Villa_Stateside

3 hours ago, DaveAV1 said:

Yes but I thought the overall plan was to increase capacity to around 60k after phase 2. Does that mean that the Doug Ellis, or what ever it may be called by then, basically gets a facelift and some tweets but the big lift in capacity will be a new Holte?

I honestly think the Birmingham big picture plan has regeneration in mind for that area. I honestly see possibility of a new stand happening in this Situation, as they might knock down homes to bring in new builds. So Villa could take advantage. 
 

this won’t be great for locals, but i just get the sense this is long term plan behind the scenes will make the WItton Station more attractive to local government and train companies. The HS2 is a game changer
 

of course I am just guessing

7 hours ago, useless said:

Watched quite a few extended highlights of Hearts U18 games and that Ewan Simpson looks a really good player, passing range and accuracy looks exceptional, also looks very skilful in the sense of if he receives the ball in tight situations he seems to have very quick feet so has the ability to quickly make room for himself. Obviously only highlights so not going to show his bad moments, but at the same time they're highlights not focusing on him, so doing well to standout in them as a midfielder that plays deep, from what I've seen between highlights and the Scottish Youth Cup final he's more a deep-lying-playmaker than he is a DM.

If I didn't know he was Scottish and had to guess his nationality based on the way he plays, I'd probably guess that he's a young Spanish midfielder, as seems to have that style and way about his play, also have to remember that last season he was playing a year up for the U18s, technically you could say two years up because would have still qualified to play for the U15s, and will still qualify to play for the U16s next season as I don't think he turns sixteen until this month.

Looks an interesting player, hopefully the deal to sign him still going ahead.

The was pass he did in them highlights that I still don’t get how he did it so quickly and accurately. 

That one moment was enough for me to be excited to see him play. I hope we get the announcement soon for him

On 25/07/2022 at 09:27, The Fun Factory said:

Would be useful if the club gave an update on the inner city academy. They have broken ground but a few pics on the site would be appreciated. 

I not sure it be that interesting yet. 

I already seem some people post pics on Twitter and just looks like a building site atm

1 hour ago, WHY said:

Swindon fans all rated him and were gutted to see him go. Goes completely against what you have said. He also caught the eye when playing against Man City for them. 

I watched him few games and followed what the fans had been saying about him. Even listen to Swindon podcasts that also say this.

‘everyone I spoke said his first and last game was his best. i just said he wasn’t that consistent at the back and could be below par at times. I didn’t say they didn’t like him

If you saying the people on forums were lying then fine. I can’t speak to every fan, but have backed up my claim

He had very unimpressive(going backwards) half season with Swindon and decent one with Mk dons. Ask the fans at the club and just loved that gave them some excitement but he lacked consistency like any young player. 

He still very raw and I think he needs game time. I don’t think that should be with us. I don’t think keeping youngsters are good thing if not giving them regular time. I just don’t see how it gets with cash. The 5 sub thing seems to be easy out, but doesn’t mean we using the 5 subs each game. 
 

he has all the tools to be top rb, but let’s give the next step in championship and recall if needed

2 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Had no clue we had 3 millions fans in Australia. Wow 

The population is 26 million. I just hard time believing it lol

8 hours ago, MWARLEY2 said:

I cannot remember any pre season that has been so well thought out . We will have definitely gained fans for life . I do think Purslow got his comma in the wrong place with the 3 million. There again i have 8 friends that live in Oz and there are 3 plus their families that are Villa.

well it’s all here.

https://thewest.com.au/sport/soccer/aston-villa-manager-steven-gerrard-opens-up-on-australian-sporting-culture-at-the-west-event--c-7589782

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Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow has backed manager Steven Gerrard to help restore the club to its “natural position” and believes the pre-season tour of Australia will lay an important platform.

Purslow used Thursday night’s sold out An Evening With Aston Villa function at Optus Stadium, presented by The West Australian, to declare securing a return to Europe this season was the goal...

“We’re trying to make this great club return to its natural position in English football,” he said…

Purslow said Gerrard, who he lured last November, had the ability to inspire recruiting targets to join the Villa cause.

“We met Steven 24 hours after Dean (Smith) left and he joined the club 24 hours later and that’s the way we like to do our business at Villa,” he said.

“And we were absolutely certain he was the right man. Steven has never been interested in mediocrity. That’s not the way he’s wired.

“We underperformed last year. I hate being 14th. I never dreamt I was going to be 14th. This season, we want to be fighting for those (European) places and we’re not ever ashamed to say that.”

Purslow said Australia ticked the key boxes for a pre-season destination with competitive matches, great practice facilities and a chance for the squad to bond, factors which outweighed the travel distance and jetlag.

“It’s been fantastic to be in Australia,”

“We have three million Villa fans in Australia, can you believe that? That is why we’re here.

“Australia, last year, was the fastest growing TV market worldwide for the Premier League. Aston Villa’s audience in the last 12 months grew over 100 per cent.”

Purslow had no issue with the monster salaries earned by current-day stars on the back of lucrative TV rights deals.

Having 3 Million Australian fans according to what Purslow said in Raffles the other night. Even that seems a bit out there considering the population is about 26 million inAus. 

But why have taken so long to go to Australia. We have been such poorly run club for so long. I am so glad we have these owners now.

Data is important to trying to push the club out there to bigger fan base 

4 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Those VTers old enough to have been on the old Villa email list may remember 'Nanook' (aka Katie Baragwanath). She lives in Perth. Here she is with a couple of random blokes: 

So saying she part of 3 million reported fans that he said we have in Australia? 

Seriously though he has been quoted saying that in Western Australian Newsletter. 

17 hours ago, villan_007 said:

Just got back from an evening with purslow and gerrard at optus stadium.

They spoke well. Didn't really say anything we haven't heard before. Apart from them both not liking Townsville, too many creepy crawlies for them. Very relieved to be in Perth.

Fair few scousers and rangers gatecrashed it. To be expected I guess. Gerrard got a fair few beers down his neck.

Purslow really is a short arse and gerrards hairline is bang on in the flesh.

Can you confirm Purslow said we had 3 million fans in Australia?

40 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Anyone know why this isn't included in the pre season match pack on Villa TV? 

Maybe Rennes are showing it for free. 

It shoud be for uk supporters

the global package are not as they don’t have the rights to it. Like me in the states i can only watch it prerecorded 

Really hope the CEE has some coverage from Villa tv

6 hours ago, av1 said:

I’m sorry mate I know you said ‘no joke answers’ but this made me chuckle. 
 

I used to work at the UOB so I’m absolutely not knocking the place, it’s fantastic. But I just don’t think the quality of universities Is a consideration for footballers. 
 

 

Well you be wrong funny enough about being a joke answer. John Mcginn girlfriend went to brum Uni to do her education and she loved it. She made friends easier apparently this way and it made her settle here. So having a Uni of quality can help with Family settlement.

Of course I don’t think it makes a footballer choose us over another club, but it does help. 

13 hours ago, weedman said:

I get it, really, my gripe is with the fact I pay money for VillaTV+. Which is the only available streaming package. I understand that they can't put live competitive games on there for licensing reasons and if they could it would be much more expensive, but they put highlights on and I'm happy to pay.

But now we have genuine games, games that the club are easily able to broadcast to fans, and - despite already paying for the subscription - I need to pay again for this privelidge. It's the equivalent of paying x amount to sky or BT for the sport package but then being told you need to pay another fee to watch certain games. Not only that but this wasn't really advertised in advance, there was no warning that even if you were a subscriber you would still need to pay again, so rather than prepare in advance I had to wait and see at the time 

And despite that, I was going to pay for it, I don't really even get the chance to watch most pre season games due to work and timings but I'd like the opportunity to watch what I can just to get my Villa fix, and after trying every package on 3 different devices I only got an error message each time meaning I couldn't even do that. 

I understand the club needs as many revenue streams as possible and the easiest way is to squeeze fans, but at least do it in a competent way

The friendlies have always been a product with ticket sales and I don’t think broadcasters are interested in warm up games. I just think we got brief time when it was free on the internet as they figured out to make cash off it. I not had any tech errors this year but i have in the past. At this point i willing to take the risk of errors, but if it’s big enough issue then the should offer refunds imo, But with tech it’s hard to know what going your end. My was ok on a apple devices. 

This is the normal now as said with nearly all clubs are doing it. So we grin and bear it or tell our club to not do it and suffer revenue drop that might be small now, but as it’s not a now thing imo. It could cost us more down the road 

hopefully the service  does improve for you as it has for me. You can watch it back if the hours of game don’t suit as well, that’s how i do it

11 hours ago, weedman said:

Have to say this has annoyed me a bit, pre season friendly games which bring in so little revenue they were available free you now need a subscription for. OK, fine. But now, I have the subscription and I need to pay again just to watch the game AND the link doesn't even take me anywhere that I can even buy a pass to watch the game, just kicks out an error at me every time.

Its bullshit and honestly for all the investment we're putting into the club our media offering is embarrassingly poor 

They'd probably make just as much money by streaming it free on YouTube again with a few ads thrown in and they'd reach a lot more people with a far more accessible service

The days of youtube airing free friendlies are pretty much thing of the past for most clubs. Look at other fan bases and you see the same happening. Remember games used not be shown at all. So it’s not a given we should have for free. It’s up to the club. You have to take approach as fan do you want the club to have other revenue streams going forward or do you want to be the only club that offers everything cheap or free. Either way is fine, button be competitive you need all these little things to add up. Then when you grow it adds up even more. 

This isn’t about the now. It’s about the future revenue streams of our club. 

The club is losing money. We could run the club like doug ellis again if you want?

or we could join with other fan groups in premier league and demand change for more cost measures for fans for all clubs. That would take some effort though.

personally the price for friendlys and the youth games are fine at the moment.

3 hours ago, useless said:

Played well today, the only player in the squad that had never played against senior opposition before.

He has behind closed doors last season. This is his first in front of a crowd though 

2 hours ago, est1874 said:

Is he though? I mean, we all thought so, clearly has huge natural ability but he's 19 already. How's he not played any first team minutes (cup v Pool doesn't count) for Villa yet if he's that good? How's he struggled out on loan with much lesser teams?

I'm not in the business of writing players off too early and I dearly want him to be brilliant for us, but it's hugely concerning for me that he hasn't kicked on and got any meaningful minutes under his belt for us yet.

Carney made his first team debut at what, 17? Archer also at 17.

Barry needs to push on this season or he'll not make it at Villa. Maybe elsewhere, but not here.

Carney was physically developed and stand out player for his age. Archer was 5 minute cameo in league cup and then was loaned out to non-league. I mean what screams he was going to make it when at the Moors? 
 

Barry has made huge strides this year in physical development and made huge strides in playing mens football after having unfortunate time at badly managed ipswich team. He still on very on track to becoming a pro and anything above that we will see. He has four year contract with us left to run, so we have time to see how it goes.

12 hours ago, mikeyp102 said:

Have we? Not heard that.

ZED FC they were voted the best youth setup in Africa recently. Hugely ambitious club in that area. 
 

Like above poster mentioned we able be share valuable knowledge and also we get link to the Africa region. 

Quote

He was in the play offs so i think he is part of the players having a extra week off

8 hours ago, thabucks said:

I wonder how Villa Las Vegas will be funded as it’s a $325mill buy into the MLS before stadium costs, training facilities, oh and a squad… That’s gunna be $800mill + project… Context citeh paid $100mill for NYCFC in 2015 and no stadium yet… 

Citeh have also just paid €13million for 80odd % of Palermo FC…  Put into perspective, for the cost of a Nakamba. Or the profit from selling one of their youth who never played a 1st team league game…  That’s the level of astute business operations we will hopefully get to eventually as they have it nailed regardless of the oil billions… 

It’s interesting that net worth of Wes Edens jumped from 1 plus to 4 billion plus in a year. The is no where telling me how that happened. 

The Net worth is obviously not liquid cash, but they have access to capital so I could see it being a loan. The is no relegation so loans have less risk compared to here. 

We are looking at other clubs and have already partnered with a club in Eygpt that is basically as good as owning consider it’s nassif brother. 

We seem very careful about our expansion into other clubs. Where other owners have rushed to grab clubs up for sake of it; 

City are a model that works. So they should be a blueprint we look to follow but in our own way.

10 hours ago, Wezbid said:

I used to pay £1.99 a month last season. Does that automatically end now and I would have to re-sign up or can they just start charging a new monthly amount? 

I think you just paying for Villa Tv. No preseason games are included in that

13 minutes ago, Villa_Stateside said:

It’s not changed with him as haven’t really produced him as came from Fleetwood a year ago. So i not sure that has changed. We still not great at developing our own talents for awhile. Unfortunately i think our own players have suffered injurys in important moments of development. 
 

It’s great we attracting this level of Talent just like we did Gareth barry. 

31 minutes ago, MNVillan said:

Think we played last pre-season’s first friendly in training gear

Nope we played in our New kit. 

6 hours ago, stewiek2 said:

I see there's talk of the club regenarating Witton station (Aston is just as bad after a game). There's no point if West Midlands trains continues to put the same amount of trains on. Just put more bloody trains on after games, it really is that simple!

The club has no control over the station or the trains.

I always puzzled why people think this is a easy fix. It’s the train operator and the council. The club are lucky to be in situation that development is happening already in Birmingham and the Euro bid. The club has taken advantage of this to push the council. 
 

Hopefully we see end to problems 

13 hours ago, Reivax_Villa said:

He looks a talent, tall, very good technically, can distribute the ball well and loves to slide in..

Probably part of the best batch of CB's to come through the academy since Nathan Baker, Ciaran Clark.. Kinda shows how poor we have been in producing CB's.

With two senior CB's injured this is actually a perfect opportunity for himself and Kerr Smith to get some first team action but by the looks of it he seems to be ahead of Kerr Smith in terms of development.

It’s not changed with him as we haven’t really produced him as he came from Fleetwood a year ago. So i am not sure that has changed much. We still not great at developing our own talents for awhile in defensive areas. Unfortunately i think our own players have suffered injurys in important moments of development. 
 

I think we create better attacking players and i fine with that as long as we can still fill the defensive players from other academy’s. 
 

It’s great we attracting this level of Talent, just like we did with Gareth barry. 
 

oh I think Bogarde is the Best Defender in youth setup currently as started to fill out more. He would been on the bench before Feeney if wasn’t injured 

Good value for me. Youth games and pre recorded games for the Premier league make it worthwhile for my needs. 

The preseason games are not the most important part of package for me.