Popular Post blandy Posted May 22, 2016 Moderator Popular Post Share Posted May 22, 2016 On 21 May 2016 at 11:26, OutByEaster? said: I liked him. I'm not sure what he did in fairness. Me too. I think at least part of what he did was in essence a good thing, and something that is quite rare. At the start, when he came onto he various Villa sites it was pretty novel - a director engaging with supporters directly. As a consequence a lot of fairly minor, but nonetheless relevant things got sorted out. The difficulty will always be when the "important" (in terms of football, at least) things started to go awry, there was little that he could do. And supporters started slagging him off and asking hard questions and as OBE says, his unfamiliarity with UK psyche and football in particular meant he was going to make mis-steps. So he went away. He took loads of praise, cringingly so at the start and loads of abuse, cringingly so, at the end. I thought it was a good experiment and its ending really reflected the change of heart of the owner - from interested and talkative (by proxy) to distant and uncommunicative at the end. He seems like a decent man and one who is no doubt a bit wiser now. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post kurtsimonw Posted May 22, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted May 22, 2016 I'd go as far to say that the most embarrassed I've been as a Villa fan was reading Kurlak's thread. The abuse he took was really shocking and this was even while we were a top 6 club. Definitely the minority, but nobody should have to take abuse like that and then get criticised for "running away" when things went bad. It's almost as if he expected the abuse to get worse... 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoony Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 1 minute ago, kurtsimonw said: I'd go as far to say that the most embarrassed I've been as a Villa fan was reading Kurlak's thread. The abuse he took was really shocking and this was even while we were a top 6 club. Definitely the minority, but nobody should have to take abuse like that and then get criticised for "running away" when things went bad. It's almost as if he expected the abuse to get worse... This a million times over. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted May 22, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 22, 2016 I liked him too. He should never have been put in that position, but he's ex-USMC and served in Vietnam - he's seen worse shit than most of us can imagine. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brommy Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 I agree with the posts on this page. Whilst the all important football matters were beyond his control, he certainly had an impact on the 'soft' side of the club. For example, 22 years ago my now wife contacted the club to ask if they would arrange a little something as a wedding present for me who had supported the club as a season ticket holder for years - perhaps a card signed by a few of the players. The clubs' response was very disappointing - pretty much a shrug of the shoulders. In contrast, 9 years ago I messaged Krulak to ask if the club could arrange a little something for the 10th birthday of my son who had been a season ticket holder for a few years. Krulak spoke to Lee Preece who contacted me to arrange it for my family to have an 'access all areas' tour of Villa Park on the match day which was also my son's birthday. We met players, said hello to Doug, went pitch side, had some drinks and got given plenty of goodies. Krulak also made sure my son was looked after on a tour of BMH. He was there for public relations which was terrible in the 80's and 90's and improved dramatically under Lerner. Unfortunately when the football went sour, PR seemed a pointless and bad thing and Krulak got stick which was was way over the top, even given the daft things like the 'typo' mistake. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 54 minutes ago, mjmooney said: I liked him too. He should never have been put in that position, but he's ex-USMC and served in Vietnam - he's seen worse shit than most of us can imagine. And some keyboard warriors think they can call the man a coward. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Hated him. The bullshit he spouted about the Mcleish appointment made my piss boil. Here we had some American, with clearly zero knowledge of football of any level lecturing us on what a great manager we had. Arrogant tosser. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dounavilla Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 Didn't he make threats towards some posters offering them to say that to his face etc ? It was always destined to fail despite the initial idea being novel. I have nothing against the man it's just he should not been have been within a million miles of the Aston Villa board. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post briny_ear Posted May 22, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted May 22, 2016 On 5/21/2016 at 11:26, OutByEaster? said: I liked him. I'm not sure what he did in fairness. Mostly made life much more busy for Nikki Keye. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villanwesty88 Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 I wonder if he ever married Nicky Keye. Would be perfect for when anyone calls asking questions; "General, your water bill is overdue..." "Let me put you through to Nicky Keye.." Although he probably did that regardless of marriage... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 I thought he was ok too, spoke to him numerous times via PM and always got a reply 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Bear Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 He was a nice guy with a good heart, I PMed him a few times and he responded. However what he did (speaking to the fans on Villa sites) was indicative on how much the regime didnt understand football and he was a propaganda merchant of the worst kind. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted May 23, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted May 23, 2016 15 hours ago, kurtsimonw said: I'd go as far to say that the most embarrassed I've been as a Villa fan was reading Kurlak's thread. The abuse he took was really shocking and this was even while we were a top 6 club. Definitely the minority, but nobody should have to take abuse like that and then get criticised for "running away" when things went bad. It's almost as if he expected the abuse to get worse... Very much this. Listen, I don't think the General covered himself in glory, in a number of ways. But those threads became a total embarrassment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 (edited) The dude was just a mouthpiece with medals to lend Lerner a little muscle, and he probably laughs with his Army buddies about the faggot soccer team he used to run... That's how a lot of guys like him view things. Edited May 23, 2016 by maqroll 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 Was a mix of good and bad. I think that he genuinely tried to help people and make them feel good about the Villa and valued as fans but, when it came to the football side of things he just went into Lerner's defence lawyer mode with a blinkered vision. I remember when he said that we would finish top four. I questioned him on it and he replied saying that he meant top five, or something like that, and that it was a typo about finishing top four. I also got the impression, through PM's exchanged, that he too was frustrated with some of the things Lerner was doing but had to try to sell Lerner's actions because they are buddies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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