HanoiVillan Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 FAQ's 1) Why the 74th minute in 'Out the Door on '74'? When Randy Lerner bought Aston Villa he made a show of respecting the history and tradition of the club. His slogan was 'Proud History, Bright Future.' Aston Villa is one of the oldest and proudest clubs in English football, and was founded in 1874. The protest aims to show Randy Lerner that despite his fine words, his actions since 2010 have damaged the history and tradition of this football club. 2) Why a walk-out? In the Premier League era, fans have fewer channels of communication than ever with the club. Aston Villa fans feel that we have been ignored, and that the club has taken our support for granted for too long. In addition, we feel that the ongoing crisis at the club (which has been present for much longer than the current season) has been under-reported and poorly covered by local and national media. A walk-out is designed to get the attention of both club and media, and to push both to take the concerns of Villa fans seriously. 3) How can I help? Firstly and most importantly, if you are attending the Everton home game on March 1st, we respectfully ask you to consider standing up and leaving the stadium on the 74th minute of the match. If you are not attending the game itself, you may still be able to help by spreading word to Villa fans who are attending and may not be aware of the protest. Please consider one of the following options: here follows a bullet-pointed list of social media actions people can take - @DK82 could update this maybe? ----------------------------------------------------------- I'm happy to write any further FAQ answers if people give me the questions. I think it's important to keep them to no more than three or four sentences in total. Wordy is bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewie Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Awesome work @HanoiVillan Let's see some more 1 line questions, people! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMcKenna Posted February 21, 2016 Author VT Supporter Share Posted February 21, 2016 FAQs Who are we? We are ordinary fans who are not part of any official group. We have supported the club 'through thick and thin' and between us experienced all the highs and lows. Our public face is a businessman Mike McKenna, based in Bournemouth who has supported the club since 1959 and has season tickets in the Trinity Road stand. Between us we have attended thousands of Aston Villa matches at Villa Park and have travelled all over England to away games. Don't know if any others want to add names or more detail to this ... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 @HanoiVillan Q - Where can I find further information? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 (edited) 24 minutes ago, Davkaus said: I'm still none the wiser after reading that. What would need to happen for you to not want to protest anymore? At this stage? It is a genuine show of hands and a call to arms. The start of a movement. It really is that simple... wouldn't make for much of a mission statement though would it. Edit - Although, clear as day... Quote Our long term objective is relatively simple; to persuade the owner and clubs directors to change course and give us a positive vision for the future. To be “prepared”. To put up or go. Edited February 21, 2016 by dont_do_it_doug. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dounavilla Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Would it be worth some form of "like" or "agree with and will be participating" on the website in order to get some idea of the awareness and numbers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post HanoiVillan Posted February 21, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted February 21, 2016 (edited) I've taken the liberty of re-drafting the Mission Statement. In particular, I've taken on board the criticism by @Davkaus, @sexbelowsound and others that the initial statement didn't propose any actions the club could take. However, the naming of actions is controversial - everyone has a different opinion. Therefore, I have kept our 'demands' to general statements that I believe few real fans would actually disagree with. I have annotated the Statement, explaining certain decisions I made when drafting it: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mission Statement We are asking fans to consider walking out of the home games against Everton (March 1st) and Chelsea (March ?) on the 74th minute of the match. [1] We are asking the club, and especially the owner, Randy Lerner, to engage sincerely with the fans rather than acting as an absentee landlord. [2] He has shown, throughout the last five years, that he has lost interest in this football club. He has been content to finance the club with the ambition of finishing 17th in the Premier League, and in the process has run the organisation poorly. This protest is not about one season of relegation; this protest is the result of cumulative frustration about the misdirection of the club that his built up amongst the fans over the last five years. [3] We are asking the club to do the following: [4] Investigate without fear or favour the mismanagement of the last five years; Create a real line of dialogue with supporters; Prepare and share a real, actionable plan to return to the heights this club should be achieving, and share that plan with supporters; Invest in the playing squad and the infrastructure to a level appropriate for a top-half Premier League team. [5] Aston Villa Football Club is 142 years old. The supporters of this fine club have stayed with her through thick and thin, and we will be there in the future. We have created this protest to demonstrate the strength of our feelings about the misdirection of the club under our absentee landlord. [6] The fans should be taken for granted no longer. We respectfully ask fans to consider supporting our protest by vacating their seats on the 74th minute of the Everton and Chelsea home games. [7] Villa till we die! / Up The Villa [8] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Firstly, it's important to say - without bloviating - exactly what the protest is. This is contained in a separate paragraph for clarity. Many people won't actually read much further than this; it is vital to get straight to the point in this kind of writing. [2] Many people on here dislike Tom Fox, Steve Hollis, Remi Garde and others. But I think it's important not to mention them by name. Firstly because many fans won't have heard of them* (it's easy to forget that we on here are 'high-information supporters') and secondly because some people do seem to think they're doing good jobs. The good thing about Randy Lerner is firstly, everyone knows who he is, and secondly, everyone thinks he sucks. [3] One of the criticisms likely to be leveled at this protest is that it's a petulant response to being relegated. It's important to head that off at the pass by reminding readers that we've been terrible for years, and this isn't a spoiled over-reaction. [4] I think an itemised, bullet-pointed list of general actions that everyone can agree on is beneficial. [5] Asking for more money may be controversial - I think it's obvious we want more money, and so we might as well admit it upfront, but some people find asking for money to be crass. A judgment call is required here. [6] It's good to repeat key phrases so that they stay with the reader. In this case I chose to repeat 'misdirection of the club' (surely nobody disagrees with that) and 'absentee landlord' (nobody likes them). [7] Repeat what we want people to do, in case anyone has forgotten while reading. [8] Choose only one, obviously. *not Garde, obvs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Obviously I understand if people don't want to use this Mission Statement. However, if you intend to adapt the mission statement on the previous page, some general style recommendations: AVOID too much flowery language - it was noticeable that one early reaction was it was 'wordy' - we're not writing poetry (I'm thinking of phrases like 'end of our tether' and 'bubbling over') AVOID mentioning redundancies. While they suck, this is about more than people losing their jobs, and in any case redundancies are arguably sound financial planning in the case of relegation. AVOID the phrase 'false narratives'. This phrase was first introduced by Tom Fox. It's important to avoid repeating your opponent's key points. We don't need to get into an argument about 'whose narrative is false'. Instead, we simply make our case - don't acknowledge any others. AVOID mentioning Liverpool. We don't want anyone to confuse our protest with theirs, which was about something else. And we're going to be criticised for copying them; too bad. We have to accept that criticism when it comes. But there's no need to give naysayers a talking point. Edited February 21, 2016 by HanoiVillan 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 56 minutes ago, MikeMcKenna said: FAQs Who are we? We are ordinary fans who are not part of any official group. We have supported the club 'through thick and thin' and between us experienced all the highs and lows. Our public face is a businessman Mike McKenna, based in Bournemouth who has supported the club since 1959 and has season tickets in the Trinity Road stand. Between us we have attended thousands of Aston Villa matches at Villa Park and have travelled all over England to away games. Don't know if any others want to add names or more detail to this ... Who are we? We are ordinary fans of Aston Villa Football Club. We have supported the club through thick and thin and are frustrated by the failures of the leadership of our club. Our public face is businessman Mike McKenna, a Trinity Road season-ticket holder who has supported the club since 1959. You might have heard him on [name of radio show here]. Between us we have attended thousands of Villa games and we want to express our frustration with the misdirection of the club under Randy Lerner. Is that better? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 56 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said: @HanoiVillan Q - Where can I find further information? Aren't they already on the website at this point? I'm not sure how much 'further information' there is to give. We're not actually asking for anything complicated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YGabbana Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Cracking stuff guys. Real momentum now. We just need some big hitters on twitter to get involved Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 2 hours ago, DK82 said: My plea: This is to all who are not sure this is a good idea, or who don't think it will work. If you are coming to Villa Park, March 1, please think about joining in and letting both the board and the media know what we think of the way the club has been treated. This is not some hot-headed idea which has been put together in a rush. It's a build up of frustration - and something we are doing for all fans. From the old man who has been coming since 1940, to the future Villa fans not yet born who deserve a positive club to support in the future. Our club is being held to ransom by people who don't care about whether you enjoy the match-day experience. They don't care if we lose two or three matches in a row. They see that as a false narrative as they believe they know better and that the money coming in is the reward which keeps the club going. Win, lose or draw. But you cannot build foundations for a football club where the most important thing is under-funded. The playing staff. This is why the time has come to make a stand and to show that we will not be beaten down. They may choose to use their own false narrative about how positive things are behind the scenes - but every single one of us who has stood in the cold and the ran over the past five years has seen the rot slowly setting in. Now is the time to do something positive about it. We are fans of the greatest club in the world. We may not be the richest, or no longer be one of the most successful, but we don't have a chance of turning that corner when the new chairman states that spending money doesn't guarantee success. Well Mr Hollis, it certainly only guarantees one thing - the thing we are seeing at this moment in time. A team which has been under-funded and left to drift away from traditionally much smaller teams. Bournemouth, Swansea, Southampton amongst others are storming away from us. They are now richer than us, they have more ambition, they invest in quality players and they are proving YOUR false narrative that spending money doesn't equal success. The rot - and reason - why we are unable to compete is due to a lack of ambition which comes from the top. Stopping spending does not make that rot end - it just gives it more chance to feed and increase the trajectory we are heading in. Down. So my plea, to those who are unsure, those who don't know, those who feel apathetic. Give this protest a chance. Walk out. Sing loud. Stand together. MAKE A STAND. Let's take the first step to recovering our club. Signing the right players, is closer to bringing success....so the chairman is right, spending money does not guarantee success. Don't pick a fight you can't win. There is simply too many examples of that not cementing the case. Having said all of that. A sensible investment programme allied to prudent talent spotting and good player development and good manager blending. will get us back to decency. unmitigating spending is like p******in the wind....and one of the reasons, only one, we have fallen out with the owner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanBalaban Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 I'm really impressed with the talents of some of our VT brethren. Some cracking work so far, and hopefully much more to come. Can I make a suggestion regarding the website? It's me being ultra-picky but the holding page featured a lens-blurred image of the pitch, with the announcement over it, and it looked very professional. As the webpage is up now, I feel there's any overwhelming amount of claret due to the main banner and surrounding backdrop. IMO it could do with the colour of an image in order to make it a little more visually appealing. Sorry to nitpick, but I think everything's been done to such a high standard and I hope my feedback isn't taken as a knock. (Also a favicon would be nice if someone has an idea for one??) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewie Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 (edited) @HanoiVillan I think your changes to the Mission Statement have merit, but I also think that the original version wants to double up as an open letter as sorts. We plan to have an abridged video statement to go on the main page, hopefully at some point tomorrow. @DK82 is going to work on the press release version, and I am sure that he'd be happy to take on board your suggestions to input into that. Whilst I have you, when you are happy enough that you have enough content for the FAQ, could you PM or @ me please, as i will be going to sleep relatively soon and might miss the post.@StanBalaban Fair point, complete agree. Problem is we haven't got a great deal of time to tweak everything to make it look super awesome. The maintenance mode blur comes is from the Wordpress default theme which isn't great for the actual layout of the main site. @sexbelowsound Would you mind changing the claret to blue on the OutTheDoorOn74 website banner image and then i'll switch it up and see if that helps alleviate the claret overload Also feel free to send a favicon over with the other images too. Edited February 21, 2016 by Chewie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Total speculation here but due to FA cup QFs, the 4pm Sunday game that weekend (and the Saturday 5.30 if Arsenal win their replay) will be postponed. I don't know if this could happen but our Spurs match could be moved to one of these slots, would give a good platform for an extra go at this. Against one of the teams we were competing with at the beginning of Lerner's reign too. Mods please delete this post if you think it's a load of rubbish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sexbelowsound Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 6 minutes ago, Chewie said: @HanoiVillan I think your changes to the Mission Statement have merit, but I also think that the original version wants to double up as an open letter as sorts. We plan to have an abridged video statement to go on the main page, hopefully at some point tomorrow. @DK82 is going to work on the press release version, and I am sure that he'd be happy to take on board your suggestions to input into that. Whilst I have you, when you are happy enough that you have enough content for the FAQ, could you PM or @ me please, as i will be going to sleep relatively soon and might miss the post.@StanBalaban Fair point, complete agree. Problem is we haven't got a great deal of time to tweak everything to make it look super awesome. The maintenance mode blur comes is from the Wordpress default theme which isn't great for the actual layout of the main site. @sexbelowsound Would you mind changing the claret to blue on the OutTheDoorOn74 website banner image and then i'll switch it up and see if that helps alleviate the claret overload Also feel free to send a favicon over with the other images too. Try switching up the backdrop first maybe? The dominant colour should be claret and if we change the banner to blue the vast majority of the screen on the landing page will be blue, rather than claret. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewie Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 @sexbelowsound Take a quick look now. That was how i originally had it, but i personally think it looks too washed out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sexbelowsound Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Just now, Chewie said: @sexbelowsound Take a quick look now. That was how i originally had it, but i personally think it looks too washed out. Yeah. I agree. Maybe leave it up for a bit and see what others think? The only thing I can think of is putting a blue border around the claret on the main banner to offset the overwhelming amount of claret. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest av1 Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Fantastic work guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewie Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 (edited) 12 minutes ago, sexbelowsound said: Yeah. I agree. Maybe leave it up for a bit and see what others think? The only thing I can think of is putting a blue border around the claret on the main banner to offset the overwhelming amount of claret. I changed it back, it really doesn't look good with the blue background. Feel free to have a play with the banner, the border idea could work. It will only be that banner on the site, not any of the ones we distribute etc. There is always the option of creating a nice full background image. It doesn't need to be a solid colour. Edited February 21, 2016 by Chewie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sexbelowsound Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Right, I've put together a brief timeline. Any suggestions, inaccuracies, updates or revisions? 2006 Ellis Sells - Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner buys the club and Martin O'Neill replaces David O'Leary as manager. 2007 A New Era - Under the banner of "Proud History, Bright Future" The Aston Villa logo is updated by the owner to further emphasise the start of a new era. 2009 Big Spenders – In the summer of 2009 the club were amongst the biggest spenders in Europe but once again narrowly missed out on a Champions League spot. 2010 Summer Sales - Following the sale of Gareth Barry in 2009, O'Neill was once again faced with selling one of his prize assets. This time James Milner left for Manchester City with Stephen Ireland coming in the other direction. 2010 O'Neill Departs - Following three back-to-back 6th place finishes O'Neill leaves 5 days before the start of the new season. Lerner states that the two "No longer share a common view as to how to move the club forward". Enter Gerard Houllier. 2011 Troubling Times - With the club battling against relegation and struggling to adapt to the backroom changes, Randy Lerner breaks the club transfer record by bringing in Darren Bent from Sunderland for close to £24 million. 2011 McLeish Arrives - Houllier leaves due to ill health and amidst protests from the fans Alex McLeish is appointed following a relegation season with Birmingham City. 2011 Cut Backs Start – During McLeish’s first transfer window the club were again selling its star assets. Cut backs had begun and McLeish was now tasked with cutting the wage bill and working to a tight budget. Despite these cut backs numerous players were purchased and placed on large contracts. 2012 Relegation Battle - After a 16th place finish and only 4 home wins Alex McLeish is replaced by Norwich manager Paul Lambert. Lambert is given the same remit as McLeish but pressed even further to drastically cut costs. 2014 - Up For Sale - After years of cost cutting owner Randy Lerner announce that he has put the club up for sale with a valuation _______ placed on the club. 2015 - Brighter Times? - Following 3 back-to-back relegation battles Paul Lambert is replaced by Tim Sherwood who guides the club to an FA Cup final. In spite of this Sherwood only lasts 8 months in the job. 2015 - Garde Arrives – With the club winless since the start of the season French manager Remi Garde takes over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts