FLVillan

In my opinion Heck has no understanding whatsoever about English culture or what "fans" really are in football/British culture. In American sports, fans don't have the same vested interest, multi-generational pass-down or local attachment. It's why you'll never hear American fans referred to as "supporters." In English football it is tribal in nature, it is 100% ingrained into people, into families. Even non-sporting types in England know who their local team is... Americans "pick" the team they want to follow and will change if a superstar player moves. Teams themselves relocate to cities thousands of miles away to get a shiny new stadium or to tap into a target population. American fans are "customers" first and are treated as such. I laughed when Heck said he had been quiet for his first six months because he was "learning" about the club and its history etc. Well, he's either a very bad student, or he's completely full of . You can learn Villa's factual/statistical history very quickly with a stadium tour, a few videos and read a book or two. Understanding the history and what makes the club what it is, is whole different prospect. Teams here in the US make changes to logos and color-schemes on a whim with little to no involvement from their fans. For example, when the Patriots changed their shade of blue from royal to navy, the first the fans knew about was when the new gear went on sale just before the season started. The motivation for that change was 100% focused on sales. At the time, royal blue was an unfashionable colour, so the Patriots and the Buffalo Bills both eliminated it and went with navy blue. Heck has made a rod for his own back by completely misreading two massive club decisions that directly affect us. He needs to backtrack, fix and apologize, or he needs to leave.

I've lived here for 32 years, even coached "sahccer" at a college (decent level) for 25 of those. Trust me, I've driven home the very points you raise many many many times... When I go over to family on Sundays and they're watching the NFL I ask them how the fake rugby match is going..... During baseball season I take great pleasure in telling them about Rounders, a game played by pre-teen schoolgirls in England...

Nike are the league-supplier for the NBA, ie they supply every team, as is the case with the NFL also. Have been for about ten years, since they ditched Adidas. So Heck didn't really have anything to do with that decision. Most professional sports in the US have league-wide suppliers. The only input from the teams is colours and some design tweaks, but they have no choice on who they get them from. Interestingly though, the clubs can sell "licensed" replicas and apparel under other brands.... They call them uniforms, which as a military family does grind the gears a bit.... The word cleats was adopted for "soccer" (pronounced sahccer ) from the footwear worn in baseball and American Football. To be fair on that one, they're hardly "boots" are they either, so each culture has some work to do to get that terminology fixed....!

You have to remember though, that the old Trinity road stand had mosaic badges both on the brick and the roof of the stand that didn’t match the club badge, so I think the thought process of having to redo absolutely everything, especially the Holte mosaics isn’t really critical…

For 30+ years now we've had a terrible badge. It started with the 1992 version and has become progressively worse. Yellow on (light) blue is an awful color combination, with a terrible contrast. How anyone running ANY kind of business in 2024 cannot see the importance of top-level branding simply blows my mind. My wife and I own a small business and we spent good money on our business logo, ensuring it would be unique, instantly recognizable and effective across the entire gamut of digital media, print and even apparel and promotional products. We made sure it would be visible from distance on any colour background. We have ZERO graphic design background, a tiny budget and a small focussed and specialized clientele. But we have a logo/brand that works and has received universal positive feedback. Now more than ever, branding is the most critical business marketing and sales tool. And yet, Aston Villa, with essentially infinite resources, 150 years of history, and a clear pair of colours that DO compliment each other cannot get it even vaguely correct. Embarrassing.

Basics done well here. 1. Our colours being claret and blue. 2. The contrast being appropriate for viewing (ie. dark against light). 3. The name of the club. Quite honestly, if the club presented ANY one of these as the new badge I'd be perfectly OK with it. Would I change anything? Possibly move the star above the badge and make the 1874 slightly bigger, but those are just my personal preferences and wouldn't overtly change my opinion... My personal favorite is the top-centre version. I couldn't care less what way the Lion is facing, or if the star/1874 is included or not, or if it's a two colour border or one. I just want our badge to be claret and blue, with the club name in full and to look professional.

Absolutely awful. The one thing that needed fixing, more than anything was the yellow-on-light-blue. If they had fixed just that I could have lived with almost anything else. Not only did they not fix that issue, but just basically shifted the lion to the top and pasted Aston Villa below. Amateur hour!

Doug is an excellent player, but if he's playing two positions at once it's no wonder he's looked a bit tired recently... I honestly think any team, including Citeh and the Dippers, will drop a level when their best players are out. Rodri missing for Citeh is the most glaring example. They have players who are maybe as technically good as he is, but there is always going to need to be a tactical tweak here and there, or someone coming in that hasn't got that same understanding with the players around him. It could be argued that Citeh have actually failed to manage the problem, because they don't have a natural replacement for Rodri. Phillips is clearly deemed not good enough and their next-best option is to move Stones into midfield - and our midfield ran rings around him... Citeh's system relies heavily on Rodri and before that Fernandinho. They've been fortunate that neither of them have had extended periods out of the team....

Probably transitioning as was too representative of toxic masculinity...

Patriots have always reverse-mirrored Villa. When I arrived in the US (early 90's) Villa had some great teams, won a few trophies while the Patriots were absolutely . Then the Pats got new ownership and started winning everything in sight, and we drifted towards relegation. Then Villa got NSWE the same year Brady left the Pats....

Anything involving Bluenoses is possible, but I don't think so....she could pick who she wanted tbf... I certainly seemed to play a lot better when she came to watch her kid brother play....

I actually played with Clarkson as a 14 year old. Olton Ravens. 1983ish. His sister is Calum O'Hare's mum.

I don't think he's dropped off to be honest. With the recent keepers we'd had before him, he was such a massive upgrade that we definitely over-hyped him. Add that to the World Cup win and all the awards, the expectations are through the roof. He's a very very good goalkeeper.

I actually mentioned it in my very brief assessment of the match in the post match thread. He was cheating over, expecting a shot across him. Broke the cardinal rule of goalkeeping. If he'd been correctly positioned he would have saved that shot with his feet.

Given the injuries/suspension and number of games we've played that was a very decent performance and an even better result. If Moussa wasn't aiming for Row Z in the north stand second-half we'd have been out of sight by the time they got their second. Martinez was culpable on that one - shouldn't get beaten at his near post like that, he was cheating over. With our history in the Christmas period, a blip was inevitable, but if one away defeat and a home draw was the blip this year, then I'm happier than a pig in

I honestly don't think it was even soft. I've had the bottom of my foot kicked while moving - sent me flying! And I was carrying a bit more timber than young Jhon....

And yet if Ramsey hadn't kicked the bottom of his foot, he's got a yard or two of space to shoot and potentially score, or pass. So winning that penalty led directly to a goal-scoring opportunity.

History tells us one of those teams at the bottom will have a surge of form at some stage and claw their way out. Small Heath are only two places above relegation and the team directly below them only one win behind....

Have to say this guy doesn't come across well at all and the "explanation" for not doing the stand rebuild is beyond pathetic. Since the later years of the Ellis tenure rebuilding the North Stand has been a point of much-needed discussion. His history at NYRB and first six months at Villa aside, I am pinning my trust in Wes and Nas to know what they're doing and done their research on him. They got it right with Unai and Purslow (Gerrard disaster not included), so I shall keep my powder dry until I see the new badge.....

You might be on to something with the two shades of claret there... make everyone happy...

I see what you're saying and that's why I'm not wholly opposed to the "gold" as the third colour, but I just want it to be mostly claret and blue.... Put a gold border on it, or 1874 in gold for example. Maybe I'm just old (fashioned) but I was never a big fan of the gold lettering, even on the vintage 75-91 round badge which is the best that's been produced in my lifetime. There was actually a version of it floating around for a very short period of time that had white lettering but that was short-lived (I had a scarf with it on there, that my old man bought from the club shop). The problem for me with "gold" is that it's not really a true shade of colour and you see so many versions ranging from yellow to beige to orange. The Lion on the Lerner badge is decidedly yellow, the lettering on the 75-91 is more like orange and the newest "150" marque is closer to beige.... (The European Cup star is white... )

Man City have, throughout my lifetime had a little claret here and there and that's their prerogative. Their main two colours are blue and white with claret as a third option (like white is ours, hence why most of our away kits are predominantly white and we wear white shorts at home). For Villa, in order, claret and blue shirts, white shorts, blue socks. I just want to see those colours as the dominant ones on our badge. I'm not against gold (yellow/beige) if the club really think it's needed but definitely not as one of the two main colours (as was done with the Lerner badge and this "150" marque). We are a club with a unique kit and colour combination that actually is also very aesthetically pleasing and is what we have worn for 100+ years. I just don't want to see gold, yellow, beige as a dominant colour anywhere. Lettering, sure, outline, sure, but not as a main colour. The Lion didn't turn gold until Ellis produced those two consecutive hideous striped badges in the 1990s. Ever since that first striped badge emerged we've had FOUR main badges and each has been worse than the previous one. I want to look at our badge in isolation and see claret and blue. Ideally with white as the third colour if needed.

Love it. Best one I've seen so far. Claret, blue and white with a bit of gold trim. Kind of like every single kit we've had for well over 100 years....

So does "gold" (yellow/beige)

This..... The other factor to consider is he was a completely unknown quantity for opponents' scouting, so teams couldn't really prepare for how to contain/stop him. I believe he will come good....