General Krulak (part 3) - Questions

[marktam]

General,

As a Season ticket holder for almost 40 years I cannot thank you, Randy, Paul, and the rest of the AV Leadership Team enough for getting us to where we are today. Without you all we would be languishing in Division One by now!

I am VERY confident that you will do 'what is right' for AVFC when it comes to the new manager selection and we look forward to the next phase of our success...

Please do not let the few moaners and whingers derail the good work you and Randy have done. I think some of the rubbish written here is from Bluenoses and they know no better. The rest is a very small minority who are frustrated and emotional and that will go away when the new Manager is on board

Thanks again and please pass on my thanks to Randy

UTV

[Harry]

Hi General:

"Do you think the Board of Aston Villa bear some responsibility for the manner and timing of Martin O"Neill's departure?"

I've posted this here following your response to my post on one of the Front Page threads and my subsequent response.

[Maradona10]

Hi General,

Thanks for your response, however to inform you the press have picked up on your quote about being Villa fans being vipers, a Villa fan has a right to question what is going on and if your the link between board and fans, this is the right place to air our concerns. I would also like to express gratitude what Randy has done for us and yes he has done more in 4, but the best manager in the Premier League said 'To stand still you have to invest in the side', Have we in your opinion invested in the playing side? Look how much effort goes into the branding side of the club, season ticket renewals, shirt launches, yes that all looks pretty but all us fans only really care about is success on the pitch. I apologise if i have insulted you or the board in the past, and i know we all want the same goals for Villa. We share that passion which sometimes leads to frustration, hence the amount of posts you receive.

UTV!

[colleh]

Sorry if this has been asked already, but....

Who authorised the signing of Stephen Ireland?

[Don_Simon]

General,

Ive been concerned for a little while now that the snide, accusatory comments youve received here over the past weeks will result in you having enough, and leaving these "fans" to dwell in their own satisfaction at driving you away.

Please be aware that these people represent only a tiny, tiny microcosm of Villa fans. Clearly this summer hasnt been our finest hour, and not ideal for our preperations for the upcoming season, nor our perennial challenge for the holy grail of Champions League. But you can only play with the cards in which you are dealt, and our previous Manager did the club a great disservice by leaving when he did (and buying the inept messers Beye; Sidwell; Heskey and a few others!).

Having spoken to a few fans at VP last Thursday for the Vienna game, in both the incredible new Holte Suite, and in the ground, a lot of people have utmost faith in Randy and the Board, and are still utterly grateful for hiim reviving our great club, like he has.

The new manager may not be everybody's cup of tea; but he doesnt need to be. Randy will be paying his wages, so Randy decides and as fans of Aston Villa, not Houllier, Curbishley, Svennis or Bradley, we should support the team regardless.

My question (as i think i need to ask one to meet the rules!), is, will you please pass on to Randy that my five-a-side team needs some investment, and i promise our fans will not give him half the stick the Villa fans have. Therefore, does he fancy buying us a sparkling new kit?

Cheers General,

Don Simon.

[Risso]

General

In light of the fact that the press have picked up on another of your statements, this time where you call supporters (and let's not be coy, paying customers) "vipers", do you think your time on here is having the desired effect any more? Would it be an idea perhaps, to ask somebody less prone to emotional outbursts to take over as club liaison for independent fan sites?

[MattJ83]

Whilst I don't think it is professional to call fans 'vipers' (and yes, i understand that when you come on here you are not speaking in an official capacity but that doesnt really matter does it when you work for the club and are making comments) I think the current climate is clouding the judgement of alot of fans. Which in all fairness is understandable given the parcels of information that come out of the club and never quite look complete (again, I understand this as it would be unprofessional to make any comments on who is in the frame etc).

Anyway, I do not think anyone is covering themself in a good light at present and it may be wise to stay clear of posting much on here - especially when the papers will jump on statements and take them out of context - becoming a PR nightmare. So my question would be do you feel that currently your postings on here (in the current climate) are being productive?

Everyone remembers what the club was like before Randy took over the club and we obviously don't want to go back there. At the end of the day, everyone wants Villa to be successful so we should stop bickering amongst ourselves and just be patient.

I hope that makes sense & good luck with the appointment.

Matt

[staylor2500]

Hi general just a few question please Sir

1) When will you finish the interview process?

2) Do you have a cut off date that you and the board will make a decision?

3) My under 13's teams looking for a sponsor, do you think FX pro would give us a couple of million for a kit please as we are skint and playing in our under 10's one?

Cheers general and all the best, I know you and randy are working hard and trust in you. You had a good reference off a friend of mine, I was serving with when in forces; he was with the US Marines in desert storm.

As a ex squaddie there’s a big difference in my regiment the Grenadier Guards as a Guardsman and you a General in the USMC but we are all the same and believe that a man of you quality stature and upbringing as a military man gives this club something different, Passion integrity and discipline!. Do you miss the life? Do you miss the family of comrades that will never compare to anything in Civvy Street?

[Villaninoz]

Hi General,

Just wanted to say i think you and Randy are doing a great job at the club we all love and i believe that the few voices that you are hearing on here being rude and spouting rubbish, do not reflect the view of the vast majority of Villa fans! You must also know that this is a public forum and i wouldn't be too surprised if there aren't a couple of fans from that small club down the road posting on here to stir things up! please bear that in mind!!

My question to you is regarding the posts on here. Do you think it is the minority or majority of fans that are being fickle? I use the word fickle as anyone that has supported Villa for a while will know that these are far from the dark days of our previous regime....

oh and please please please ask Randy to talk to Jurgen Klinnsman, his work with the youth at Germany and Bayern was excellent and look at what they both achieved last year based on what he started but wasn't allowed to finish! And he is a free agent!! Oh and he played in England for a couple of years so has the experience ;-)

[Villarocker]

Sod the press General. Who cares what those lazy hacks say or print in their rags. WE know what you meant and that is ALL that matters. You have said nothing wrong in my opinion and flak should be a two-way thing, after all, you're a fan too!

I would like to ask you a question.

If you could use just one word to sum up your feelings right now, about the current events surrounding AVFC, what would it be? And please address it to US the fans and don't worry about what those wackos in the media will say afterwards.

Keep up the good work, we're not all ungrateful.

Up The Villa

[c-krulak]

General Krulak here:

1. "Vipers"???????????????????? Not sure I recall that one. Don't suppose you could refer me to where I said that...and please don't refer me to a newspaper article.

[RA19]

General

I guess you've learned a lot about message boards now? Trust me, they are the same the length and breadth of the land. Damned if you do, damned if you don't! Tell it as it is & you upset people; tell it like it's bull and you upset even more! You know what they say? Opinions in football are like a*seholes - everyone's got one, lol! Your term 'vipers' is actually a pretty good one - we're all snarling and hissing at the bottom of a pit and nobody knows if the one that just took a chunk out of your butt is meant to be a friend or foe. In truth at any given moment we're all friends or all foes. I think it was Napoleon who said "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer!"

May you long continue to fight the battles on here, always remembering that you can't win the war!

I salute you Sir!

[snowychap]

Quote trimmed and emphasis added by moderators for ease of reference.".

here

...You have no idea who we are looking at other than reading the papers...and those that you have guessed correctly, you have something negative to say about all of them. Suppose we happen to pick one of them...or suppose we are trying to get one to come to the Club...I am sure they enjoy reading the blogs to see how our fans react to their names...and rest assured, anyone we would want is smart enough to do some due diligence on the Club and Fan base. Simply put, there are some Fans who have just turned on Randy like pit vipers...turned on the man who has done more for your Club in 4 years than most have done in 40.....

[Mantis]

Hi General,

I just want to say I think you and Randy are doing a cracking job at Villa. The fact that you didn't rush into a panic appointment before the transfer window closed to appeae the transfer nuts fills me with confidence.

While I would like us to have a good manager as soon as possible, I understand these things take time. Right now I'm reserving judgement until we actually get a manager, but even if the manager in question is not someone I'm happy with I'll still get behind him, the board and most of all the club.

Keep it up.

[Denis_B]

General I think the term vipers was rather mild for some of the stuff put on here. Thanks for the feedback and please continue doing your work for the club by posting on here.

[swadeavfc]

General,

I said before that I would like to thank you for the effort you put on these and other Villa message boards.

However, I and other Villa fans I know are not overly pleased with a long series of events. Just for a recap of the timeline, for the second season in a row we sell our best player and other squad players while all the other teams around us are buying quality players, we have our most successful manager for approximately 12-14 years leave the club with only a very limited explaination of why this is. This happens approximately 28 days before the transfer window and it certainly seems that significant efforts to replace him only start 28 days later after the worse transfer window in a very long time happens.

Additionally to this we have an extremely dissapointing exit from Europe. One of the most embarresing defeats, certainly I can remember and if I spent more time thinking about it there could be more. All of this time we are told to be patient and everything will work out alright. Now in the newspapers we are linked with a dissapointing selection of managers and the newest rumor surrounding managerial appointment is that we going to stick with the manager who presided over the dissapointing Europe exit and one of the most embarrasing defeats in a long time.

I don't expect you to comment on managerial appointment but I think you have to understand that the best source of information for Villa fans comes from the newspapers and if we are not happy with the list managerial appointments or any of the other issues listed above we would usually comment on the message boards. I might have not commented but I recently read on another message board, I don't comment on about you saying that Villa fans should not be commenting on messages boards if they don't have positive comments about the list of managerial appoints we are linked with.

General you can surely understand that there is a significant portion of Villa fans who just see the past 3 months a catalogue of dissapointments and only see more in the near future with possible managerial appointments. If we can't or aren't supposed to comment on this and other Villa message boards, where are we supposed to comment? Or are we just expected to hold exactly the same opinion as the Villa heirachy which have let us down so badly over past few months after so much good work in the first few years?

[imavillan]

General,

I appreciate your cryptic answer to my question ref who or who has not been interviewed for the mangers post. Thank you.

As we are 4 years into the tenure of Randy, the nature of the Premiership with Man City and there very wealty owners has somewhat changed.

We had a five year plan and we are now in year four. Plans are always under evaluation.

With this can you tell me what is the boards/clubs plan for the next five years?

Champions League Football, Regular Europa League Football, to stay in the Premier League, to win a cup?? Outside investment?

What are our plans to tap into the huge market that is the far east and the USA?

To date i have seen little evidence of us utilising this market that is dominated by Manure, Liverpoo, and Chelski.

I somewhat think we are missing a huge revenue opportunity to turn ourselves into a global brand.

[Brumstopdogs]

General

I saw a link to Houllier's signings at Liverpool and it is a real shocker. He's well up there with O'Neill for wasting money.

As for pairing him with Staunton and Macdonald that sounds like a terrible idea. Macdonald should go back to reserve action (no more 6-0's please) and Staunton has done nothing to think he can make the step up.

For me if it is a Moyes, Jol or Mcleish I would be very pleased.

Do you understand the fans concerns General?

[f00tball]

First question i ask you do villa still help acorns even thought we got a new sponsor?

[Richard]

General, is the owner aware of your comments on here before you post them? That is do you run them past him before hand? If not does he ever pass comment to you on the things you say on here?