DakotaVilla

Have to go full team now v Arsenal or we’ll regret it.

Agree with most of this but with one significant correction - Villa Park is already outdated. It’s a DVD stadium when we are now in a Gen AI age.

It would make no sense for someone with zero ambition or zero faith in our city, our region or our global appeal. Fortunately, I suspect our owners are cut from an entirely different cloth.

It absolutely makes sense. You just choose not to see that as a viable outcome yourself. That’s on you. The club will leave Villa Park at some point unless the council CPOs land for us. It’s as simple as that.

He’s not infallible. He’s said the same himself. It’s extremely dangerous to even suggest that any manager is beyond critique or question.

If we try our best and fail that’s fine. However, in this context right now, if we throw away games and then fail to win the conference or qualify for champions league we would fully deserve that outcome. Let’s put our best foot forward and pick our best team.

Only brummies downplay their own city and region as badly as we do. It’s ridiculous a conurbation of our size does not have a 70k+ stadium. People of ambition and vision are required to reframe the potential of our wonderful region.

Their cheapest are extremely limited as well so basically most of their season tickets go for the 850 mark. They have other ranges such as the dug out club which is around 1500 PER GAME. Apparently They charged 5000 per seat behind the dugout for the man utd game. Any decision to think we can “sweat the ground” in the same way as Chelsea is extremely incompetent.

That’s clearly incorrect. Chelsea’s limited cheapest season tickets are the same price as our most expensive. The vast majority of their season tickets are 880/900 quid. Their hospitality goes for multiple thousands. We are absolutely no where near the leverage that Chelsea get from their stadium and a few additional poxy 100 pound a go hospitality tickets are not going to make any difference at all.

In reality the whole Doug Ellis and north stands need to be knocked down and completely rebuilt as a minimum. The stadium plan should then also consider a complete rebuild of the holte in the next 10 years.

What does that have to do with the price of cheese? Do you think brummies are going to pay anywhere near what Chelsea season ticket/hospitality attendees pay? That would be a minimum doubling of season tickets where they are today. Good luck with that. And you’re 100 percent wrong. In the modern age how much revenue you clear from your stadium is absolutely critical in determining how much PSR room you have. Unless of course your plan is to sell your best players every year.

Let me ask you a very simple question. IF we are still at Villa park in 25 years time and the capacity of the stadium is under 60k how competitive do you think we’ll be? We already know the answer to that question is that we won’t be competitive at all. Hence the need to get clarity on the scale of redevelopment possibilities asap or we move. Personally, I wouldn’t mess around as the costs of a new stadium are only going to increase without delay.

He’s Unai’s poster boy after Pau. No way he’s sold unless it’s a ridiculous bid but make no mistake. Ollie is good enough to play for any team in the world.

We have to move to another location or force the council into a CPO on the land behind the Doug Ellis. Long term those are the only viable options so best we get this resolved asap. It’s basically as simple as that.

As for transfer interest. It would take 150m.

When the pressure hits you find out who’s the real deal. We all know Martinez excels under pressure but Watkins has been an absolute revelation and is now for me the only candidate for player of the year. If anything, he’s the one who has found his voice and seems to be thriving the harder it gets. Hopefully McGinn can have a similar response (the signs are there following the performance v Lille) as we need him at a similar level to get us over the line.

I’m changing my mind about how to approach this game regularly. I’ve landed on if spurs drop points v Newcastle then we have to go big v Arsenal. Then let’s patch ourselves up and go full force v Lille. If we try and don’t make it then fair enough but if we throw in the towel v Arsenal and don’t make it to champions league we’ll be kicking ourselves.

We rode our luck extensively and it’s unlikely we will have that luxury away at Lille. Defence and midfield will need to tighten up considerably if we are going to progress.

The reality is neither bidace or Zaniolo are good enough for where we want to be next season. The comments re Bidace are ill founded - he personally asked to leave the club. Our sights should be set far higher on someone like Williams or maybe rogers is showing signs that he could be that player given time to develop etc.

What you mean the stats that say we’re top 5 and in the quarter finals in Europe without him?

The council haven’t been hoodwinked. They’re desperate and need to raise the best part of a billion quid through asset sales just to keep their head above water. Blues saw an opportunity to take advantage and moved quickly. Meanwhile in Aston we’re still talking about how crap our next crest is going to be and how wonderful it will be when we add a thousand more hospitality seats……

From the owners perspective, they won’t necessarily be worried about the debt involved in building a new stadium or even the debt that would be required to rebuild Villa Park to an acceptable level. The only questions they will have about the debt is: - What rate can they get on the debt and can the debt be serviced through increased revenue that the new stadium and will it provide positive cash flow? (Look at spurs. They have huge debt of nearly 700m but their positive cash flow is now insane and their annual interest charge is circa only 20m) - How much will the stadium cost and will it increase the overall value of their asset and in that context is it worth it? (Again, look at spurs and how much the new stadium would have increased the clubs valuation. Absolutely more than was spent on the stadium because of the insane cash flow generated). The fundamentals for Villa v spurs are slightly different due to Birmingham v London, higher interest rates and higher build costs but for me there’s no way in the world the owners wouldn’t make an absolute shit load of money if they built a new stadium.

Realistically, the only decision to be made is how quickly can we build a new stadium and where can it be built. This is how our competitors stack up: 1. Man Utd - 74,031 - talking about a complete rebuild as that’s not good enough. 2. Spurs - 62,850 - Probably the best stadium in the world clearing nearly 5m per game. 3. west ham- 62,500. Yes crap for atmosphere but it’s huge. 4. Liverpool - 61,176. Just rebuilt. 5. Arsenal - 60,704. Purpose built and in London. no doubt clearing 5m+ a game. 6. Man city - 53,400. Doesn’t matter as owned by a nation state. 7. Everton - new stadium will be 52,888 and purpose built. 8. Newcastle 52,257. Talk of a rebuild. 9. Villa park. 42,530. Can’t even buy a beer or a burger at half time even if you offered your first born as payment. We will be categorically left behind if we do not leave Villa park asap or unless the council slaps a CPO on the housing behind the Doug Ellis and the north stand is rebuilt. “Sweating the asset” ala Chelsea just won’t work when the club is based in Aston (not west London) and when for a large percentage of your fans just being able to afford a regular ticket is a luxury. The only thing making us even remotely competitive right now is Emery’s genius but you can’t bet the future of the club on that and if you’re the owners you certainly couldn’t bet a multi billion dollar asset valuation on that either.

I think he’ll go with Diaby (he’ll be desperate to play well v a French team) instead of Tielemans and Moreno but everyone else picks themself.

The adidas deal was anything but an open goal. Yes, Nas had connections but to do that at pace in a couple of months and hopefully get next years kit delivered on time is the definition of complex. Look at the lead time Newcastle gave themselves when announcing their switch to adidas and they didn’t have the castore car crash we had to deal with. I’ve been deeply critical of Heck re the other areas that you have highlighted but we have to be fair and not diminish outcomes that deserve praise. Also on the crest, one can only hope that the feedback from the leak has been taken onboard and that the lengthy delay is down to further refinement to ensure that it will meet expectations. Yes, I know that I’m being overly optimistic!