General Krulak (No Transfer Questions allowed)

[NASTY_LEE]

General, thanks for your reply. Perhaps 'acid test' wasn't the right phrase but I'm sure you know where I'm coming from. At the end of the day, as I'm sure you'll see, it's just a little disappinting for fans when we see the club take a step forward only for a potential step back, together with the knock on effects. I don't doubt you'll do your best, cheers.

[pablopicasso]

General Krulak here:

8. Acid Test: Let me tell you why I don't like to look at this situation as an "acid test": To me, an "acid test" is just that...fail the test and everything is a failure. It is like making a person an objective in combat...ie. "get Bin Laden", "get Geronimo"...when you don't "get them", the entire operation looks to be a failure. We, YOUR Club, cannot afford to put a line in the sand re. success or failure around one player. We just can't. I have said, ON MULTIPLE POSTS, that we do NOT want to lose our Captain and that we will do ALL in our power to keep him. At the same time, if he wants to go...if he no longer wants to wear our colours...it is hard to keep him. The key will be to get his value!! Again, we do NOT want him to go. We will get to Europe and it would be wonderful if our Captain was here to lead us on that path.

a fair enough point, but it IS a very stern test of our resolve and our future ambition... if not only for the message it will send out to the footballing world...

just out of interest, what would gareth barrys "value" be?

[PaulMcgrathsknees]

General,

Did wonder what response we'd get from you after Saturday and how long it would take to get back!

You didn't shy away again and thanks for tackling our disappointments straight on!

Nuff respect!

Now let us look forward to some luck and pipping Everton eh?!

[Yuen_Biao]

General, a few have commented on the refreshments in the Trinity Road; I too queued for beer for over twenty minutes thus missing around five or six minutes of the game.

I propose a plan; recently I visited the Allianz Arena to watch Bayern Munich. Before entering the ground visitors can buy a card which has various values, this is necessary to buy any type of refreshment and thus saves time in finding change, making the transaction and so forth. A card reader deducts the value from the card and at the end of the day you are reimbursed the difference of the card from the booth.

Secondly, at the Allianz there are specific outlets which cater for certain products whether that is beer, snacks or something more substantial. In essence it might be best to have a few outlets providing only beer. This would be prudent especially considering the fact that Villa Park should become much busier over the next years if we are to become a consistent football team.

[HarryYates]

Keep up the good work General. Let's hope we can improve next season like we have over the last 2 and not fade away to mid table mediocrity like we have so many times in the past after a "good" season.

[snowychap]

General Krulak here:

1. My odyssey is over...a long trip from Utah to B'ham and back to Florida. My plane was late so I barely arrived in time to do any of the things I wanted to do before kick off. I did get to meet with some of the "Trinity Road 400" in the stand itself. They were very definitive in their feelings and made sure we understood where we went wrong. Although some were satisfied with what had happened and their new seats, many were not. We got the word!! Although the visit in the stands was "painful", I think it was very necessary. We needed to hear, first hand, what the feelings are.

Good on you, General.

Not all 'customer feedback' is pleasurable or pleasant - all customer feedback is important and valuable, though.

It is how this feedback is dealt with which defines the organisation. It appears that your conduct (along with the rest of the management team) is going a long way to trying to define AVFC in the best terms possible. :winkold:

[ahamaad]

At the same time, if he wants to go...if he no longer wants to wear our colours...it is hard to keep him. The key will be to get his value!! Again, we do NOT want him to go. We will get to Europe and it would be wonderful if our Captain was here to lead us on that path.

General,

It appears Liverpool are in the driving seat for Barry. If that is the case and he wants to go, he should not go for the pathetic sums being offered. We had to pay nearly £2 million to LOAN their keeper, Carson. Barry is a club captain with 10 years Premiership experiece and an England regular now. Players like Carrick and Hargreaves went for close to and over £20 million respectively, hence I think we should play hardball over this.

[Tomaszk]

General can I pass on this comment from another poster re:Barry, it puts forwards my, and I think a lot of other fans, opnions very well

Barry

In my opinion we are doing everything we can here so tell him, which is utterly shameful. I think the best club in the world to sell players is Lyon and they always make a lot of money. Mr. Aulas (their owner I think) goes out and claim a player is not for sale, then he says it again before negotiations finally start and the player eventually goes for 150% of the original price. Best examples are perhaps Diarra and Essien, midfielders who left for 50M all together.

What we have seen here is the "we won't hold any players against their will" from the General which I think is a very naive comment, because the media will always turn that into a "the player is for sale" and then MON mentions the "we will try to persuade him but it will be tough" when they should have just said the player is not for sale at any price, eventually hiking the price up to 20M instead of the 12M we are going to be negotiating. That's how Spurs got 18M for Carrick (although I feel Chelsea paid 12M after the Mikel scandal so it was virtually 6M for United at the time) and Hargreaves (FC Bayner kept him for over a year even though the player was not happy). We should reject every bid and just keep the price going up, because if we play the sentimental card we will receive less. And let's not kid ourselves, the player has got his eyes on money, CL and hanging around with dullest haircutted guy in Liverpool.

Don't get robbed Gen. Please.

[evnsj6]

Hi General,

Was just wondering if the club were in the Process of apointing a New Chief Exec as in theBruce Langham mould?

Just a query as all the other top clubs seem to have this position filled but nit us?

[ahamaad]

Also General, how will we ever break into the top 4 if all that keeps happening is they take our best players? We'll never make it at this rate. Thats why it's an acid test.

[ramshackler]

General can I pass on this comment from another poster re:Barry, it puts forwards my, and I think a lot of other fans, opnions very well

Barry

In my opinion we are doing everything we can here so tell him, which is utterly shameful. I think the best club in the world to sell players is Lyon and they always make a lot of money. Mr. Aulas (their owner I think) goes out and claim a player is not for sale, then he says it again before negotiations finally start and the player eventually goes for 150% of the original price. Best examples are perhaps Diarra and Essien, midfielders who left for 50M all together.

What we have seen here is the "we won't hold any players against their will" from the General which I think is a very naive comment, because the media will always turn that into a "the player is for sale" and then MON mentions the "we will try to persuade him but it will be tough" when they should have just said the player is not for sale at any price, eventually hiking the price up to 20M instead of the 12M we are going to be negotiating. That's how Spurs got 18M for Carrick (although I feel Chelsea paid 12M after the Mikel scandal so it was virtually 6M for United at the time) and Hargreaves (FC Bayner kept him for over a year even though the player was not happy). We should reject every bid and just keep the price going up, because if we play the sentimental card we will receive less. And let's not kid ourselves, the player has got his eyes on money, CL and hanging around with dullest haircutted guy in Liverpool.

Don't get robbed Gen. Please.

seconded, this tactic is the only way to stop this once and for all. they pay his worth to US, not his worth to THEM

[andycv]

General,

I wonder if you could tell us a little about the board's history and experience in negotiations, give everyone seems to be worried that we're just going to keel over and cave to Liverpool's first offer?

Also, how do you react to being told you can't do something? I think Villa are taking the right approach, in a very grown up way, by saying that we are desperate to keep the player, but we won't keep an unhappy player.

Finally, (and I understand if you don't want to answer this one, for fear of having it re-quoted at you after events play out) what's your feeling on the chances of Barry staying? 50-50? Better or worse?

[bromsgrove_avfc]

General,

I have just been thinking about mellberg going and watching his lap of honour.

I noticed he was taking photos with a personal camera.

I'd love to see his last game through his eyes. Is there any way we could ask him for these photos to display on the official site and get an insight through the players eyes?

[heystally!]

Hi General,

I have faith that you, Randy and MON will handle the Barry situation correctly. If he wants to stay with us, I believe you will readdress his wages and make him an offer he is happy with. If he wants to leave for a club that we will be challenging with in the next two or three years then I believe you will make sure we get an appropriate sum of money for his sale (given that Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves cost Man Utd £18mil each, and Barry keeps Carrick out of the England team).

What I wanted to ask you about was the comments made by Liverpool in the first place. I think it is not only outrageous for a club to publicly announce they want to buy a player, but to make a bid for him, which is purposefully under his value is disgraceful. It puts pressure on the player, and if he then decides to leave, it forces the club to sell close to the original price they bid, or be stuck with a player who wants to play for a different club. Someone mentioned to me Liverpool did a similar thing with Yossi Benayoun, bidding an initial £3mil, encouraging him to want to leave, and eventually getting him for £4mil, which was probably below his value then and probably now (he still does good work for them). I want to know if there is anything you can do about this, regarding an official complaint to the Premier League/the FA/FIFA, etc, or do we just have to accept that some teams will play dirty once in a while to get cheap deals on other teams best players? I can only see such tactics ruining the future of the game, and widening the gap between the top four and the rest even further.

[The_Rev]

General,

A message that isnt one telling the board that Gareth Barry is worth quite a few quid in the market for a change!

I dont even know if its worth writing here, but its just about the story today that a newspaper has decided that Marlon was the worst signing of any club in the entire Premier League this season. Id imagine that Marlon has seen it given the way the media is these days and hopefully he has just laughed it off as the joke it is. Just a note that the people on this forum love him. (link)

[granto]

Hi General - Something NOT related to Gareth Barry. As our second season comes to an end, I'd be interested to hear your views on what things are top of the Aston Villa priority list outside of playing staff. ie. further ground improvements/expansion, promoting the club in certain regions such as the US/Asia, new fan initiatives.

Would appreciate your insider knowledge on what new areas Randy and yourself are looking at to further the fantastic improvements already made since joining the Villa family.

[c-krulak]

General Krulak here:

1. Yuen_biao: We are currently looking at both of the ideas you raised...thank you.

2. Tomaszk: Obviously, I do not feel I am naive. Perhaps the one that is naive is Rocafella. Does he expect us to handcuff Barry to a stand to keep him at Villa?? Simply put, we will do ALL in our power to keep him in claret and blue!! If he goes, we will bargain hard!! Both Randy and I have had years of experience bargaining....if I can cut a good deal with Richard Branson, I feel I am pretty good. Randy, obviously, has cut deals across both the sports world and financial world.

3. ahamaad: As I have just said, we will do all in our power to keep our Captain. I have already described, earlier, my feelings about using the term "acid test"...it has far too many pitfalls in my opinion.

4. In ALL of this discussion about Barry and the Summer Transfer Season, I would ask that you go back a week or two and read the "stick" we took over season ticket prices (still among the VERY lowest in the Premiership) and the increase in revenue opportunity in the Trinity. PLEASE...we cannot have it both ways. We cannot expect to keep the great players and/or bring in new ones at the same revenue scale we have now. It doesn't work for the Chelseas and ManUs of the world and it won't work for us. Randy is definitely putting his money up...but even he can't do it all.

5. I understand the concern about Liverpool and their actions...or percieved actions. I think that MON addressed this issue better than I could ever address it. I can assure you we are pursuing the issues raised by MON.

6. granto: Not looking at player issues, I would say that our biggest focus outside of that area (which is our LARGEST area of focus) is infrastructure development. We want to make Villa Park a place where people come...not just on game day...to enjoy themselves.

[Rocafella]

2. Tomaszk: Obviously, I do not feel I am naive. Perhaps the one that is naive is Rocafella. Does he expect us to handcuff Barry to a stand to keep him at Villa?? Simply put, we will do ALL in our power to keep him in claret and blue!! If he goes, we will bargain hard!! Both Randy and I have had years of experience bargaining....if I can cut a good deal with Richard Branson, I feel I am pretty good. Randy, obviously, has cut deals across both the sports world and financial world.

Dear general, it was not meant to question you as a negotiator or professional at this club, I merely think the comments were a bit naive. Why? Because little or nothing comes out of this club except from MON; and when someone like yourself comment on something the media will take the comments and make headlines accordingly just as it pleases them. You telling us that the we will not have a player against his will is enough for them to write we have given up on him, easy as that. In my humble opinion, the club should have said the player was not for sale at left it there for them to bid even more in the future. I have seen this numerous times before, the player is expected to leave and if you can keep him at the club then you will again surprise me with brilliant actions. If not, then no hard feelings to the board as long as you hang on for a good deal. We should be the winners here and not Liverpool, well financially that is

[Robulas]

General, Historically we have never kept a player that does not want to stay and we normally do better than the team he went to. If Barry really wants to go I'd suggest that he is allowed to go and we muddle by without him. In any case he has been a great servant of the club and if he stays I would love it but if he goes? Hey, the Villa go on without him.

[A.V.F.C]

To be honest, what can General or Lerner do about Barry. If he leaves it's down to only one person and thats him himself. We're never gonna sell him willingly, it would take him saying he no longer wants to be a part of it...do we want him if he doesn't want to be here. He's been here 10 years and has itchy feet, am positive that if he goes he'll regret it but that's his choice in the end, MON kept all his promises to him and has him playing the best footy of his career, if he wants to sacrifice that for the circus that is Liverpool his choice, i obviously hope he stays though one of my favourite players.

All I will say General is....rip them off good and proper. Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves went for the 18m mark, if they don't want to pay that then bargain until you get something as good as. If not then make sure MON gets the players he wants in exchange....I'll trust your bargaining ability if you did Richard Branson

Villa is bigger than Barry, Villa goes on without Barry....Barry can be replaced.