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General Krulak (part 2) and *STILL NO TRANSFER QUESTIONS*


LancsVillan

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General, I have a question...

How come you can buy a Half Season Ticket for the second half of the season but not for the first half? I won't be able to go to most of the games after christmas so I had to give up my season ticket. A First-Half Season ticket would have been ideal!

Theoretically there's a risk that people would buy a first half season ticket and then simply not renew it if the team were doing badly (which would be a good reason not to sell them) but you could limit the number of Half Season Tickets to prevent this.

Food for thought, at least.

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General,

After trawling through various threads during this transfer window there appears to be an underlying conflict with many posters.

Some believe Mon has been given the substantial funds required to bring in the calibre of players that we all agree are needed to cement our place in the top 6 and challenge for top 4 but the manager is having great difficulty in attracting these players thus the reason for us not having brought in players of the same quality and experience to replace Barry and Laursen and only having two senior centre backs at the club.

On the other hand some believe that the club is not in a position financially to allow Mon to go out and buy the calibre of players that we so obviously need, whether this be in terms of transfer fees or the wages required to attract the level of player needed.

If the latter is true then I think it would be better if the club came out and stated this as then we as fans would know where the club stood financially but more importantly if the latter is true then as a board I think you are placing undue pressure on the manager as many will believe, if the required players continue not to be signed but the belief is funds are in place, then it is all down to the managers incompetence.

Obviously if come the end of the transfer window players have been signed of the quality we so badly need then this question becomes irrelevant but as things stand today I feel its one that needs answering.

Kind Regards

Mark

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General, can you explain why it appears our Europa League game against Rapid Vienna on Thursday is not to be shown live on TV in the UK?

Just to add to this what's the kick off time for this UK wise? I checked the OS but not sure if thats GMT.

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General, can you explain why it appears our Europa League game against Rapid Vienna on Thursday is not to be shown live on TV in the UK?

Hello General, ref the above post, I am sure that you have no control over TV rights for foreign broadcasters (eg Austrian TV in this instance). However, did the club explore the possibility of beaming the game back to Villa Park, or will they do so in the future, as for certain many of us are not going to be able to see Thursday's game.

I am sure that despite Saturday's result, many of us would still have gone to support the lads via live TV link and would still do do in the future.

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I understand the logic of "the plan was always to spend less in year four than year three" if we had kept the nucleus of our team together, but having lost Gareth Barry and the unfortunate Martin Laursen, two guaranteed first 11 players, surely this "plan" has been blown out of the water?

Are we sticking to a pre-arranged budget set in steadier times and paying the price now?

If this is true, the signing of Downing is looking such a bad purchase.

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Gen.

I had a post removed here as it was deemed not suitable, so I am putting it back "cleaned up" as I think it is a vaild question, I would like you to read the following statement said by MON at his press conference today.

"At the end of last week, I went to a meeting for managers and they put up some interesting statistics.

"They showed that 17 of our lads had played in the Barclays Premier League last season. Other teams used 23, 27 and others over 30.

"I was a wee bit surprised - I knew how many we had used but I didn't realise it was less than anyone else."

(here is the cleaned up bit)

Can I ask why your manager, that you reportedly pay 2 million pound per year to, and a man that you have always maintained "MON sees what you do, he knows how many players we have" clearly didn't know what the rest of the football fraternity in Britain knew.

It was said by everybody, fans, media, yourself , even Tom Hanks.

So why didn't our highly paid manager know.

If you can come up with the answer and correct it, it may go a long way to the management realising where he are going wrong.

Is that better :D

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General hope all is well with you and yours,I don`t know how or why you put up with reading all this shite,Its cringe worthy as a villa fan that someone who has done what you have in life is getting such disrespect pushed in his direction over a football match over which you have no control.

My question is how the hell do you keep coming back for more?You don`t need it in your life mate.

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Kieran, hear, hear!!

We are privileged to have direct access to a board member and it is an embarassment reading the garbage on here that the General is forced to trawl through. God forbid that Randy ever had the time to take a look.

General, many thanks for being here, you are a much better man than me, I'd have been long gone reading this drivel. We truly wont appreciate you until you're gone.

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Hi General,

You're a man who I look up to an respect and so I wondered if you had any words of advice you could pass down to a 19 year old guy who has no direction in life and has already given up on the last remaining dream he had?

But on a lighter note, I'd like to add my voice to the section of the supporters who are fully behind MON, Randy and yourself. People today want success and they want it now! they forget that hard work and steady progress comes first. Rome wasn't built in one day!

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General

Please ignore the all the negative stuff on here just because we lost a game we were expected to win (and SHA are above us in the table). I think the real problem is the knowledge gap - we all want to know what MON is going to do and we want to know now!! I also think some people have lost the confidence that MON will be able to put it right. This comes from the last 12 games of last season rather than just the Wigan game.

All the comments remind me of the quote from the late Bill Shankly, which went something like - "some people think football is a matter of life and death, but it isn't, it is more important than that"

Well my brother in law, a big Villa fan, has just had two major operations and is fighting cancer, so believe me losing to Wigan isn't important.

He is just annoyed that he won't be able to use my season ticket against Fulham because I'm away on holiday.

As the great philosopher (Jon Bon Jovi) said - "keep the faith" and keep posting!

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Hi Gen

I really appreciate the new TV in the lower North but am weary of it's positioning. As it's located at the top of the stairs, On Saturday said stairs were conjested as fans were standing watching the Chelsea game making it a little unsafe and very claustrophobic for my little lad. Any chance of looking into this please

Cheers

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I would say for two different reasons Gen

Do listen to the negative posters.

a) Because maybe they know what they are talking about

and if not, then as Apollo Cread said to Rocky

"Do listen to em Rock, coz when this is all over, those people will owe you one hell of an apology".

If it all turns out for the best, I'll be the 1st to apologise.

But if it don't........

A question I've been asked to ask you (which I didn't even notice)

In the season ticket bumf , there was apparently, in the small print, a paragraph stating ST holders will no longer receive Claret and Blue , nor the yearbook.

Why is this ?

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Sorry to put a two penneth in on the Gen's thread, but it has been said a few times now

They should know and they should listen to how fans feel because a good business listens to feedback from their customers.

Good and bad

And I'd hazard a guess, the Gen would agree with my sentiment here.

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Hi General,

I am not envious of your position at the moment. It seems as though there is a lot of discontent from some sections of our fan base, and you it is truly great of you to look at all comments constructively and not take anything personally.

I personally was not able to attend the Wigan match on Saturday as I was out of the country, but from what I was told by those who did go, and judging by reactions on here, it was not a good day for the claret and blue boys.

Some of this may well be down to maybe having an over-successful pre-season. Maybe beating the likes of Porto, Juventus and Fiorentina left the boys too confident ahead of the competitive campaign, and as a result they underestimated Wigan.

But it does seem that we have not effectively replaced our two key individuals from the last two campaigns when we finished 6th both years - Martin Laursen and Gareth Barry.

I do see the benefits in MON leaving bigger transfers until the end of window, which does seem to be an approach he likes to take (two years ago it was Davies, last year it was Milner), as the players are more available once other teams have reinforced. I do firmly believe MON's spending is not over, and to judge him on this transfer window with 13 hectic days left is ludicrous in my opinion.

However, as the season starts before the end of said transfer window, we do expect a decent enough team to be in place to compete the first two, three, four games of the season. At the moment it does not seem like we have that. And the points dropped against Wigan, and the tough games coming up against Liverpool and Fulham, could come back to bite us when we see the final table in May.

I am optimistic for the season, I do believe we still have a couple of bigger signings in the pipeline, and I do believe we will go from strength to strength and get ourselves up the other end of the table in a short amount of time. Our record under MON is extremely positive - we have finished the last two seasons in 6th place, making us the sixth best team in the best league in the world. Two seasons ago, we qualified for Europe for the first time in a decade. Last season we qualified automatically for the first time in over a decade. MON has taken us forward, with the backing of a the best board in the league, and I am sure we will have progressed once again come May.

But I'll let you know how I'm feeling at 5pm on September 1st.

Keep taking it on the chin. Best wishes,

J

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General Krulak here:

Well, I have a large number of questions to answer so here goes:

1. Catering in North Stand...I have passed on your comments.

2. re_villa1972: You make some good points...points that have been made before and passed along. As you know, MON is taking a full squad to Rapid Vienna.

3. don't_do_it_doug: First off, MON does have Randy's support. I believe that our Manager is seeking the best players that are AVAILABLE and that he believes he needs and that will fit into our system of play. The fact that some of the "big name" players are not mentioned in the papers as being associated with our Club does not mean MON has not looked at them. As I have tried to say many, many, times...it is NOT just a case of picking a name and going and getting them. There are so many, many, aspects to this issue. One that seems to have escaped some is that the big name player has to want to come to B'ham. That is not a slam on our City...only to say that many big time players look at the UK and only think of London. The outlyer there is, of course, ManU. The way to change that perception is to continue to be successful on the Pitch and continue to develop a superb organization and infrastructure. That is what we are trying to do.

4. knight175: We looked at establishing Villa TV but do not feel we are ready to take that on right now. And you are correct, we really have very little control over what game is put on TV.

5. fran_villa: Fighting between the players and the Manager is pure rumor. As an example, Carew did not play because of an injured toe. He went out to practice before the game and just felt that it was too sore to play. No dust up.

6. Richard: Absolutely! We have NOT finished this window.

7. Mr. Mosely: I agree that Laursen was a HUGE loss. Re. Barry: I can go back to multiple posts on this site and others that we well and ready to have Barry go somewhere else. He obviously did not want to be here. You claim this is a loss akin to Laursen...I disagree. Obviously others disagreed too.

8. Gizmo: Worth a thought!

9. markavfc40: I know you realize that answering your question is not a very smart move for a Director to make. The last thing we want public is a "number" for our transfer budget. That just would cause us great harm as we negotiated. My only comment is that history has shown that Randy is willing to spend.

10. paulanddonya: I am sure that MON knew how many people he used last season. His comments to the media to a question or comment such as he received was probably what I would have said to such a remark.

11. villajax: If you are serious, I would first need to know what you considered your dream.

12. maradona10: I just answered your question above.

13. Richard: I don't know how many times I have to say this but...I am not on this site to just communicate with Fans. I take Fan comments and ensure that the right people at AVFC are aware of them...the good, bad, and ugly. To do otherwise would be a complete waste of my time...and yours.

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General Krulak here:

Well, I have a large number of questions to answer so here goes:

1. Catering in North Stand...I have passed on your comments.

2. re_villa1972: You make some good points...points that have been made before and passed along. As you know, MON is taking a full squad to Rapid Vienna.

3. don't_do_it_doug: First off, MON does have Randy's support. I believe that our Manager is seeking the best players that are AVAILABLE and that he believes he needs and that will fit into our system of play. The fact that some of the "big name" players are not mentioned in the papers as being associated with our Club does not mean MON has not looked at them. As I have tried to say many, many, times...it is NOT just a case of picking a name and going and getting them. There are so many, many, aspects to this issue. One that seems to have escaped some is that the big name player has to want to come to B'ham. That is not a slam on our City...only to say that many big time players look at the UK and only think of London. The outlyer there is, of course, ManU. The way to change that perception is to continue to be successful on the Pitch and continue to develop a superb organization and infrastructure. That is what we are trying to do.

4. knight175: We looked at establishing Villa TV but do not feel we are ready to take that on right now. And you are correct, we really have very little control over what game is put on TV.

5. fran_villa: Fighting between the players and the Manager is pure rumor. As an example, Carew did not play because of an injured toe. He went out to practice before the game and just felt that it was too sore to play. No dust up.

6. Richard: Absolutely! We have NOT finished this window.

7. Mr. Mosely: I agree that Laursen was a HUGE loss. Re. Barry: I can go back to multiple posts on this site and others that we well and ready to have Barry go somewhere else. He obviously did not want to be here. You claim this is a loss akin to Laursen...I disagree. Obviously others disagreed too.

8. Gizmo: Worth a thought!

9. markavfc40: I know you realize that answering your question is not a very smart move for a Director to make. The last thing we want public is a "number" for our transfer budget. That just would cause us great harm as we negotiated. My only comment is that history has shown that Randy is willing to spend.

10. paulanddonya: I am sure that MON knew how many people he used last season. His comments to the media to a question or comment such as he received was probably what I would have said to such a remark.

11. villajax: If you are serious, I would first need to know what you considered your dream.

12. maradona10: I just answered your question above.

13. Richard: I don't know how many times I have to say this but...I am not on this site to just communicate with Fans. I take Fan comments and ensure that the right people at AVFC are aware of them...the good, bad, and ugly. To do otherwise would be a complete waste of my time...and yours.

Fair enough General, I am one of the people leaning towards skepticism but I'll accept those answers to these questions. It is indeed important to build the infrastructure of the club until it becomes an elite venue for fans, players and corporate clients.

However with regards to players i think alot of us are frustrated because most of us realise we may not yet be able to attract the biggest players, but we also point out that there are many lesser known highly talented gems from outside the UK who have gone to lesser clubs and cities than ours.

Alot of us feel this is impeding on our ability to both add creativity and size to our squad due to the prices of English based talent, as well as the number of real top quality Uk based talent available.

Most of us do appreciate the fact that we are building a very strong British/Uk based nucleus of talent but as I mentioned I feel it contributes to our often time one dimensional style of play and creativity.

It is time for us to be more creative general!!!

Anyhow thanks for keeping the communication with us and while I'll reiterate the pleasure we feel from seeing the club improve on many fronts. Up to this date I still remain worried about our squad size, transfer policy and tactical awareness/flexibility.

UP THE VILLA!!! 8) 8)

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