General Krulak (No Transfer Questions allowed)

[Sid4ever]

General Krulak here:

2. Smoking. 12 people were ejected from today's game for smoking. 5 season ticket cards are on the desk of our Head of Security. We had two representatives from "Smoke Free Birmingham" visit the grounds yesterday...no report on what they saw or felt. This is a serious issue that does not just concern the staff at Villa Park but the fans as well. We cannot afford a stiff fine because a small, small minority of fans cannot last a couple of hours w/o a smoke.

General Sir, are these Season Tickets now available for auction, :winkold:

[kerms]

General Krulak here:

1. I want to thank all the fans for the wonderful reception you all gave the soldiers from the Staffordshire Regiment. I can assure you, they have never been treated like that for their service to the UK. Well done to you all!!

YES!!!!

No other ground in the country does this,, a tiny bit of effort will go a long long way with the military, just shows the boys they aint forgotten about and theyare not just numbers.

All down to you General,, i am truly happy to be a villa fan today,, thankyou

[StewieGriffin]

dont suppose we could call in a return favour from the Staffs lads and get them to drop a few bombs in Small Heath?

[barbel]

dont suppose we could call in a return favour from the Staffs lads and get them to drop a few bombs in Small Heath?

i'd keep clear of this one general

[PopeJosh]

General hats off to you with the Regiment parade yesterday and all the improvents at VP!

[MYSTERYMAN]

General Krulak here:

1. Car parks: This issue was raised by the Supporters Group at our last meeting...particulary since the Serpentine will be gone. A study of the situation is almost compete and Lee Preece will be discussing this issue over the Villa web site. MYSTERMAN: If you have some parking, please contact Lee Preece at Villa and let him know of the situation.

Have sent him an email waiting for a response the parking is minutes from the ground and is secure would get 100 cars in probably up to 200 but it would need some organising with a steward . Happy to donate it just don't want to have to man it .

General not sure if you are aware but may pal who was really responsible for the balloons ' Paul ' is opening a resteraunt in Sutton called Resteraunt 82 in honour of our greatest achievement . It opens on the 25th October and the plan is to get the 82 squad there , he has asked me to send out an open invite to people who may be interested in eating out to get the word round . You and Randy by the way are assured of a good welcome if you could attend at some time .

On another note he didn't bother with the balloons for West Ham but is doing that for Man United plus a few other things including a plane .

Looked at the stadium on Saturday and all the banners up and the ones people bring and got to say looks the part all adds to it .

[BrendanFahy]

Hi General,

I live in Galway, Ireland and travel over to Villa Park along with some family and friends about 4 times a year, and for what its worth, would just like to make a couple of observations/suggestions on my experiences in and around Villa Park on match days:

(1) Taxi/Hackney Rank or shuttle bus

On most trips to Villa Park I travel over for the day, and after the match need to get back to Birmingham Airport. In Particular when I am travelling with OAP's/Juniors I find the easiest way to get to the airport is by taxi. I would prefer not to wander around Witton/Aston looking to flag down a taxi especially Oct-Mar when it is dark.

I was wondering if it was possible to look into providing a match day taxi rank...or even an airport shuttle bus if there was sufficient demand ?

(2) Prematch

As I only come over 4 times a year to Villa, I like to arrive at the ground early (11/12 am for 3pm kick offs). As a non season ticket holder my only option is to go to the Villa Store for a bit and then wander around the ground until 1:30pm when the ground opens. Would it be possible to :

(a) Open the ground earlier so that at least I can go sit down and get something to eat under cover ?

( Provide some covered seated eating facilities in or around the ground for non season ticket holders ?

I find this a particular problem when I have children or OAPs with me and I dont really want to bring them to any of the pubs around the ground. I suppose it is a particular problem for families who are non season ticket holders. If I had a season ticket then I could go to the holte suite or somewhere....

Many Thanks

Brendan

[Trinity-Tom]

General,

I am sure efforts are being made to improve the food and drinks service at Villa Park however, I think one of the big problems is the attitude of some of the staff. I sit in the upper Trinity and there were large queues just before the game was about to start and the staff were hanging around chatting and taking as much time as possible to serve us and it also took 3 members of staff to serve me a bottle of water and a bottle of diet coke.

In future I will buy my drinks before I enter the ground and I am sure many others may do the same.

Many thanks

Tom

[sidcow]

General had the pleasure of visiting the Holte pub for the 2nd time today. It really has been done well. Just one comment...

First and foremost it is supposed to be a pub but the number of people running around with official badges on seems to out number the poor bar staff by 10 to 1. It took the best part of 20 minutes to get served.

Wouldnt it make sense to have more staff behind the bar?

Not had the fortune of a single invite yet, let alone two but I have heard that getting served is a real problem.

I know of one person who actually gave up and after having a look around retired to his usual pre match boozer where he could actually get a beer.

He did say it was fantastic though.

[Ginge]

The General has said that Alison Plant is aware of catering problems, probably take a fair few matches to get staff trained up and up to scratch i would imagine and this must be low on the Generals to do list in all honesty.

[Pricey_1984]

Hi General. Just wanna report on abit of nonsense concerning catering in the Holte End. Before the game I bought a Balti Pie & a bottle of Carlsberg. Now this falls under the 'combo 5' deal for £5. However, the girl on the till tried to charge me £5.30. When I bought up the discrepancy she told me that you need to ask for the 'combo meal 5' deal when ordering. Surely this shouldn't be the case??

Just thought I'd bring the issue up.

Keep up the good work General - much appreciated

good point mate, i had the same happen to me i had to say isnt the pie and a bottle of carlsberg a fiver.

Another point as well bout the staff, against leicester i sat in the holte lower L3 normally sit in l6 so i went to get something to eat from the catering point at the l3 end far end infact not the baguette de la monde but the one on the end. Anyway i brought a burger which was £2.50 i think and gave the girl a £10 note, now my maths isnt the greatest but when she gave me £4.70 change i knew something werent right i told her that i thought she had short changed me she just said no £2.50 for burger = £4.70 change i couldnt be arsed to argue to be fair but i just thought the staff would have better math skills to be honest. But after it occured to me that the bloke in front who was in front of me wanted some chips and they had ran out so he werent happy he then said i'll have a pie then when she told him the price he didnt have enough for it so he slammed it down and stormed off, wot must of happened is that she had already but the pie through on the till then charged the burger on top of that which is why i got the £4.70 a change.

The point is that as a season ticket of 14 seasons on the trot it didnt feel too good to be made to look dumb in front of people by a member of the catering team when i kinda knew i was right.

[TimTheVillan]

General,

I am sure efforts are being made to improve the food and drinks service at Villa Park however, I think one of the big problems is the attitude of some of the staff. I sit in the upper Trinity and there were large queues just before the game was about to start and the staff were hanging around chatting and taking as much time as possible to serve us and it also took 3 members of staff to serve me a bottle of water and a bottle of diet coke.

In future I will buy my drinks before I enter the ground and I am sure many others may do the same.

Many thanks

Tom

TT. I always have the same problem. The service in the Upper Trinity is bad to say the least. I've had two luke warm coffees lately, they just don't know how to make a proper coffee (hot water !1).

They are half soaked and slow as well. Peanuts and monkeys comes to mind :-)

[fitch]

Afternoon General,

Have the board anything special planned for the Man Utd game?

As I'm sure you are aware, Man Utd seem to love playing at Villa Park, and we often seem to role over and let them walk all over us. I know that you can do nothing about the performance on the day, that's MON's job and hopefully he'll have the team raring to go, that they are not 'in awe of the star players' on show. VP will be a sell out and our crowd will be full of voice.

However I believe if you give the fans something extra (such as the scarfs for Sheff Utd), it would really boost the crowds enthusiasm and in turn, hopefully, boost the teams performance.

*crosses fingers and hopes for some free gear*

[ianrobo1]

(1) Taxi/Hackney Rank or shuttle bus

On most trips to Villa Park I travel over for the day, and after the match need to get back to Birmingham Airport. In Particular when I am travelling with OAP's/Juniors I find the easiest way to get to the airport is by taxi. I would prefer not to wander around Witton/Aston looking to flag down a taxi especially Oct-Mar when it is dark.

I was wondering if it was possible to look into providing a match day taxi rank...or even an airport shuttle bus if there was sufficient demand ?

excellent point Brendan.

I often drink in town before the game and an hell of a lot of supporters take taxi's (both home and away) to the ground and with it being only 2.5m from the city centre.

Now other clubs do have taxi ranks and one hould really set up on the Lichfield side of VP I am sure the black cabs would love to take advantage

[bickster]

anyone wants to pm me as to why Taxis and a rank at VP would be a ludicrous idea then feel free (that includes you General if you feel the need), I'm a bit of an expert in the field, working in the office of the largest taxi firm in western europe as I do

i'm sure the black cabs would love to too, I'm sure the potential customers would laugh as the minutes click by at whatever Birmingham's waiting rate is. Theres a reason you can't get a cab outside the ground, you'd need a mortgage before you hit the walsall road sat in all that traffic

anyway, don't want to cause a debate on here about it, but its an idea that isn't practical, its also not worthy of debate elsewhere but if anyone wants to know why, just send me a pm

[BrendanFahy]

I often take taxis after games without having to take out a mortgage. You are assuming that everyone wants to jump in a taxi 5 minutes after the game. If you wait for 45 minutes to an hour most of the traffic has cleared. There are enough people who stay after match visiting the store or getting autographs to merit some discussion on this. I am just saying that I would prefer not to have to wander around Witton Road (with kids etc)trying to flag down a hackney in the dark and surely there must be enough business coming out of Villa Park for some local arrangement to be made. If a rank won't work, then surely there must be some other solution - maybe even an information hut where it would be possible to call/arrange a taxi within the confines of the ground. There are lenty of people being dropped to VP by Taxi, I am just wondering how many people leave by taxi and how might it be possible to make things more convenient for them.....

[symmouk]

Hi General,

I was just wondering if you had read Karren Brady's comments in the Sun today? here they are for your reading...

Sunday 23rd September

Writing to Aston Villa has never been very high on my calender of things to do for the simple reason I've never needed to.

However when my chairman and the word pig apppear to gether on the front of a local newspaper, I have to put pen to paper.

Villa's bluindering director General Charles Krulak put his foot in it with his comments about getting down in the mud "with the pigs", aimed at ourt chairman David Gold, who had suggested and all round 20 percent cut in admission prices.

David, the most amiable of men, was staggered at the insult which included a sneer at the price we charge Villa fans. Its £45, not £55 by the way.

Our maximum attendance is 29,000, Villas maximum gate is 43,000 so you can see why we have to charge higher prices for select matches.

Heres a suggestion, General. Lets both charge the same derby-match prices and divide takings down the middle.

[bully]

General,

Why dont we agree to give them half of the gate from the West Ham game because their poxy ground only holds 29000 and they are unable to fill it? Think of the publicity General, 'Krulak bails out local charity' or better still 'General rescues pig from the shit'

[c-krulak]

General Krulak here:

1. I will be off the site until Sunday. I am taking a business trip and will not have access to the net. I am not deserting!!!

2. Restaurant 82. Sounds great!! I will make it a point to go there to eat.

3. Alison is working very hard to get the catering to where it should be. She spends part of each game on a "walk about" to see, first hand, what is happening. She is currently looking at hiring some more Villa staff to avoid relying on so many contracted people.

4. Yes, I have read Karren Brady's comments. I am not sure what more I can say. I think people know what my intent was regarding my comment...and it had absolutely ZERO to do with an individual. I think we just need to get on with life.

5. Anything special for ManU game. To play 90 minutes as hard and as effective as we can.

[Villarevolution2007]

hahaha bully that would be funny- and i agree general 90 minutes of hard work and determination against man utd from our lads will suit me fine and will be happy whatever the result may be.