dukes

I find it hard to believe there isn't another suitable plot of land in that general area, and surely having a HS2 station, an Airport and main railway stations as well as access to the M40, M42, M6 and M5 close by make the area ideal ?

It doesn't have to be the NEC, although i'd say the infrastructure there can handle it better than most. Theres plenty of space for additional parking, theres a large train station and plenty of buses that already head in that direction, theres hotels and an airport for those that have need. Absolutely nothing that these owners have done up until now has been anything other than first class, to think that they are just here to sit back and count the money from here on in seems frankly crazy.

Honestly the problems at Villa Park are very different to Anfield, I drive to games from Staffordshire (it takes me about 75 minutes), and i think that compared to teams like Liverpool we have a very high proportion of fans that drive to games due on the whole to terrible public transport in the area. This isn't something that Villa can fix, but everything relies on fans having easy and safe access to the ground. Parking in and around Villa park is an absolute joke, and it's unmanageable with the capacity as it is. In order to securely park my car i need to leave the house at least 2 1/2 hours before kick off. We supposedly have a season ticket waiting list in excess of 25,000 people, that means we could easily sell out 60,000 at home games, but our location makes that an impossible dream. If we had some sustained success, it's not unreasonable to therefore think we could fill 70,000 seats, thats 20,000 over the planned capacity. 20,000 tickets at £50 per ticket is £1M per game in ticket income alone, add in a few pies and pints and you easily get into £1.3M per game. Add also the cost of building stands while keeping the ground open, and i do wonder if the redevelopment of the ground might be having a total re-think. I can see us moving to a new ground near to the NEC (as Doug Ellis once wanted), or being held back more and more by our desire to stay at our spiritual home (none of which is even the same as when i was a kid, and hence nothing to be nostalgic about)..

I travelled to and from the game with a Man Utd supporting friend and his son, they thought the atmosphere in the second half was amazing (his son said it was the best he'd heard), and they said that facilities were on a par with what they get at Old Trafford. I was very surprised to learn that they also struggle to get a drink and food at half time and have similar issues with the lack of space (they were in with the away fans and so comparing the Doug Ellis with their ground)

It’s the 7th January, not the 31st

Name one thing that this board have done that indicates they don't have the money to finance things ? The North Stand needs redeveloping, but they get one chance to get it right, and maybe they think securing champions league football changes the needs ? As far as i can see there is absolutely no risk from FFP, and everybody seems to be basing this on a false declaration of losses for the 20-21 season, which was cleared up somewhere a couple of days ago in this thread.

so you think it's true then ?

The fact that we haven't really missed Mings is testament to just how good Pau has been. A shaky start was to be expected, especially with the high line that we play, but he's adapted to the speed and power of the League really well.

This is so true. I've seen snails move quicker than the queues in the Upper Doug Ellis. it's also criminal that they still run out of pies. How difficult can it be to calculate how many pies are needed we sell out for every premier league game so it's not like the number of people turning up can be a surprise.

Thats a little bit unfair, because that is an old article from 2018 and refers to the Luke kits. There is absolutely nothing that i can find to link Fanatics to the manufacture of Castore or Kappa kits, and if they were then surely the club and Castore would both have beef with fanatics ? Which means it would be odd for the club to take up the kit design/material with Castore, as they'd have little to do with it. I did find the following quote from when the deal was signed " Tom Beahon, co-founder of Castore said of the partnership, “Castore are beyond excited to be partnering with Aston Villa. They are such a prestigious club, with a passionate, global fanbase and we’re thrilled that the Claret an Blue will be wearing Castore’s bespoke Aston Villa kits" which to me suggests they have total responsibility for the kit. I do wonder though what's different about the villa kits, because i haven't seen Wolves, Newcastle or Rangers complaining in the same way

He's good going forward, but he was also lazy in the second half and didn't provide sufficient defensive cover in my opinion. I really think he needs competition as currently he's a shoe in on the right hand side of defence or as a wing back, and there's nobody else (except Martinez) as comfortable in their place.

Well I know he’s scored two goals, but IMO Cash is one of the weak spots of our team. He’s not doing enough on his defensive duties and that’s leaving us exposed. also, when Olsen is playing surely we shouldn’t be putting ourselves under pressure by playing the ball back to his feet, he’s just not good enough to play the way Martinez does and you’d think we would adapt our game as necessary (or sign a more suitable backup keeper)..

Well i think he did a good job, and i wish him all the best. The progress we’ve made during his tenure has been magnificent. I’ll forgive him for Gerrard as he got it right with Smith, I’ll forgive him for Coutinho as he got it right with Kamara. Overall I’d give him 7/10 as there were more positives than negatives and he provided stability to the club at a time when it was seriously needed.

I think Emery is a realist, he knew our position when he came here, he knew what kind of proposition we were, and he was prepared to commit. Now he has to work with the club to make sure that players are as convinced to join us as he was. With the exception of his time at PSG has dealt with this exact situation throughout his career. Arsenal were not in great shape when he went there and had no money.

I agree with this, but i wonder if we might look for a more defensive minded right back to counter the attack mindedness of Moreno on the left. Is it possible for example we could see Konsa play there to allow Carlos or a new centre back to play with Mings ?

Villareal apparently after Ben Brereton Diaz from Blackburn (his contract runs out in the summer), i wonder if that interest started under Emery and maybe we're lining up a January bid for him ? I don't know that much about him, i just wondered if that might be why we're letting Ings go.

I think the reported fee of £12M is very low, i'd have thought we could still get £15 to £20M for him given his scoring record, but if we've really accepted that then it indicates that Emery doesn't see any longterm future for him and i guess it helps with the FFP position. Given that Lange was involved in the purchase of Ings i'm not sure i trust him to find a suitable replacement, but i suspect Emery is having a lot more control of signings, and we have every reason to trust his judgement. It looks like another nail in Lange's coffin and i suspect he won't be here come the summer window...

Simon Stainrod scored 4 on his debut against Exeter City, but did very little after that first season.

Yes, that's exactly the reason i voted for it, and i'm certain also the reason the club selected it. Option 3 was round with a claret turd and blue background.

I voted (here and on the Club Website) for Option 1. I always thought i'd like to see a return to the round badge, but the shield really looks modern, but still has a nod to the past. Also as others have said it's unique.

Will probably just sleep better knowing he’s gone.

Please not Rodgers !

Seems that Beale was the brains of the operation, and we’re left with a jello brained, egotistical, blathering, idiot.

This thread is depressing, not for the lack of serious links to new players, but more so for the attitude of some of our fans. How anyone can accuse the owners of a lack of investment is beyond me. 4 years ago we were practically bankrupt and now in 2022 we have signed Digne, Kamara, Coutinho, and Diego Carlos surely everyone can see that those signings simply wouldnt have been possible even under the last manager and we couldn't have even dreamt of them under the last owner. This isn't football manager, signings take time, and theres lots of other teams after similar players. We basically now want a ball playing centre back, a number 8 and a centre forward....practically every team in the league would like to add those players. Surely one thing we all should realise now is that with Villa there's hardly ever any speculation about actual signings because the club does everything under the radar. I think today we just have access to too much information (even if most is made up), i wonder how fans like @VillaFaninLondon and @nick76 would have coped when all we had was ceefax and teletext ?

As far as i can tell (although admittedly we haven't seen too much of him in a villa shirt), he seems to be exactly the passionate, driven, maybe even angry player that our vanilla midfield needs. Also from what little we've seen he's the best ball carrying midfielder we have in the squad.