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About 600 left now, upper tier only, on sale to members only. It's going to be rocking.

A quote from Villa Twitter's Captain Hindsight - brilliant context...

Mature. Just unsure what the point/relevance of a discussion of this nature is and what it hopes to achieve? Shall we compare Steven Gerrard and Paul Lambert's style of play to Jozef Venglos's as well whilst we're at it? Has about the same relevance...

What an utterly pointless thread. My goodness our fanbase are cringeworthy bed-wetters at times.

You're right, we'd employ Poch and within 6 months @AVFCTransWatchTweet1 etc would be starting the #PochOut trend after we draw away to Everton or something. I have a strong suspicion a lot of these bed-wetters would have been posting the same about Deano 12 months ago... To clarify, I never called for DS to be sacked, and still don't believe we've got any better under SG, if anything, I think we're worse.

Show me a team apart from perhaps Man City that goes to Elland Road and dominates possession? Regardless of league position they're absolutely all over you with their pressing and give you next to no time on the ball, we matched them physically which is the bare minimum and we had 19 shots with 7 on target so there's the issue. If Watkins had finished his chances we'd all be gushing over it.

I must be either absolutely mental or witnessed a different game to most yesterday evening. Judging by the reaction you'd have thought we got hammered, admittedly there are bigger questions such as have we progressed under Gerrard (I'd argue we've gone backwards if anything) but commenting solely on the 90 minutes we saw yesterday I really don't think we were bad at all!? We didn't set the world alight but it's a tough old place to go and we stood up to them, battled well and if we could hit a barn door we'd have won comfortably. Despite what the over-dramatic football twitter jellyfish and wannabee vloggers/bloggers blue ticks post, we aren't going to win every game 5-0 playing a hybrid of 2010 Barcelona/1970s Brazil unfortunately.

Tickets are available for the neutral Putney End (and elsewhere) for this one on general sale here: https://tickets.fulhamfc.com/selection/event/seat?perfId=101626025604&ot=0&gtmStepTracking=true

Will be the smallest ticket allocation we've ever known at Craven Cottage due to the reduced capacity because of their new stand and redevelopments etc. Might be worth seeing if there are any tickets in the Putney End to be bought through Fulham as traditionally it's always been a 'neutral' stand anyway.

Would be the entire Holte End if I had my way!

My thoughts exactly, also worth noting we were one of the first clubs to put our hands up to trial it as well although that was before the current regime I believe?

Not on your life, my already existing friend!

It's incredibly exciting and like everything the current owners have done so far I back them 100% to get this right. However, my only small concern is that whilst I agree we need to ensure that VP is inclusive and better-accessible for disabled supporters etc there isn't any mention anywhere of rail-seating/standing areas or anything that might enhance the more vocal supporters or those who wish to stand and create the atmosphere. If we got this right we could have the stadium with the most electric atmosphere in England, rather than just more capacity for day-trippers and tourists etc. Interested to hear my fellow VT'ers opinions on this point.

Would love to see this: Martinez Chambers Mings A.Young Digne Luiz Kamara Bailey Buendia Coutinho Watkins But imagine it will be more like this: Martinez Konsa Mings A.Young Digne Kamara McGinn Ramsey Bailey Coutinho Watkins

I agree the prices are too high - but quite frankly these fans you speak of who only turn up because they think we'll win are a problem also.

Forgive me if your post was a sarcastic one, but elements of our fanbase are so weird at times, how hard is it to just get behind our team for 90 minutes rather than fantasise about it going wrong so the manager gets the sack? I'm not convinced by Gerrard either yet - he's learning on the job and I'm not sure that's right at a club as big as ours - but we'll still be Villa fans whether we win 5-0 or lose 5-0 on Friday and let's face it, in Feb 2019 we were 13th in the Championship so we've all known worse (that's as bad as it's got for me but I'm not 30 years old yet, my old man remembers - and actually really fondly recalls - the third division days!) The amount of adult Villa fans I see wetting the bed is honestly embarrassing when we're in a great place in terms of solvency (we were closer than people think to going bust in 2018 before NSWE saved us). I dream of a home fanbase that for the 90 minute just gets behind them no matter what like you see on the continent. I've been to a couple of games in Central Europe this calendar year, Slavia Prague being notable in the sense that the support was immense despite the fact the team were behind for most of the game, it was almost irrelevant what was happening on the pitch.

We're on! https://www.premierleague.com/news/2788625 Let's make it a volcanic atmosphere under the lights at VP!!!!

Presuming Bednarek can't feature against his parent club?

A few hundred left and they are only bringing the minimum allocation by the sounds of it. The fact there is a stronger than usual chance that it will be postponed (my thoughts on potential postponement are well-documented in the pre-match thread) may be a contributing factor?

You don't get to many games then? Actually, maybe it's that I wish they were as capable at policing other areas as over-zealously as they do at football matches, but that's a discussion for another thread! Back on topic, I agree with you about the game being on or off, obviously nothing would surprise me but I can't see how calling Villa v Southampton off three days before the funeral in a city 100 miles away from where the funeral would be which would mean rearranging it in what it already the most congested season in memory makes any sense.

Yes mate, to my knowledge we have sold out (usually in the blink of an eye) every away game we've played for as long as I can remember, certainly since before Dean Smith. Most home games too! Onto Friday, I'm hoping that the article you have seen turns out to be reality. Wouldn't it be fantastic to see the VP atmosphere like that Friday night v Everton when we first got promoted under DS and like last time out against Sportswash City FC?! A similar performance and scoreline to this fixture last season would go down a treat.

They have sold out in fairness to them, not sure if a smaller allocation though? We're a few hundred seats away from following suit. Surely this game will go ahead? The funeral is looking likely to be Monday 19th so why on earth would a game in the second city be called off on Friday 16th because of it?

I'd go with this: Martinez Chambers Mings Cash Digne McGinn Kamara Ramsey Buendia Watkins Ings Subs: Olsen, Konsa, Augustinsson, Coutinho, Bailey, Archer, Young, Luiz, Hause/Feeney. I'd also be tempted to play both Coutinho and Buendia but not sure who I'd drop.. (Gutted for Diego Carlos)

I'd go with: Martinez Carlos Mings Cash Digne McGinn Kamara Bailey Buendia Coutinho Watkins Subs: Olsen, Augustinsson, Konsa, Chambers, Ings, J.Ramsey, Young, Archer, Luiz. But I think SG will start Luiz in a midfield three and might even play both Ings and Watkins at the expense of Buendia.

This is very exciting. Nobody is discussing atmosphere though, to me this is the most important thing, it's the stadium for Aston Villa Football Club after all before anything else. I don't want a stadium full of day-tripper families and popcorn-eating kids so that the place has the atmosphere of a West End theatre. Really hoping that the introduction of a wrap around North Stand/Trinity Road Stand (despite the fact the current Trinity Road inhabitants appear to be cardboard cut-outs as they make about as much noise as them ) will improve acoustics and the potential introduction of safe standing areas will help to enhance this, as much as words like 'inclusive' and 'for all' are completely understandable from a marketing and PR point of view, we need to make the atmosphere hostile for away teams and fans to make it a fortress for our players.