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General Krulak pt 4 - Q & A (No transfer Questions)


blandy

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General... As per other comments on here I feel that the current state of play with Nike is really poor, and like it or not is a poor reflection on the club as well as the suppliers. Can you confirm how long our deal is with Nike... And whether we plan on continuing our association with the supplier (a) of bland kits, (B) with poor fulfillment history and © who clearly dont value the relationship with our great club as highly as they do with others.

To be frank, they are a joke.

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General, It was a friends birthday a month back and I told him along with my brother that we'd agree to get him the home shirt when it comes out. September was bad enough but fair enough he didn't have any problems. I myself was looking forward to buying both home and away shirts too except it felt like a kick in the teeth reading what I did yesterday. Sorry but SOMEBODY should be getting bollocked for this because releasing new shirts HALF way through the season and charging full price is quite frankly disrespectful and disgraceful, is it not? I know you have nothing to do with Nike themselves but please consider our thoughts here and discuss with them what they have caused. Something like this shouldn't be let slide and I hope you put you foot down on the matter.

On a lighter note, I will be looking forward to the Gerard Houllier experience.

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HI General,

First time poster on your threads but a long time reader.

May I first say thank you for taking time out to answer the various questions posted on the threads which at times must have been hard.

Secondly, a big thanks for moving our club light years forward and making me even prouder to be a Villa supporter.

My reason for the post unfortunately, is in relation to the ongoing issues with the kit and Nike. My wife has purchased two tops for my sons and paid up front for this merchandise, as well as lettering and numbers. Could you clarify whether we will see a refund in relation to the lettering aspect of this request?

Just on asdide the apointment of GH has my full backing.

Thanks for your time.

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Hello General,

With the kit being delayed again until November, I take it that Nike will be paying some sort of compensation to the club or perhaps reducing the base cost which Villa need to pay for each shirt.

When someone produces a product, I hope in the terms there is a date given for the products to be made by. If they don't get the product to the customer by that date, then there are penalties.

I think shirt sales this year are going to be non existent if there is to be a new shirt next year.

I was going to get one, but not now, not without significant reductions in the cost of the shirt.

Nike could at least get a batch of shirts to the club shop to allow people who want it to drive to VP and buy it direct. Forget JJB, forget the other third party stores, they aren't important, and Nike aren't important. The fans and the club should at least get a few thousand shirts to the villa shop.

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General,

I said in a previous post that actions speak louder than words and the appointment of Houllier is the sort of action that I was looking for. I know I had my own personal preference for the job but at the end of the day, I believe we have appointed an experienced manager who will help the club to grow further. I am excited by the way he has said about improving the technicality of our play which as you would have seen at the World Cup is becoming the difference between being successful and not. Thank you.

Oh, can you give someone at the OS a kick up the bahooky. They still haven't updated the league tables for the reserves and the youth are showing not having played nay games at all.

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Hello General, good to see you back.

I must add to my dissapointment about the shirt delays, Nike have really shafted us with this one. This is not an attack on the club or the board, but do you share our frustrations over the years with Nike?.

There are an "eye candy" sponser and I was pleased we finally had a decent supplier, especially after Diadora and Hummel.

However, they just have not delivered the goods over the years and to be fair, the designs of the kits have been almost indentical and very plain. What i mean is that there are some nice "touches" to some of the other kits supplied by nike, but ours have been the same old, same old.

Do you think the club will extend the deal with Nike? if they do, I would be happy, but would it be possible for the fans to have a bigger say in the design like some clubs?,.Say.... vote on five designs on the website, for example.

Last years kit was almost identical to the year before that, which got a few grumbling about lack of thought by Nike, other than £££.

As the kit has now been delayed further, hence the "sell by date" is 6 months away, can Nike/Avfc offer the product on a face value for that period - i.e £30?. I can just see this costing the club £££ on shirt sales as the shelf life of the tops will be over before we know it ( and a lot of fans are 50/50 about the design anyhow)

I appreciate its a sticky situation for the board, but surely someone needs to be made accountable somwhere. (there is no way i could see this happening with Nike and Man Utd)

P.s - Mr H - Top appointment - well done all concerned.

General - Up the Villa... ( I cant hear you!....)

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General Krulak here:

1. Obviously, the Club is HUGELY disappointed with the issue of the new kit. As best that I can suss out, the initial kit produced by Nike had too large a weave and thus was prone to snagging and eventually ripping. Rather than put out a substandard product, we now are waiting until we can get a good product. This is not the fault of AVFC but, rather, a problem with Nike. We have certainly indicated our displeasure at this turn of events. Nike will make some monetary adjustments but the simple fact is that our Fans will not have the chance to purchase a new kit until November and that is not good...for the Fans or for the Club. Simply put, we are not happy about this. We have one year remaining on our contract.

2. As a fan, I can "feel the pain" of the past couple of months....it seems like a roller coaster. As the eternal optimist, I continue to look for the bright spot...Up the Villa!! A new Manager and a continued focus will get us where we want to be.

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Ooops sorry General. I was typing as you were also typing. Thank you for your answers.

______________

What exactly are the quality issues with the shirt? Why is it only Aston Villa shirts? Why would quality issues only be found out when the shirts are due to made available? Surely they have a quality verification process that is built into the whole production process? Something stinks about this Nike agreement General. In July I attended the MLS All-star game in Houston where Man Utd were playing. They were selling their shirts all over the place. That is 4 months before our shirt is available. Now I am not shirt making genius but a shirt is a shirt and all they need do is change the colour design and get the produuction line working. It seems like we are last every year but this is just so poor it is embarrassing. Surely there are dates and penalties in the agreement. If not you need to fire the person that negotiated the contract. Like I said something stinks.

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Never posted on here General, though I often read it, so I take my hat off to you for posting on this board. My friends who support other clubs are particularly jealous!

I'd just like to congratulate Randy and the board on the appointment of Houllier. When O'neil walked out I was at a loss as to who we could get that would be any better than he was for us. All the names that came to mind, while thay were solid, were not, in my opinion, capable of improving on three 6th place finishes. With Houllier I believe we can do this and I am very much looking forward to seeing him take charge.

My thanks to you and all involved in the Club.

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General,

I appluad Randy with his appointment, imo we have a new manager who is experienced in the PL and knows whats what.

We have a man who has been a loyal servant to the club for 15 years and has stepped into the breach, after MON left us in the mire, and has done a sterling job and is going back to do what he does best. Look after the reserves and steer them in the Villa way. This man should have a job for life with Aston Villa should he so desire.

Sir, I have a question about the marketing of Aston Villa as a global brand.

What are the club doing about entering the massive market of the Far East and the USA?

These are huge markets, yet to date i do not see or hear of any involvement of Aston Villa Football Club across the world.

This may already (hopefully) be happening behind the scenes nd if so maybe you can enlighten us?

Welcome back and all the best imavillan

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Genera.

do you know if we will be changing our kit next year,and if not will Nike be doing anything to make amends for the farce they have created?.i think they have put the club in a bad postion with the jersey coming out so late,i personally wont be buying the jersey when it comes out in november or in future while we have Nike as sponser,its not because of the club but because of Nike,i'll spend my money on something else because i dont think the club should suffer because Nike want to treat us like crap every year,i couldn't see something like this happening to the likes of Man U,Barcelona ect..

we should really have a sponser that values the Aston Villa name a lot better in my opinion.

anyway welcome back.

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general,

firstly welcome back

secondly, any chance that some of the training kit / own brand stuff will drop in price to compensate some of the fans disappointed in the kit? like myself some fans might see now as the perfect time to get the european cup winning shirt or a training top instead, a nice 10% sale until the official kit goes on sale, or a similar gesture would restore some faith IMO

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General,

The supporters Forum are meeting on the day of the Bolton game.

The number one question that is being fed back from the forums is reinstate screen 2.

Please do everything you can to help make this happen.

It may seem like a small thing......but its things like this that make a big difference

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General,

The supporters Forum are meeting on the day of the Bolton game.

The number one question that is being fed back from the forums is reinstate screen 2.

Please do everything you can to help make this happen.

It may seem like a small thing......but its things like this that make a big difference

sorry for quoting in this thread,but was there every any reason given for removing it?..
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General

Would you agree that the offer of a fiver off a kit coming out several months late doesn't exactly appear to be the most attractive of discounts. If you want to sell more than half a dozen kits, you might suggest to the powers that be that they have a rethink about the strategy for this one.

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Regarding the kits. I am pretty sure the club had already said that they were freezing prices to last seasons as it was going to be late. Plus the free shirt printing was also included in the previous "offer".

So it seems to me that the club are offering nothing as an incentive to buy a kit that has so little time until the new one is out. I really feel as others have stated that the club need to come out and say that it is going to be next seasons shirt too or needs to offer a more significant price reduction or there will be a lot of shirts remaining at the end of season sale!

With reference to a previous point that you made. You stated that it is in our contract to have a new shirt every season. As it is Nike's fault that the shirt is delayed a good will gesture of it staying for the next season would be most appropriate.

Good work with Gerard too. Now as my avatar is me with the previous manager i need access to the new manager to have another photo. Any chance? Available any home game as i am a season card holder.

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General Krulak here:

1. Marketing the brand: Yes, we are very interested in moving our brand world-wide...and have been focusing on doing that ever since we teamed with Nike. Obviously, we need to do our part...which is that part that we all want...to win!! BUT, I can say that I do a good deal of traveling and I have been seeing Villa shirts more than ever. Anything like ManU? No!

2. I am not sure what we will be doing with the shirts next year. Obviously this incident is going to cause some reevaluation. I have not reviewed our contract but I am sure our legal people are doing that. Although some feel that we are not discounting our mechandise enough, there does have to be a margin that is acceptable in business terms. I hope most would recognize that fact.

3. If I have missed questions over the past weeks, please forgive me. We have had some pretty major issues going and I tried to focus on them.

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General Krulak here:

2. I am not sure what we will be doing with the shirts next year. Obviously this incident is going to cause some reevaluation. I have not reviewed our contract but I am sure our legal people are doing that. Although some feel that we are not discounting our mechandise enough, there does have to be a margin that is acceptable in business terms. I hope most would recognize that fact.

There also has to be recognition of the fact that changing the kits every season is bad enough. Having that kit unavailable for a good portion of the season and then discounting it by a derisory £5 isn't on in my opinion.

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