The General's thread - do not respond to other posts!

[Villarocker]

Hi General,

I saw this quote from Alex McLeish today and wondered what your thoughts might be on this?

http://tinyurl.com/Quote-From-Alex-McLeish

It seems like he has different views to yourself. May I ask if Randy and other senior officials at the club share your views or do they share those of our manager?

I love my club, I really do, and every season I look (hope) for us to finish in the European placings. However, the football fan in me says that, having lost so many of our first team players from last season, it will be a massive struggle for us to finish in the top 10.

I hope that our youngsters can shine and up their game now they are about to be given a bigger chance than ever. The problem is General, it seems that, once we get 2 or 3 injuries and a suspension or two, we might just well be looking at a first team that is made up mostly of youngsters and when that happened last season it did leave us looking up at a lot of other teams for a quite a large amount of time! I do seem to recall you saying that we were only struggling because we were missing a lot of our senior players through injury and that things would change once we got them back, which it did!

I will give my all in supporting the club but I can't help but feel that mine and all other fans efforts may well not be enough to get us into that top 10. I just hope that I am proved to be wrong when the season is over.

[Villa5shitty1-down-u-go]

Hi Gen:

if wat AM is saying is ture ... wheres the downing money????

THANKS

[Delphinho123]

General,

Why do you and Alex Mcleish keep telling us completely different things?

Mcleish - 'We finished ninth last season, can we better that?" he said. "It will be extremely difficult...'

Krulak - 'As a Fan, my expectations for the coming season remain high. I see us as high as 4th place and no lower than 9th'

Strange.

[nick76]

General,

Well from Alex's comments the action you meant a month ago was Given and N'Zogbia and no more, after all the players that have left leaving us down to the bare bones and all the money we have recouped this summer it makes a very long hard season ahead doesn't it? I pray we avoid all injuries or we could have problems. Can i ask, is the action you mentioned just Given and N'Zogbia? Or was it something else?

[SonicVillan]

Hi General,

The banner that I have been working on - that both you and Ian Taylor have complimented - has been given some promotion, thanks to the kind actions of Ian at Aston Villa News & Views. It seems to be fairly popular and most Villa fans who have seen it have agreed that they would like to see it printed and hung across the Trinity Road Stand. Is there anyway that we can get the ball rolling with this one? If the club think it can enhance Villa Park then I'd love to get this going. I want to leave my mark on Villa Park and I do think it would look good. I work for a Print and Promotion Company so getting it made wouldn't be a problem.

Please let me know if this is something that the club are interested in.

A link to Aston Villa News & Views with the piece about the banner: http://tinyurl.com/3br6sga

[Denis_B]

19 June 2011 General wrote this:

I think you will be hearing quite a bit from the Club in the next couple of weeks...from the Manager and from the Board. More importantly, you will see "action" which is the way Randy has always operated...words mean very little but actions speak loudly. In all of the passion, upheaval and comments the two people who have kept their cool have been Randy and AM...they have done what they needed to do...said what needed to be said at the time

Do you now regret saying this General as there has clearly been no 'action' and there has been silence from the board - you say 'Randy said what needed to be said' Now did I miss something as I can't recall anything from him?

[Enda]

Hi General,

My new kit that I ordered off the official website arrived here in the States this morning. $72.50 including shipping.

As noted by a few fans on the New Kit thread the shirts this year are a size larger than in previous years.

These are both "Medium". It's the same with my Medium neon-blue kit from a couple of years back, others have reported the same thing relative to last year's kit.

If I want to exchange my shirt for a smaller size - the size I thought I was getting based on previous AVFC shirts by Nike - I will have to pay another $15 in shipping (i.e. send shirt back to B6 AND pay for shipping out the exchange shirt.)

I appreciate that this is not a huge issue for the Club but from my point of view this is pretty crappy. I buy the new kit almost every season and they're always Medium. This year Nike (or someone else) has gone and changed the sizes and now I'm out an extra $15 as a result of it.

I would not have had this problem had I bought from a high-street store but I wanted to buy directly from Villa to give them the extra profit. This exchange policy really discourages fans from doing that.

Could you look into sorting something out on the official site's exchange policy or, at least, ensure that size changes are clearly highlighted for future years please?

Best,

Enda

[vazquez]

"action speak louder" and "we will challenge for top 4", I guess you probably hope to take those back.

In paper Chelsea, United, City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs are light years ahead of us. Even Everton has stronger and larger squad than us (and they are officially broke). This is of course on paper and in one game anyone can beat anyone, but to beat four of those teams during a whole season... You must really think McLeish is the second coming.

If we look start of last year I actually I think signing Makoun, Bent, Given, Ireland and maybe N'Zogbia is very good in terms of quality. But when we have same time sold A.Young, Milner, Downing, Carew, Sidwell, NRC, Shorey, K.Walker, Friedel and likely Cuellar (all good PL players) we are down in numbers. I'm ok with reducing the wage bill, but to do it like this in the space of one season will make life hard next season (to talk about 4th spot does not help that). To rely heavily on youth sounds great, but experience wins you games (especially when the going gets tough). Fingers crossed Bent or Collins don't get injured. I hope that the board has evaluated other possibilities for cost savings than the playing staff (other personel, maybe reduction of board compensation) and all possibilities for increasing the income (allways harder).

I expect us to finish around 10th, if we have a good cup run and avoid relegation battle, I'm already very happy next year. As long as we progress as team and are ready to challenge 2012-13. Is Randy prepared to spend yearly the turnover + 13M from now on, like the UEFA Financial Fair Play rules state as the highest possible yearly spending? I think that is one of future key KPIs for good owner.

[Simmo83]

just wondered if the scouts were aware of the viral video of JPA's son doing the rounds? the next messi? it would be quality if he came through the ranks at villa!

[mykeyb]

General,

You reacted quite angrily to be called a liar on here recently.

Looking at your comments and those being made by our manager in the last 48 hours does raise a question. If your are not a liar as your stated are you as much in the dark about the plans for AVFC as the fans are.

If this is the case then surely the uesfulness of this thread is finished.

[dudevillaisnice]

General

I only just realised this but ... who offers contracts to players?

Beye will be 34 when his contract expires.. same with Petrov and same with Heskey.. It's common sense surely that offering a 4 year deal in 2009 to someone like Petrov (taking age into consideration) is a bit silly?

I'd like to hear your take on this especially after your comment on veterans being involved with the youth.. 34 is ridiculous no matter which way you look at it, poor business by the club.

[smetrov]

General,

As you own & Randy's time at Aston Villa appears to be drawing to a close - has there been any interest from potential suitors.

[McGregor1888]

Hi General

A quick one:

The media reporting of the tour of Hong Kong has been some of the best stuff I've seen on AVTV in many a year, please pass on congratulations to all involved.

The whole trip to Hong Kong, as a PR exercise, has been very impressive - especially the international kit launch. For the first time, it seems, Nike has genuinely stepped up to the plate and put a little effort into helping promote the Villa brand. I still note that on their official site they treat Villa as some form of insignificant club, however. On their site they have whole sections devoted to clubs not nearly half as famous or successful as ours - I find this both insulting and a little puzzling. Is there any way we can find out why this is?

To finish off, I'd just like to say that if any future kit launches are planned, would you consider Cleveland, USA?

Thanks for your time.

[dudevillaisnice]

As a Fan, my expectations for the coming season remain high. I see us as high as 4th place and no lower than 9th. I honestly think we will surprise people...I am pretty excited by what I see.

Laughable comment.. how are we miraculously going to get 4th then General? The current squad will be lucky to finish top 10.

Did you watch the Chelsea match? it's not only the Chelsea match either infact.. despite pre season being about fitness etc.. the same players continue to make the same mistakes.. N'Zogbia will be a decent signing but half of the squad is past it (may seem like an exaggeration to you) and it's even more worrying when they play a part in the first team..

[Cracker1234]

Hi General,

What are your thoughts on the game against Chelsea?

I'll tell you mine.....Although it's a pre-season friendly about fitness and tactics the teams are miles apart in terms of where they're at as a club.

We didn't show anything from the first second till the last second of the game....It was a game I'd have rather not watched, it was just sad.... Given was maybe the only positive, but that's nothing new Given being a great keeper....Oh and it was nice to see Gary Gardner get a run out.

I felt sorry for our fans in Hong Kong + the new ones we may have gained in the last few days, after watching our team play I think we've helped Chelsea gain a few more Chinese supporters to add to the 10's of 1000's they already have.

[Brumstopdogs]

I see us as high as 4th place

General, out of interest, if you think we can come as high as 4th place which four teams out of the following do you think we can realistically finish above (assuming the normal teams are up there) to achieve that:

1) Man U

2) Man City

3) Arsenal

4) Chelsea

5) Liverpool

6) Spurs

7) Everton

Thanks. :?

[supermon]

General,

Please liaise with Randy and make him realise that we need some MORE players to have a hope of chance of competing with the top 6/7. todays friendly against Chelsea really does highlight this, we are a gaping hole without last season's two stars Downing and Ashley.

Thanks for the acquisition of Given and NZog, top class buys, but I think you will find that all fans will be singing on the same page if we brought in a few more players.

[ZodiakIronfist]

General, proud of the work your doing this summer, and I'm not one of those 'RANDY OUT' 'SPEND 50MILLION' type of people, understand completely you have UEFA's financial fair play in the back of your minds and are planning for the future, keep it up.

However our squad is tender and thin in some departments and it would be nice for Alex to have options and some depth, would you think it would be wise for Randy, Paul and Alex to at least explore the loan market around Europe and see what we can get below the 50-60 grand mark a week? - It would at least have us chasing a Europa League spot which hopefully is a target this season? The lad's must have lost weight with the amount of sweat that was soaked into and dripping off their shirt in Hong Kong, they really couldn't of given anymore, however a positive with our purchases this summer, I see us finishing above Everton.

Thats all, keep up the good work!

[OnlyOne]

4. Relegation experience played ZERO role in the selection of a Manager. I hope that was a joke. As a Fan, my expectations for the coming season remain high. I see us as high as 4th place and no lower than 9th. I honestly think we will surprise people...I am pretty excited by what I see.

We'll struggle to get top 10. You could see it in McLeish's eyes when he said 9th would be difficult. Come on, be realistic here and stop with the PR spin. You can't kid us anymore.

It's plain obvious we need at least a defensive midfielder and a proven winger. There's no other midfielder like NRC (who has defensive traits) and Albrighton seems to be having difficulty progressing now he's been found out.

It's also worrying that McLeish is testing Delfouneso, Gabby and Heskey on the wing. None of them can cross well, so how can we expect Bent to score goals if he isn't getting the service? Are these our backup 'wingers' incase Albrighton or N'Zogbia are off the pitch? Unbelieveable.

[villan501]

Please see

Mat Kendrick was on talksport today, McLeish said to him he targets a Europa League place in come capacity to get some good European nights at Villa Park and a good cup run and hopefully silverware, but CL is way out of reach for us for the time being.

General please can you explain how the managers expectations are so much lower than the boards, I for one can accept what AM has said if that is how we are going to go about are work i.e lowering the wage bill and blooding the youngsters, but the huge divide in what the board expects and what the manager realistically sees is really frightening.

You have received alot of flack on this thread and Sir I dont feel alot of it is justifed as Randy is the numero uno, us fans are really frustrated with no apparant direction. If you liased with Randy and Paul and said enouh is enough the fans deserve to know our plans if it lead to the same as AM then you would get every real villa fan behind the board and we could all pull together and see exactly what we can acheive.

Thank you for Nzogbia and Given