con

It contradicts many things that the club have said about wanting Gareth to stay. What are your thoughts and reaction to this article? I am shocked that Gareth has gone so public with his criticism of MON and the club and if true it does not paint us in a good light.

You have asked us to trust you and we have done but it appears if this article is true that the club doesn't want to keep our captain,

Thanks

General,

I seee from our local paper today that Rafa Benitez is telling Villa to "get real" about our asking price for Gareth Barry. Can I ask (not that I think you need to be asked) that we do nothing of the sort and stick to our guns. The way he and Liverpool have behaved should mean they are made to pay if anything over the odds for Gareth if in fact we are willing to listen to offers from them at all.

It would be brilliant if this horrible man and his horrible club had to back off as they can't afford to buy Gareth.

£3m is the fee I am told. I think he has looked very good in games and not so in others which is tyoical of a young kid needing games. I think with 2 years of games under his bely with us he could be England's right-back.

What is interesting is who plays right midfield in front of him..

General,

A fantastic gesture by the club and I thank everyone involved for making this happen. I really hope that the club, it's other partners and our fans can ensure we make a real difference for Acorns and the children and families it looks after.

Well done.

How sad that we haven't had a player break the 100 goals for us since the late 50s early 60s.

We really are crying out for a top striker.

When will Randy, MON and Gareth be meeting next? As this subject is so important it would be good if the supporters knew when we might get some answers.

General,

Here is Stevie G talking about Aston Villa's player and captain http://tinyurl.com/6phz8q

If we don't respond to this then we will all know what is REALLY going on behind the scenes.

General,

More public piss-taking from Liverpool to report with Steven Gerrard now sticking his oar in and telling Gareth he has to join him at Liverpool so he can play CL football. He says he is desperate for Liverpool to buy Gareth. I take it that our stance of not reporting Liverpool in the first place to the FA and allowing this sort of public tapping up means we are happily negotiating behind the scenes to ensure Stevie G gets his wish? If not why are we lying down and allowing a rival to blatantly take the piss?

If we are not going to fight this then at least have the decency to tell the fans what is going on rather than giving supporters false hope that Barry will stay.

I have heard that Barry's agent is still very confident that Gareth is going to Liverpool and that a price will eventually be agreed with a player coming the other way.

General,

I see that Michael Cunnah has now left. Is he going to be replaced and what was his role at Villa Park/what was he brought on board to do?

I'd say he will have to go if that is the case.