jackbauer24

Hi General, Any further news on Sponsorship next year? Without naming names, I assume it partially is hold until companies know which division we're in for sure? Any idea on dates that new Sponsorship might be announced? If we're waiting til the end of the season does that mean it will be effecting our shirt releases again? If it will effect things like shirt release dates, please tell fans as soon as you can - transparency is much likelier to be accepted then pretending everything is fine. I think most people would accept no company is going to pay the same for a championship club as they would for a Premiership club.

Hi General, Two things: firstly you didn't really answer the question I posed: you say you're here for the fans but in what way exactly if you can't really answer any questions that couldn't be as simply asked of the ticket office/ shop. Secondly, managers were asked what the most important thing was to be a top manager in this country. Of all those who replied, this was the response: 1. Man management skills 53% 2. Knowledge of football 27% 3. Experience 7% 4. Luck 7% 5. Tactical know-how 0% 6. Managing the board 0% 7. Other 7% I think most people would have to agree that man-management MUST be Houllier's weak point. Knowledge of football and experience, yes. Luck - well I certainly hope he gets a lot in next few weeks.

General, I mean this is the nicest possible way, honest I do; but what is your purpose of being on these boards and others like it? You can not talk about Transfers (rightly so), you refuse to talk about tactics/ team selections (again, reasonable) and you will never question anything about the team publicly for fear of press quotations. Thus it leaves your musings/ conversations from simple issues regarding merchandise/ sales to utter ramblings like what is your favourite colour! Surely these kinds of questions should be directed directly at the shop/ ticket office rather than wasting your time. If you want to see what Villa fans feel then simply viewing the boards rather than having a Q&A thread would make more sense than getting irate at Villa fans for being annoyed at the situation/ the manager. All I'm suggesting, General, is that if, by your own admission, you can not really talk about things that fans REALLY want answers to then wouldn't you be best serving Aston Villa dealing with other things (like finding a new manager?! Sorry couldn't resist!) I don't understand your 'purpose' as a Villa insider if you won't give answers to questions fans ask that they couldn't just as easily ask the ticket office with a quick phone call. I am asking this as a genuine question and is not meant as attack at all - What do you view your role on these boards as being? If it's just a fan then you need to be anonymous, if it's for evaluating fan feelings then just observe, if it's to give out Nicky Keye's number perhaps a Contact Page would be more time efficient but if it's as a route for the average fan to ask deep questions; what exactly can we ask that you can answer? Thank you

Rafa available? Great, sack Houllier and get him in. Your Nan's available? Great, sack Houllier and get her in!! There is NO-ONE I wouldn't replace Houllier with.

General, Really simple question; do you/ the board really think ANY manager at ANY club can ever reverse the kind of hatred shown towards him by his own fans? I've yet to see it in nearly 30 years of following top flight football. Do you think Villa fans will come round if we stay up by narrowest margin? How long do you really believe it will be before we're all singing 'Hou's Army?!' Can you GENUINELY see that happening? That's the key General, if any of above means anything to you then it makes the decision very very easy as regards Mr. Houllier's continued employment. It's now a case of when not IF with Villa fans.

The Villa board are right in their backing of Houllier. It is just a coincidence that Petrov, Young and Gabby have lost their form since GH arrival. It's also extremely unlucky for poor Mr. GH that also at this time Warnock, Dunne, Collins, Beye and Carew decided to lose all professionalism for the first time - Houllier couldn't possibly have been to blame for that. It was also not his fault that he signed Pires, I think an evil monkey told him to do it. The same one that informed him to praise Liverpool fans. The reason we're doing so poorly is actually the fans fault. We had the audacity to question the only person who's important at Villa - Houllier (did you know 'his' Liverpool team won the Champions League once he'd left?!) Some blame also has to be apportioned the board too I'm afraid. How silly of you all to spend nearly £30m in the January transfer window including smashing our transfer record. So, It's 6-8 of the players fault for suddenly deciding not to play well this year for no apparent reason. It's the fans fault for not supporting the team. It's the boards fault for spending a fortune on new players. And of course it's the Evil Monkey's fault for all the PR/ tactics gaffs. NONE OF THIS IS MR. HOULLIER'S FAULT AT ALL AND WE'RE LUCKY TO HAVE SUCH A GREAT AND INSPIRATIONAL LEADER. Thank you for maintaining your faith in such a man and we'll all be back next year to support Villa through all 42 league games.

General - one question can be answered in light of your position and makes no difference if it get's into the papers. A few posters have asked; Do we have contingency plans if/when we get relegated?

Player power is rife in football, it's not nice but it's the way of the world. Players will only play for a person who they respect. The big players at our club won't REALLY care if we go down, they'll pop off to other big clubs and leave us in the Championship. It'll only effect squad players really. Which is why I feel Villa MUST sack Houllier immediately. Player power, right or wrong, dictates that they will only put in the extra effort if they respect/ like the guy in charge. If you have a cr*p manager in any work place you can't be bothered to put in your all as you kind of know it's pointless given all the other decisions. Putting McDonald back in charge for a few games would keep this club up. The players respect him and want to play for him. Yes, Newcastle wasn't pretty but he at least got us a quarter of our wins this season in a fraction of the time. And who's to say players like Dunne and Collins might be able to play through the pain barrier to keep us up if they were doing it for a guy they wanted to see succeed. And maybe even Warnock and Beye might get a look in and not be frozen out due to ego, instead relying on youngsters playing in the wrong positions. And to make this reply a question: DO VILLA SEEK PLAYERS' OPINIONS THROUGHOUT THE SEASON, IF THE PLAYERS HAVE A GRIEVANCE AGAINST THE MANAGEMENT TEAM DOES SOMEONE IN THE BOARD DEAL WITH IT? It seems as through Dunne, speaking as captain, got punished for this previously. One or two players complaining - probably their ego/ issues (NO ACTION) Three or four complaining - big changes probably introduced poorly (WORD TO MANAGEMENT ABOUT MORALE) Half the squad unhappy, vocally or not - simply a rubbish management team (SACK THE MANAGEMENT!!!) Where are the players coming out in defence of the manager? Youngsters have to. But it is telling that Young, Gabby, Petrov, Friedel, Bent etc etc have not come out and said anything positive about the management team. Oh and just to keep in line with the 35thousand people yesterday - HOULLIER OUT!!!

This is a misleading poll as people are voting for him to stay despite wanting him to go in the summer I suspect. Personally I think he should GO whenever, be it now or in May. Go now and maybe we'll get the mini-honeymoon boost new managers get, go May and new manager gets full pre-season. Either way Houllier should be nowhere near this club come June. Regardless of settling in etc etc, no manager should take a team from 6th to borderline relegation in 6months. Forget all the other stupid things and that is the bottom line for me. Stand still, maybe, fall back a little, perhaps, plummet - unacceptable. All his other indiscretions just add fuel to a very big bonfire. Not joking, I would take any other Premiership manager over him and a lot of them would be far from desirable but everyone is better than having this clueless old man throwing in the towel - or even worse actually trying and still being useless! Managers are supposed to start well then tail off - he's not even had that! I might even consider DOL over him... well, maybe not but at least he had the good start!!

I don't suppose you'd like to put a rough ballpark date on when we may hear about any new sponsors? This month, before April, before the end of the season or well after it? If it's now public knowledge that FxPro have dropped us then we should be allowed to announce who the new ones will be. I take it that the next sponsorship is not fully sorted yet and maybe one of a number of companies but is there a rough deadline as to when it has to be sorted by so to avoid yet another year of shirt release disruptions? I would hope neither of these questions are unreasonable to be in the public domain.

Bit worried GH is getting ahead of himself with squad rotation and trying out new players - we need to get that winning mentality back that starts with back to back wins. No need to be messing around with the team because of a busy schedule yet. Why start Petrov on Saturday but then NRC today? Today is FAR more important than Man city game.

Where's December's one of these? I thought they popped up after the last available match of each month. We don't play again til 2nd Jan. Not that I'm going to be too surprised by the result! Wonder if it'll be in the eighties or nineties percentages of people against...

HOULLIER DID NOT TAKE OVER A RUBBISH SIDE! He is supposed to be a manager with great experience and tactical nous yet he has had three months and, if anything, we are getting worse. He's alienating decent players and playing young players regardless of if they're ready and often in the wrong position. Today that was Hogg who isn't ready and it has been Clark in midfield. Let's not forget Dunne was in the Premier League team of the season last year and hollier simply doesn't like him. It's ego. His methods are outdated, his style of play is outdated, he can't get players playing for him, he alienates players, fans and even perhaps the General! He took over a team that finished 6th three seasons on the trot, rocked a little by MON's impromptu departure but it shouldn't take this long to sort it out. People talk as if we were destined for relegation before he came and he has to steady the ship first. Realistically we should be talking of landing no lower than 10th this season whilst ANY new manager got into the rhythm and the players got used to changes and pushing on next year from what has been sustained growth year on year. Instead we're facing the very serious proposition of relegation and deluded fans think he just needs more time. Sometimes you simply have to realise you've made a mistake and rectify it, rather than hope that if you keep leaving it it will magically sort itself out. Tell me even one thing GH has done well?

Not denying Spurs are a good side but we were hardly a million miles behind them last season, we had all our players back and played against them with a man advantage for over an hour. It's simply not good enough and there are no 'buts' left. West Ham would be disappointed to lose to Chelsea if they'd played an hour with an extra man. The absolute minimum you should be getting is a draw - it's not like they were four or five up at the time. We needed one goal. There are no excuses. If it was a freak result then maybe you could let it go more easily but it's just another in a long line of shit being handed to us by Mr. 'one last big pay day' Houllier.

It's not the players. It's the manager - wrong tactics, wrong substitutions, players don't fight for him and crowd hate him. No excuse for a team that has finished 6th the last few seasons to be losing a game when spending 60 minutes of it with an extra man. People say we have to give GH time but it's hardly as if he took over a team that has been struggling for years. Today he even had a full squad to chose from. Absolutely dire. He must must be sacked of make the first decision he will have made all season - resign. I'd be more than happy spending no money in January if Houllier was sacked - I'm actually worried by who he'll buy based on Pires. Rubbish.

This is now our FULL side - no injuries to speak of. We have played against a team with 10 men for an hour soon enough and we are being completely outplayed. Come on Spurs, kick our asses - it's the only thing I can think of that might, just might, get Houllier sacked. We are SHIT. Relegation material regardless of what people say and not an over-reaction at all, we are playing shit match after match after match.

If, for example, a manager Villa had hired was losing consistently 6-0 every week but had only had half a season in charge would the board/ Randy have the guts to fire him or would you always give them the year regardless of inevitable outcome? We have won two Prem games since GH took control. Late late wins against newly promoted sides. Not good enough regardless of injuries - and it was only Petrov that isn't available at the moment who would ever have played last season. Realise the board have made a mistake and get rid of a manager who is well out of his depth now after too long out of club management, never mind Premiership management. Everyone makes mistakes, it's how you deal with those mistakes that define you - and this is what I believe a majority of Villa fans are waiting for the Villa board to do; do it in a dignified manner but get rid and get the right guy in - even if that is KM; at least the players want to play for him.

It's all very open at the moment, just an idea floating about. Got a Renault Megane (the 'ass' car), haven't bought a tent yet. Just two of us and will take minimal with us, but plenty of space if there are essentials. Depending on work we would go before August certainly. Thinking of taking in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland and Italy (although missing Italy out this time round might be an option) but again - not fixed at all. Just getting as much info as possible then will try to come up with a fairly strict itinerary which we will of course completely ignore....

Anyone had any experience of travelling around Europe by car? My girlfriend and I are thinking of hopping across to Europe for a month in the car and trying to take in a few countries. Like the idea of doing it in the car for complete freedom but would pack a tent and take in cheap accommodation when possible as not rich! Is this a complete pipe dream and there are zillions of hidden costs? Don't fancy the idea of trains and public transport partic. Just any general advice would be appreciated. Thinking of doing in in June/July August.

This is ONLY going to get worse. Couldn't complain if it was 2 or 3 before the break. We're shocking as usual.

I am 100% convinced we'll be in relegation zone by Christmas. In our Prem games between now and the 5th of January (7 games) the only 'easy' win is Wigan and even that's away. The rest are against teams fighting for Champions League/ Title and away at Anfield and a tricky local derby. After this time we'll buy a couple of solid players which will steady the ship and we'll probably end about 14th. But with an extremely tight league this season I am not STUPID enough to think that relegation is impossible. Those who are need to take off the rose tinted glasses and look at our tired, uninspired, inexperienced team and realise we have no given right to stay in the league. And I hope Houllier is making that clear to the players. It's all well and good saying we have horrible injuries and it's a transitional period etc etc but, without laying blame, it doesn't change the fact it's only the results that matter. If we end up 18th, we're going down: how ever much we blame O'Neill for leaving, Houllier's settling in period and extreme bad luck with injuries.

Why is it so far fetched to believe we may face a relegation battle? As the table stands we are 13th with teams with a game in hand below us. We face four teams expected to fight for Champions League places and Liverpool in our next seven games; not to mention a derby against WBA. We aren't scoring, have awful away record and mounting injury list. I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest we could be in a relegation fight come Xmas.

The kit situation is nothing short of a disgrace. Nike have messed up, but probably covered themselves by focusing on the 'big' teams and associated profits. Villa have been miffed but probably got some compensation. The only people who have suffered are the fans who are expected to buy a kit for the full price despite being about 5 months late with the compensation being free printing which a lot of people don't want anyway. Should have been a third off the price of the shirts seeing as they're getting a third of the usage. And I've yet to see us wear a third shirt in all the years we've been advertising them as such. Can you please tell us in advance what the issue with next years kit will be as this seems to be a regular occurrence at Villa. New kit providers, new sponsors, faulty kits... next year maybe it could be that it needs to be delayed because the players don't want to be seen in the same tops as the fans....

Whilst I have a feeling you won't answer this question, I'll ask it anyway. How early would the Aston Villa board consider sacking a manager? Is there a set period of time you feel you should give a manager, or is it an ever evolving time frame? Would the board step in if, for example, Villa found themselves in the relegation zone going into the New Year? I sometimes get the feeling the board are more interested in being loyal rather than clinical. That is admirable in many senses but in football it is dangerous - no one else is and we can't afford to be. I'm trying not to make you say you're giving GH x amount of time, it's more a general question of how you assess a manager's tenure, whether that be GH or anyone else. What performance triggers a board meeting as to the future of a manager? Obviously there are peaks and troughs throughout the season, but if we were 4/5 points adrift in the relegation zone would there be a meeting? I can't hide my disappointment at GH admittedly, either his appointment or his performance thus far. He looks lost, behind the times, lacking attacking intent, far too public with his attacks on players and I question the new fitness regime with the numbers of injuries we're having - although I admit that could be a coincidence. However I'm NOT saying he should be sacked or that the meeting I've talked about should be imminent. I'm a teacher, I assess children's performance on a day to day basis, see what they're doing well, what they need to improve on and assist them as much as I can. Like football there are a multitude of issues, both within my control (my lessons) and outside (parents/ social) but ultimately there is an alarm bell the second a child's performance isn't meeting the requirements, this is monitored but if no improvement is seen after providing additional support (or finance in football terms?!) then I will have to step in and remove that child for one to one support - in football that would be firing them! If bad enough this time frame can be as little as three months as leaving it later (in both football and the child's education) can be extremely detrimental to everyone involved. My headteacher would assess me in the same way - they wouldn't leave it 12 months for me to be an ineffective teacher as the kids would suffer and the school would suffer. Would you give every manager a minimum of a year regardless of performance? Three wins this season against teams in the relegation zone at the time. If this was still the case come Jan 1st I'd hope the board would ask the right questions. I can understand the need to get an experienced manager in in Sept/ Oct but I worry we'll stick with him regardless of performance.

A point is a fair result, neither team did enough to win. I suppose the plus side for Villa is that we relatively comfortably held them despite being depleted and having a very poor game. However we've been playing poorly most of the season. The players are generally not being awful, they're just not playing as a team - and they're average. Freidel - Solid, not much to do. L Young - Think he is a good RB and always happy to see him there over anyone else we have. Solid defensively. Warnock - OK, you get the feeling he sometimes loses track of the game and that means he has a few lunges - hence so many yellows. Dunne - Certainly not the Dunne of last season, lacks confidence, strength and pace. Lucky Jerome wasn't on earlier. Clark - What the hell was he doing in midfield?! But to be fair to him did an effective defensive job. Collins - The ball is a bomb, kick it away as far as possible - don't bother to look just kick it.... More composure needed. Sidwell - Ireland must have had a leg chopped off for Sidwell to be ahead of him, Sidwell shouldn't even make a reserves team. Downing - Can be great, can be infuriating. Not a great performance, too many wayward passes but can make an impact. A Young - Villa's only threat, he knows it and the responsibility is causing him to try and take on too much - needs creative support. Reo-Coker - Adds a bite to the midfield, you know he won't back out of a challenge - will have more red cards than goals in a season though. Heskey - Works hard, bit more belief this season but never ever going to be a goalscorer. Bannan - Not the game for him, too physical and not enough vision to see other players. Carew - Does what it says on the tin, physical and height - not much end product. Two strikers who just try to nod the ball on, but to who? I can't see this team getting better until there are some reinforcements and returns from injury. I think Petrov is a bigger miss than some people recognise, he may not be spectacular but he is the link between defence and attack, NRC only goes backwards, Ireland only goes forwards. Houllier concerns me, not sure he believes in the squad - fairly negative set up for a home game. Get the feeling he's biding his time til he can get some of his own players in. Strikers are needed desperately, two big strikers flicking on the ball to no-one is going to result in very few goals and he obviously has no faith in Delfounso who isn't even getting on as a sub - bit of pace may have worked today. And with all this work around passing and fitness it seems odd that we've suddenly taken to booting it forward to Heskey/ Carew again - loads of passing along the back line, to midlfield, back again and then to Friedel who boots it down field. We're average and will probably end up around 10th/11th. Losing Milner, any manager, Petrov and Gabby to injury and early in a campaign is going to greatly damage you - regardless of effort to address it. Only bonus I see is that at least Blose will still be below us - they're looking at relegation of they can't threaten a team that played like we did today; and with all their key players back.