Teale's 'tache

https://www.birmingham2022.com/venues/the-nec That's a lot of events and a lot of visitors. If anything the competition the NEC would represent to a multi-use stadium is more of a reason not to go ahead than to say there are not enough events.

Honestly not that long, the pitch at the Bernabeu takes 6 hours to retract which can be done overnight, then you have the entire day to set up a stage, everything else is pretty much in place. Then the next day take it down and bring the pitch back out again. Granted motor cross, American football, baseball or things that require that level of set-up would be restricted to summer months, but concerts, conventions, comedy gigs, basketball, tennis, and plenty of other events should be hostable in a reasonable time as long as the stadium is designed for multi-use.

I think a lot would depend on how 'multi-use' it would be, if you had a retractable pitch and roof like the Bernabau, then that window of opportunity just grew to every time we aren't playing a game, and not just for concerts but any kind of event you could imagine. There are plenty of events going on in Birmingham pretty much every single day of the year, having another large arena is only going to attract more. If anything it's the competition from current venues in Birmingham that would be more of a problem. I take the point that London/Manchester is ahead of Birmingham in terms of attracting the biggest events, but if Birmingham is ever going to catch up then it needs more high-quality venues to accommodate them. For what it is worth I don't think it's going to happen, I just don't think it's completely fantastical. Real Madrid has proven it is possible with enough vision and investment.

Might, but it is very very far from definite. Is there any harm in looking to see if there's anything better? Where there's more room to expand and a council more sympathetic to our needs? It might not even exist, but we'll certainly never find it if we never look. So others with new grounds haven't dealt with the traffic/travel issues very well, it doesn't mean we won't. We might do better. Surely we all want the best for the club and the fans? If our site is holding us back why not look to see if there's anything better? Or you know, we could try and fix the problems with the current site instead of just accepting them because other places might have similar issues. I don't see the point in ruling out either option.

The club has tried to address this multiple times over a long period of time, but dealing with councils, especially ones that are now broke is not as simple or easy a solution as it sounds. If it was that easy, it would have been done a long time ago. I'm not sure where we are at now with the Witton Station refurb or how much difference it is going to make I'm not saying other grounds don't have similar issues, or that a different site won't have the same or other issues. What I'm ultimately confused by is that I want to find solutions to these issues so that we can stay on the current site, but the people who want to stay at Villa Park seem to be the ones who want to ignore them, and just say everything is fine when it quite clearly isn't. We can't keep increasing the attendance with things as they are, the matchday experience will become ruined for everyone eventually if we do. We aren't going to sell corporate seats if it takes hours to get to and from the ground, sitting in traffic is not an experience people pay for, and we aren't going to able to update the ground to 50/60k if we can barely handle the 42k people we are getting in now. I don't care what Spurs have or haven't done, I don't care if other stadiums have similar issues, I just want a better experience for everyone who goes to our ground and I am exasperated that others don't seem to see it. I'm no town planner, but having some police directing traffic, shuttle busses (for a reasonable fee) from the city center, making some streets one way on matchday, there has to be ways of fixing it in the short term, but also longer-term finding ways of investing in the area to create more safe parking etc. even buy some a bit away and tram people in, stick a helipad on top of a stand... I don't bloody know... put a metro station under the ground that goes straight into town... just something! Sorry, I'm having a bad day... I just want to be able to take my Dad or my kids to a game and it be a nice experience for them, I think that should be the minimum requirement, and the traffic/travel issues around our ground really do put that in jeopardy.

I don't believe a 'goldilocks' location exists either, but then I don't believe Villa Park has perfect transport links, again you're glossing over the difficulties between those links and the stadium and indeed every point I've been trying to make. Have a good day, I'm going to go and shout into a void for a bit.

I mean, well done to them... I didn't say a new stadium would fix these problems, or that another site might be better, or indeed that I want a new stadium. In fact, it seems like you didn't read my post at all. I'm simply stating the site we are on isn't perfect. Burying your head in the sand and dismissing this isn't going to help to move along the conversation. Having good transport links is pointless if they can't be used correctly. Increasing the capacity on the current site with these problems still existing is only going to make matters worse. It heavily limits what we can do with the site we are on. What we need are solutions to these problems, not people saying 'Well there are good transport links so everything is fine'. It is not that black and white, things rarely are.

In theory, there are good travel connections, but in practice it doesn't work. Having three train stations close by is great, but they aren't big enough to support the demand, there are not nearly enough trains servicing them on matchdays and those that are running don't have enough carriages, hence long waits at any of those stations for people trying to get away from the ground. Motorway connections are also great if you can get to them in a reasonable time, but there are several bottlenecks around the ground and between the ground and the motorway connections, no real parking means cars parked everywhere they shouldn't be, which only makes the bottlenecks worse. Buses, taxis, Ubers, are great but they can't get anywhere near the ground and even if they can it takes forever to get in and out. There are reasons people leave early, for anyone out in the shires you can spend as long getting home from the game as you do watching it. I've mentioned before my father is disabled and I find it very difficult to get him to a game without arriving several hours early and hanging around for hours afterwards to let the traffic clear, it takes up the entire day to watch 90 minutes of football. I'm torn on any possibility of a new stadium, but I'm not about to pretend we are on the perfect site when it just isn't the case, the site has multiple issues, the area has multiple issues. I'm under no illusions that these issues are difficult to solve, and other sites may have the same or different issues. Simply, if the Villa Park site was perfect, this thread wouldn't exist.

Where Grealish is concerned I just see too many barriers in the way of that transfer happening. From his point of view he'd have to make a lot of concessions i.e. a massive drop in wages, understanding he wouldn't be the main man (that's Emery now), he wouldn't be captain, nor the focal point of how we play. His dream return it would not be. Financially, to us, it would be a massive risk and I don't see us taking those kinds of risks, especially in the current climate. From a footballing point of view, he's still got plenty of quality and I've no doubt Emery would be able to extract the best out of him, where we are going we do need quality players, but it has to be the right fit. I think we have more pressing matters than his position or skillset and that's where our budget should be going.

For those wondering how the new sponsor may look on a kit... Monotone Colour

Yeah, originally from Cheslyn Hay, now Cannock/Hednesford way. I haven't travelled very far!

@burchy Think you meant me, we get confused a lot. If it's any consolation @Shaun Teales Moustache I'd rather be you... Anyway, 1874 kit design I did, but updated to the new Adidas template, with the most likely crest to be used at this point. Does anyone know if we are definitely parting with BK8 for next season? I'm not putting them on my designs because screw those guys, just wondering if we are getting a new sponsor is all.

@sharkyvilla You requested the below in this year's kit thread, thought I'd move it here as it technically would be for next season's kit. Found a new Adidas template and quickly knocked something up.

Nah, there's already been an article posted on here previously stating the process of how it was designed for us specifically and we trademarked it ages ago. What has most likely happened here is that somebody has taken it from Shutterstock (that it shouldn't be on) either because they don't know it belongs to Villa (unlikely), or simply don't think they'll get caught as they are so small, or possibly they know the company is only going to be around for a short period of time so it doesn't matter. From the club's point of view, it is probably a case of trying to find some contact details of the company, sending them a letter politely asking them to stop using the lion with a vague threat of legal action and that would probably do the job. Or they could be like Apple and just take legal action against anyone who's ever considered using a lion in anything. Ever.

I'd be surprised if the club have given permission for the lion to be used like this, but you never know.

It's a good point, West Ham have only lost 3 times at home so far this season, against Man City, Arsenal and Everton (in what must have been as pure a display of free-flowing football as you could possibly imagine). Considering we are far from full strength and knackered, all 3 points was always going to be difficult. The performance I'm not overly concerned with, Emery is trying to find a solution to the loss of Kamara, without McGinn, and with all the games we've played recently I'm sure plenty of players are carrying knocks, niggles and are close enough to the 'red line' that they can't be used for a full 90+, so we are going to get some weird line-ups, weird formations, unexpected changes etc. between now and seasons end. However, Emery has shown he can adapt in-game many times and did so again here, it's an important ability to have. We are now entering the stage of the season where it's all about points and momentum and finding a way, performances are way down the list, there's too much pressure, too many injuries and so little time between games after this upcoming break to expect us to be at our free-flowing best every game, we might see it in spells of games, but expectations of us turning into 1970's Brazil for every game in the run in should be shelved. It's going to be a battle if we are to make top 4 and isn't going to be pretty. Pleased to see Cash and Diaby hitting a bit of form at a good time, and if Zaniolo can continue to contribute a bit more from the bench that can only be helpful too.

I feel for Unai, he's rolled with the punches and had to think on his feet since before a ball was kicked this season pretty much. Plan A, the stuff we worked on in pre-season, most of that was out of the window with the Mings/Buendia/Ramsey injuries. Plan B served us well for a good while, as long as we had the players to play it, but without Kamara plan B is going to need to be adjusted or we are going to need a Plan C, I think that is where we are now and for the next few league games at least trying to find a solution that doesn't involve McGinn either. It's easy to say go out swinging, but we need to see the bigger picture, there's a good chance we do not have the energy levels/personnel to do that to a fresh Spurs team right now, which could possibly have ended in a worse scoreline. I prefer to be attacking, but it can't be for the sake of it, a good manager knows when pragmatism is required as well. Maybe Unai has overthought it, maybe he did 'get it wrong' but at the moment he's trying to cook a recipe while missing several ingredients, he's going to get it wrong sometimes. I just hope he can find us yet another way and end what has been an incredible season on a high.

Spurs went into that game with a few advantages, a near first choice and fully fit first 11, all with plenty of extra rest throughout the season when compared to us. They also knew what they had to do, they had to win, plain and simple, and so their game plan was very clear. On the other hand, we were decimated by injuries, tired and we seemed to be more concerned with not losing, a draw would have been fine for us, I don't think it was the intention of Unai for us to have that mentality, but that's how it seemed to play out in the end, confused minds can create confusing performances. It's a bad result, a poor performance and a brain fade from our captain that adds to our current list of woes. However, things can change quickly in football, Spurs do not have an easy run of games coming up, and we have 10 games to put it right, that's over a quarter of the season, and there will be plenty of twists and turns before the end. I just think we are really missing Kamara, we're finding it difficult to have the level of control in games we want without him, Emery is trying different things to resolve it (hence the switch to the back 5 which didn't work), there doesn't seem to be a straight forward easy fix but I back him to land on something eventually, it's just going to take a little time. We've lost some momentum, and it can be difficult to get that back sometimes, but a good result/performance on Thursday could be just the thing to give us a boost. I'm sure the players are hurting and want to put it right. Every match is an opportunity to get back on track. Get a few players back from injury/suspension and go on a bit of a run and we'll be grand, all is far from lost. We just need to keep our discipline, our composer, and trust Mister Emery to find us a way.

It's a red for me, in slow motion it looks a little harsh, but full speed he's just gone and kicked the guy in frustration with no chance of getting the ball. You can't do that. I understand why he's frustrated, I'm not digging him out for it, hopefully he comes back stronger for the break and smarter. In the meantime we've got a hell of a job dealing with his absence.

Not a good day to have a bad day.

Catty Mash...

Not sure I agree with this. Without Mings, we don't really have the tools to go and win that first ball regularly. We don't have that Laursen/Teale type whose main joy in life is heading the ball. However, there's more than one way to defend a ball into the box, what we can and should be doing better is, competing/nudging/putting under pressure the player that is going to win that first ball and then making damn sure we are winning the second ball, we aren't doing either of those things well enough at the moment. I have some sympathy with the set piece coach in that he's had a constantly revolving cast at the back to work with, we aren't the biggest team, and he's been missing his main weapon in Mings for the entire season, but we do have to find a way to be more switched on for these set pieces.