Marka Ragnos Posted January 9 VT Supporter Share Posted January 9 Are Villa Plastics coming -- and do we want them? A few years ago, it would have seemed unthinkable and laughable to me. I've never once seen someone except myself wearing a Villa kit in the USA until last summer. But I've been wondering about it as this recent success for Villa continues. Are we going to get our share of fair-weather supporters finally? Do we have them already? Do we want them? Surely it's not a bad thing to have supporters whose commitment to the club is fairly shallow, whatever that means, but I do wonder if Villa like some other Midlands clubs might be sort of weirdly resistant to plastification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post david-avfc Posted January 9 Popular Post Share Posted January 9 If we don’t have plastic fans where has the “30,000” on the waiting list come from, because they certainly weren’t there when the upper trinity was shut in the championship 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Rosch Posted January 9 Popular Post Share Posted January 9 A cracked polystyrene [f]an Who just crumbles and burns 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villatillidie95 Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 There is definitely more of an awareness of villa, 2 workers and a few other spectators at the F1 in America recognised the badge and spoke to me about our season so far. So I think people watch USA network and the games over there will see we are doing well and might start following us more. in the uk there is a lot more people wearing the villa merch especially in the midlands but also see a few shirts around a large shopping Center in London which I thought was interesting. However I think we will need a few more seasons like this one until we become a club that attracts plastics, sort of like Chelsea and city needed to have a few seasons when they set themselves up with players like gudjonsen, elano, benajani etc to build upon before they became the top teams they are now 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A'Villan Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Under Unai Emery I've had a number of people shout out "Villa!" And, "Up the Villa!" Four have shouted out from their car window. Then there's the two Villa supporters who cheered with me and made passing comments with. Usually all I get from people when I tell them I'm a Villa fan in Melbourne is "odd, weird, strange" or at best "what made you pick them?" Melbourne born and bred are generally Liverpool, United, Arsenal, Chelsea, or City. Basically in that order as you can probably piece together why. I always knew we were a sleeping giant with immense potential. Ive only been a supporter who tunes in one way or another weekly since Houllier got unwell. I feel like I'm almost a plastic fan on that basis. Anyway, I think it would be unwise to underestimate our ceiling. We've got the foundations here. I'm hoping it's already a point of discussion somewhere in the forum but with the team we have, from ownership through to the 12th man. Why wouldn't you want to tune in? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marka Ragnos Posted January 9 Author VT Supporter Share Posted January 9 2 hours ago, A'Villan said: Melbourne born and bred are generally Liverpool, United, Arsenal, Chelsea, or City. Basically in that order as you can probably piece together why. Same with many in US. Here, the difference is that large numbers of Latin American migrants seem to follow La Liga more closely than the Premier League. But they know Villa more than most American born because they’re football-mad generally. But I really haven’t seen the more facile types of fans here, yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pongo Waring Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 (edited) Of course we want them. We want all of Asia. Even Manny Pacquiao is a villa fan now Edited January 9 by Pongo Waring Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 We are now tapping into the potential that’s always been at the club. There’s been moments in our history where we could have taken that next step to being a huge club but it never happened. Of course we’ll attract new fans which are plastics wether they choose Villa as their team or people who are already Villa fans but don’t usually bother going to games(we all have them) up until now. It’s taken longer than it has some clubs but I finally think we’ve taken another step into modern football. Attendances at Villa will stay strong regardless, and it’s not often we’ve been able to say that . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 I legit don't think we are the type of club which attract " plastic " fans regardless of how well we do or how big we get. I think if anything we gain followers, who then become supporters and fans Jesus I couldn't stomach having Ally Samatta fans types all over our social media FFS. Although now I think about it, I have actually been seeing more of those types comment on our OS posts. The " big club " and Fabrizio Romano socials are overrun with them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted January 9 VT Supporter Share Posted January 9 8 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: I legit don't think we are the type of club which attract " plastic " fans regardless of how well we do or how big we get. Man City fans would have said that 15 years ago. If you're successful people will start to follow you, doesn't matter who you are. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skarroki Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 We need a killer kit design that the uninitiated can get behind buying. We've already got the great colour as a relative USP in terms of top clubs in Europe. If we have a brilliant home shirt and new badge, and play in the champions league next season I think you'll start to see people wearing Villa stuff all over the place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 6 minutes ago, skarroki said: If we have a brilliant home shirt and new badge, I think you'll start to see people wearing Villa stuff all over the place. Oh. 1 out of 2 ain’t bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radness Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 I made my brother in law start supporting us 10 years ago, as he’s a mad Bayern fan he struggled to gel with the team and would get up me for waking him up at 2am to watch us lose once more. Now he still loves Bayern but admits he enjoys Villa games much more because of the terrible memories of the recent past and the amazing vibe of a sleeping giant waking up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 It comes with the territory. People want to jump on the good vibes bandwagon, and why shouldn't they? Life is hard and the world is f*ck*d, but if Villa can distract you from all that and make you happy, I say jump on board. All Villa fans started at a particular moment in time. I've noticed there are now about 25 Villa podcasts and YouTube channels, half of which have seemed to just appear out of nowhere. The interest is definitely cranking up. I think there shouldn't be any gatekeeping, and I think most Villa fans would give a warm welcome to bandwagoners. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted January 10 Moderator Share Posted January 10 7 hours ago, sidcow said: If you're successful people will start to follow you, doesn't matter who you are. The thing is,now, football is a TV game. It didn't used to be. If you wanted to see a football game, whatever 40 years ago you either waited for the FA Cup final to be on the telly or you went to see a local club play. But now, you subscribe to sky or TNT or Amazon and all the games are on there. So you connect with a team playing good football or a player who stands out and you follow them. There's no locality to it. You're a Haaland follower or a Liverpool or City follower, because goals, because win, because domination... If Villa keep doing well and being good to watch, we'll pick up followers and welcome to the the club. If you follow Villa you're one of us. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitvilla Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Me (I) a plastic Villa fan? Sorta ... But I am Bakelite, through and through, and proud of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don_Simon Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 8 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: I legit don't think we are the type of club which attract " plastic " fans regardless of how well we do or how big we get. I think if anything we gain followers, who then become supporters and fans Jesus I couldn't stomach having Ally Samatta fans types all over our social media FFS. Although now I think about it, I have actually been seeing more of those types comment on our OS posts. The " big club " and Fabrizio Romano socials are overrun with them. The homophobic rhetoric whenever the club posted a "pride" image, was appalling. Completely with you on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_H Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 14 hours ago, david-avfc said: If we don’t have plastic fans where has the “30,000” on the waiting list come from, because they certainly weren’t there when the upper trinity was shut in the championship I think I’d be naive to say this counts for everybody (even a large chunk) but for myself, a fan of 30 years and previously a season ticket holder back in mid 00s it was COVID that made me realise how much I missed going to games regularly and got me on the waiting list. Having been a retail worker in my 20s having a season ticket just wasn’t viable, so the occasional game had to do. After being locked in the house for what felt like a lifetime and watching the games being one of the only outlets at the time made me realise just how much I missed it and now being in a position to go week in week out it drove me to join the waiting list. Within my mates there are a few in similar scenarios; albeit not Villa fans, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it bought back what some would call casual fans to be more engaged with the club. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hank Scorpio Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 We haven't won anything since 1997. Why would we have any? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 10 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: I legit don't think we are the type of club which attract " plastic " fans regardless of how well we do or how big we get. I think if anything we gain followers, who then become supporters and fans Jesus I couldn't stomach having Ally Samatta fans types all over our social media FFS. Although now I think about it, I have actually been seeing more of those types comment on our OS posts. The " big club " and Fabrizio Romano socials are overrun with them. Mm Grealish career ended up in the dumps while Samagoal won 3 Ballon Dors since we sold him playing for *checks notes* *still checks notes* 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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