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

[Biffta]

Hi General

I'm dead against this appointment but I am also dead against the uncalled low life abuse you received, not called for!

Can you look at B6Bloke idea, about a half season ticket from the beginning of the season, I think it is a great idea. I even think it would take some pressure off McLeish because if he doesn't work we haven't wasted too much money and in respect, it's a gamble that the board are willing to take but as you see, a lot of fans aren't..therefore we shouldnt be made to pay for the boards mistakes if that so transpires..if he is the manager you believe he is then people will extend.

Again I personally don't want McLeish but I don't want Randy to go anywhere

UTV

[Harry]

General Krulak here:

As everyone can see, I have kept a low profile over the past week...

And that low profile is continuing. My honest opinion and I think its shared by many many fans is that the search and recruitment of a new manager has been little short of a shambles. Initially I was dismissive and critical of the comments made in the media about the process. Sadly all I can do now is agree with them.

The club is little short of a laughing stock with this botched and mismanaged process. I'm sure you will tell me not to believe what's been written in the media and there was a clean plan all the way along. Well perception is everything and currently the perception of Villa is very bad amongst not only the media but also the footballing world and most importantly the fans of the club.

I think its also very very important not to attach must relevance to the fact Alex McLeish managed Birmingham City. The issue for most fans is that he is, at best, an average manager who seemingly we tapped up as we could not get or did not try hard enough to get anyone better. It hardly screams ambition.

Another point worth mentioning is that fans are not expecting huge injections of cash to buy players. There is an expectation of funds to be there to sign the right players but that is coupled with bringing on some of the very fine prospects that we have at the club and moving on some of the generally older high wage earners. Is Alex McLeish capable of doing that? I'm not so sure and neither are most Villa fans.

Sadly I think the club must brace itself for the backlash. The diehard fans like myself will renew their season tickets anyway. Where it will hit the club is the less committed fan will probably not buy a season ticket and may not buy a ticket for a home game. I predict a 10% minimum fall in average attendance coupled with a very significant decline in merchandising income.

I for one will not be buying the new shirt for either myself or my son. Maybe that's petty but I really don't have the heart and I feel that some of the magic and hope that Randy Lerner brought to the club five years go has now gone.

In a lot of ways I pity Alex McLeish. I think he a decent man who will clearly try to to the best for us. I genuinely hope he succeeds and in 12 months time after a generous helping of humble pie we will all be lauding what an inspired appointment he really was. The trouble is the first slip he makes and the fans will be all over him. Many were critical of Gerard Houllier. I don't think you have seen anything yet.

[paul34]

General

Could you please give us some news about our new sponser and kit?

paul VTID

[Risso]

General

Why have you chosen to read the various fan sites but noct actually post this week? I know there's uproar about the apparent choice of manager, but you started out by saying that you always wanted to take the rogh with the smooth. Well this as about as rough as it gets, and you're nowhere to be seen. Do you think your time as a useful addition on the fan sites has come to an end? I'm sure people know to phone the ever helpful Nicky Keye with ticketing problems now.

[DeadlyDirk]

Hi General,

I know I'm going to bore you in writing this, but here's some things to consider.

If Alex McLeish was a half decent manager who had just left Blues, then his appointment would be alot easier to stomach. If he was just a poor manager then his appointment, whilst uninspiring and bewildering would be begrudgingly accepted. To be a very poor manager who has just resigned from our nearest rivals, on the cusp of being appointed just shows how out of touch Lerner, Faulkner and yourself are. I still can't make any sense of it, you arrive here saying that you havea five year plan to get into the champions league, and want to compete with the best (in fairness nobody could have known about the Man City factor), and also want to keep a line of communication open to the fans as you are custodians of the club, and acknowledge that the fans are the lifeblood of the club. To appoint Alex McLeish against the wishes of the majority of the fans makes a whole mockery of the part line of the board when they arrived here, and shows an alarming lack of ambition.

He has been relegated from the premier league twice, he finished 3rd in the Scottish Premier League with Rangers, which to any football fan is nigh on impossible, and has a history of buying journey men players, and advocates the long ball, or hoof type game. I bought into what Gerard Houllier was trying to do with the club, changing the ethos to a more european set up, with pretty football to go with it, and towards the end of the season we began to see some positive results of his upheavel and tenure. Appointing McLeish would be likely to undo all of that. Also, I don't know who you are consulting with, but I don't trust them.

Premier League Experience only. Hmmm, What have Jose Mourinho, Alex Ferguson, Carlo Ancelotti and Arsene Wenger got in common? They have all won the Premier League. Oh, and they have only managed the one club they have won the Premier League with. No one else. They all came into the Premier League without experience of it and won it. There's only one other manager, Kenny Dalglish, that has won it. So yes, one offs can happen. So how can you ignore the likes of Frank Rijkaard, Flores and Jurgen Klinsmann, who all have experience and Pedigree, who can carry on the work started by Houllier and help develop this club into a force to be reckoned with, when they say they are interested and want to manage Aston Villa, heck Flores has even said he's done extensive research on the squad, tell me, and the rest of the fans how you can ignore an exciting and potentially prosperous future, in favour of a drab and unambitious one? You need to take risks and speculate to accumalate guys, and your not prepared to show a bit of ambition and adventure, and it's that kind of attitude and stance that makes me disillusioned with the club and football in general. If your not going to even try, then why bother in the first place?

Questions need to be answered, not just to me but the whole fanbase. I really can't believe what I've been seeing from the club in the last few days.

[Shillzz]

General

How can hiring McLeish possibly be worth the loss of fan support that will result from his appointment?

You've gone from being universally recognised as the best owners in the Premier League to a group who have now been turned on by their own fans. This is particularly sad given that the fans used to sing Randy's name and hold him as some kind of saviour for our club. Does it not sadden or even bother you that by appointing McLeish, you will be throwing ALL of this goodwill away?

I'm sorry that everyone has turned against you, you HAVE done a great deal for this club, but I'm afraid the fans just don't know where to turn anymore.

[omariqy]

The fans and the boards (Randy and Yours especially) relationship is forever tarnished. We can never trust your word again.

[Maradona10]

General, question why have ticket prices been increased when we're selling our best player and got the most negative manager in football, obviously your ambition has changed so shouldn't the prices reflect this.

[omariqy]

I'm so angry General. Can we please arrange a civilised fans forum so that Randy, Paul and yourself can listen to our views and why we are unhappy.

[thamutznutz]

You told us you didn't want a manager who would leave his club like hughes - You lied, Mcleish is worse.

You told us you cancelled talks with Mclaren because you cared what fans thought - You lied, Mcleish is worse.

You told us you would do what was best for our football club - you lied, we have passed up great managers like Jol and Hughes to get a manager who's only real Premier League experience is getting a team relegated... You lied again.

On Paper Randy may own the club, but in reality it belongs to the fans, who were here long before and will be here long after. I trusted you, I trusted Randy. Whether the reasoning for mcleish is future austerity measures, a dick measuring contest with the blues chairman or general ignorance about football I don't know - what I do know is that you personally have lost the trust, and randy the respect of many fans.

P.S. I couldn't care less about the blues rivalry, I just want a competent manager who doesn't play negative football and for us to make an effort to actually keep our best players!

[Ralphy]

General,

Proven premier league experience essential? So be it. Then why employ a proven failure in the premier league? 3 years experience, of which 2 resulted in failure. Surely for this requirement to be essential, the manager incase should have been a success. Lost all faith in this board. The date our dreams died- 16/06/2011.

And Paul Faulkner, everything has gone wrong since he walked into the club. Whats are his credentials/ qualifications to merit him CE? So many questions need answering.

I feel physically sick at the thought of McLeish managing Villa. I just hope nobody does anything stupid, this club means the world to thousands of people. Dont know how you sleep at night.

[Maradona10]

On a side note can you wish Faulkner all the best for his wedding day, no wonder he's rushed this appointment so he can actually get married. Totally out of his depth at this level, as for customer experience level, 6 e-mails sent and not one response.

[Papillon]

Charles,

I am relatively young at 25 years - been a fan since 1990ish, when I was a little boy not even living in the UK.

This is without a doubt the biggest fan uproar I have seen in my entire time as a fan.

Maybe it is about time you woke up and realized you are making the biggest mistake in the history of the club!

Why buy Darren Bent when hiring McLeish will make him want to move instantly? And let's take a loot at what happens

with Stewart Downing now... bet you he will have no second thoughts about abandoning ship.

[Simmo83]

I have only posted a couple of times on here but had to add my voice to the numerous others on here expressing the hurt and betrayal a lot of villa fans will (he says in the vain hope it does not happen) feel if Mcleash is appointed.

The reason for the protests and backlash and threats of nonrenewal of season tickets etc is not (just) because he is from our poor relations across the city but because he is not the level of manager we feel a proud club like ours should pursue.

First we were told of the 5 year plan for champions league football, that went to pot but external circumstances can be pointed to for that (such as man city's new wealth). Then we are assured of our status as not being a selling club, now we will face loosing our best player 3 years in a row!

We are told that the reason you are here is to listen to the fans, although you are no longer posting (very much tin hats on and heads down approach may i add) i have no doubt that you will still be reading these forums so now is the time to really listen.

This appointment really will undo all the great work you, randy and the board have done since you took charge. The stuff with acorns, all the refurbishing work which has gone on, the free scarves we got at sheffield united game, all of this is truely appreciated by all the villans out there but make no mistake appointing Mcleash WILL alienate the fans who lets face it are the clubs life blood. It is felt so strongly i have even seen people saying bring deadly doug back (!!!).

This appointment (if it happens) flys in the face of everything that we were lead to believe you and the board stood for. We thought we had a voice, that we were valued but if Mcleash is sat in our dugout come the 1st game of the season then the above cannot be the case. Never in my time as a villa fan have i seen pictures like last night from the villa faithful.

I guess we have to ask a question in order to not get modded so mine will be: can you let us in on the process by which you came to see Mcleash as the one to unite our club after a dismal season when other potentially world class managers such as Sanchez Flores or Rijkaard who appear to have publically announced their interest in the job are discarded?

For the first time in my life as a villa supporter (over 20 years) the club have left me feeling dejected, deppressed and unvalued. I will always support this club, it is in my blood but right now i do not feel i can support this board (and i never thought i would say that )

Your response is not expected but would be welcomed.

[Ginko]

Hi General,

Needless to say, I wasn't exactly thrilled by the appointment of AM. I'm more concerned about you and the board however. I thought that the appointment of a new manager was meant to make a statement of intent? Well, it did but not in a positive way. To be honest, I feel a little lied to and it almost feels as if you guys had hit a brick wall with appointing a manager and when AM became available you snatched him up quickly for fear that you couldn't get anyone better. Why is that? Did we set our sights too low? Did we constrain ourselves with certain requirements, such as Premier League experience? I personally do not think PL experience in the form of two relegations should top a manager who has not yet had the chance to manage in the PL but who is highly rated and has had success elsewhere. Obviously we are not privy to the candidates who really showed an interest in managing us (only what the papers say but we all take that with a pinch of salt), but I can't believe for one minute that we didn't have better candidates than AM out there.

What about Houllier's passing philosophy? Does AM have any experience with that? Did you see how Blues played and were set up? The two styles are completely different, so either he is going to try to adapt to that style which is incredibly risky, or we're going to change styles AGAIN, and have another "transitionary season" which I think most of us are fed up with.

I'm sorry General, I don't mean to devalue all the good that yourself, Randy and the rest of the people working behind the scenes have done over the years but this is truly the first time my faith in you has waned and I am truly worried about the future of our club. I don't think AM is a bad man, in fact even when he was at Blues I didn't hate him (although I'm not one for hating people based on the football team they support) but I just don't think he is right for us. If he proves me wrong, then I'll be ecstatic, but I just can't see it happening.

My final point is to do with the lack of communication between the club and the fans the past few weeks. Not just about the manager position, I can understand to an extent why that was kept hush hush, although I think due to how it's turned out, that philosophy hasn't exactly produced stellar results has it? But no, I'm also talking about the Sponsor and Kit situations. I also understand that there must be some legal obligations but I look around the rest of the PL and even in the Championship and I don't see the struggle there that we have here. Why are we always so far behind everyone else with regards to these things? We have had months and months to sort out a new sponsor and a kew kit, so please tell me why we haven't heard anything?

This and the recent management hunt has truly made our club look like it has no clue what it's doing when compared to other Premier League clubs, and it's frankly embarrassing.

Thanks for reading,

Ginko

[PIW]

General, if this goes wrong, what next?

[bully]

General,

Can we have a statement from you or the club about the whole managerial appointment saga to try and restore the good name of Aston Villa, which has been badly tarnished over the last few weeks, and also so that we can draw a line under the matter and get on with our lives again?

And while you are at it, an update about the sponsor and kit would be nice too.

Bully

[avfcmatt123]

Hi General,

Before I say the below I would like to say I will always support the team, regardless of anything. All of these fans saying they won't renew their tickets because of a manager is ridiculous.

I think the handling of the situation appointing this manager has been poor. You knew a long time back that Houllier would not be continuing so why couldnt a shortlist of managers be lined up? The appointment of McCleish really does seem like a last resort and whilst I will back him and hope he does well I can't see why other targets would not have been better. You have also kept the fans in Limbo during this saga, we want to know whats going on we care and are passionate for the club. I understand you do not want the media to find out, but how come they knew a few days before that Mc Leish was been interviewed?

I think the press conference will be important and I hope they will highlight that the club still has ambitions and Lerner will back McCleish with money so we can keep on building.

Also General, I appreciate you probably cannot confirm this or not, but I heard the other day that Richard Dunne had been given a significant pay rise very recently, is there any reason why if this is true?

Thanks

[bred]

Hey General,

As an avid Villa fan in the USA I was wondering if there is a plan to tour the states (west coast please!) sometime in the next few years. I'd love to road trip around for a summer, and help us raise our profile here.

All the best

[Villarocker]

Hi General,

I just want to say let's hope for the board's sake that they have made the right decision this time. I think that what the board have to remember is, the only people who are in a win/win situation here are the fans! We cannot lose General. If McLeish is a success then everyone is happy but if he fails the fans will not be letting it go unnoticed, I am sure of that.

I will state on record that I am not happy with this appointment. Not because he is from the Blues, honestly, it just does not bother me. If he'd won the League with them last season, or had he got them top 6 with their cup and played some half decent football then I doubt you would have got many complaints at all. It is all to do with the negative, boring, Wimbledon-like football that he produced whilst at the Blues, that is the concern. That and the fact that he doesn't have much of a record of bringing through new talent from within his clubs and also the fact that he is not too hot in the transfer market. OK, he's made a few decent signings such as Dann, Foster and Johnson but there aren't too many more. Hopefully all this will change now he is at a greater club!

Do not get me wrong General. I sincerely hope that McLeish is a huge success at Villa and makes all us doubters eat our words. I am not one who is waiting or wanting for him to fail here. I want my club to be successful and I don't care who the manager is if he delivers that. I will be renewing my season ticket next week because I support the club no matter who is in charge. I just hope the football that he serves up is worthy of my money.

My other concern is that, should McLeish be struggling and have us near the relegation end of the table at Easter, the board dig their heels in and keep faith just because the board doesn't want to look like they have made a mistake. I am sure he is being well paid to work for us and I am sure that right now he is feeling pretty much pissed off with the reaction of the fans. All he would have to do is ask Gerard Houllier how quickly the fans can turn when things start to go wrong. I fear that McLeish may not get quite as much leeway as GH did. With all that in mind, I am worried that we would stick by him if things did go wrong and he would do to us what he did to the Blues - twice!

I'll say this. Both parties - McLeish and the Board - have showed a lot of balls in all of this. I hope that it is all worth it in the end, I really do.

How's about some decent signings to give AM the best possible chance of being a success? Also, would it be possible to have an update on the new shirt please as I am eager to get one

One last thing General. I am embarrassed by all the bad stuff that has happened as a result of our fans. I understand their feelings but this is Aston Villa Football Club and we are bigger than that. Sorry that you had to witness that :oops:

Up The Villa!!