General Krulak (No Transfer Questions allowed)

[villanfromluton]

General

Have a Blues mate who contacted me last night to say his mates 29 year old daughter (all mad villa fans) has died from leukamia and he wanted to contact the club....could you give me any idea who he should contact. Thanks very much and great to hear your Dad is in good form with his Acorns Villa top

[heystally!]

Hi General,

Could you please pass on my best wishes to both your father and to Stuart Taylor?

Been quite a low couple of weeks all in all, on and off the field it seems. Lets hope we pick up steam again with a win at the Emirates - I remember how close we were when I went last year, and how gutted it felt to lose two points right at the end.

UTV

[TheSufferingVilla]

Veterans day regards General! Dusting off the old uniform and medals today?

[prestonvilla]

Hi General,

Not sure if this has been posted, apologies if it has.

I know I am not the only one who hasnt recieved a copy of the yearbook and the latest edition of the club magazine Claret & Blue. I phoned the club reception and was told that there is no way of tracing who has been sent one and if I havent had one yet then I probably wont get one!

Is there any advice that you can offer me in regards to this topic?

Many Thanks for your continued assistance with such a wide variety of issues!

[leviramsey]

Just want to thank you and the other Marines that have served this country (and the other services as well).

[BostonVilla]

General,

I just got back to the States (MA) from my first trip to England and more importantly, to Villa Park. Despite the result and weather I had a fantastic time taking the game in from The Holte End and can't say enough about the staff from the ticket office to the Villa shop to the Stadium, everyone treated me very well and hopefully I'll be back again soon. Until then I'll just have to continue catching them on TV with the rest of the Boston Villans.

Thanks,

MARK

[Didiersix]

General,

There is an article in the Guardian today (see here) where it states that Randy Lerner plans to own Villa for seven to ten years. Is this accurate?

that link needs fixing, didier.

Thanks mate, should be fixed now.

Here is the article anyhow...from guardian.co.uk:

Keith Harris, the chairman of the merchant bank Seymour Pierce and a former Football League chairman, is the prime deal-maker who has engineered takeovers of four Premier League clubs in the past two years. He is currently seeking buyers for Newcastle United and Everton, but acknowledged yesterday that his deals at West Ham United and Manchester City had gone "wrong". In the turbulent financial climate, he said, fans cannot expect the deals always to go according to plan.

Of the four takeovers on which Harris has most recently worked he cited as great successes the record of the United States businessman Randy Lerner at Aston Villa and the fortunes of Hull City under the ownership of a consortium led by the Essex-based property investor Russell Bartlett.

However, at West Ham the Icelandic businessman Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson has suffered a severe dent in his wealth due to the banking and economic collapses in Iceland and Harris said he expects to be appointed shortly to sell the club on again. At Manchester City the former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was already facing criminal charges in Thailand and had his assets frozen when he took the club over in June 2007. Fourteen months later he had to sell and has since been convicted of corruption. Last week he was refused permission to return to Britain.

Harris said he had hired a private detective agency to investigate Thaksin's record before the City deal and decided the charges were politically motivated by the military government. However, Harris agreed, given the Thaksin experience, that selling a football club to somebody facing criminal charges puts the club at risk and the Premier League should not allow it in future. The league's "fit and proper person test" currently bars only people who have been convicted of criminal offences, not those being prosecuted.

"It is rather sad at the moment with Thaksin's visa being revoked," Harris said. "I don't think at that time I could have done any more investigation. But I think the Premier League will amend the way it views these circumstances."

Harris spoke about English football's glittering success and current financial challenges at an International Football Arena breakfast meeting in Zurich. He adamantly rejected the Uefa president Michel Platini's recent warning that English clubs risk losing their identities, arguing instead that more overseas takeovers are inevitable.

"In the UK we are no longer as important as we were. Our pockets are not as deep and Barclays Bank [in which Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, Manchester City's new owner, recently bought a 16% stake], like many of our football clubs, has gone to where the wealth and economic power lies. We cannot regulate against this in a free world and have to accept these changes, embrace them and deal with the issues they create."

Explaining the motives of the businessmen coming in, Harris said they regard football clubs as "trophy assets" but he also convinces them they can make substantial profits without having to put additional money into the clubs after buying them.

"I have been able to demonstrate that if you do it correctly, the club should generate sufficient cash to fund itself, so having bought it you shouldn't have to put more money in unless you choose to. And you can generate a return of 5-10% in the value of the club every year over a period of seven to 10 years."

Lerner, whose sensitive and shrewd stewardship of Aston Villa is the deal of which Harris is most proud, plans to own Villa for just that, seven to 10 years.

However, Harris's own experience of other deals has shown that the course of football club takeovers does not always run smoothly. Discussing the collapsing fortunes of Gudmundsson, whose Icelandic bank, Landsbanki, was nationalised last month at a loss to its principal shareholder of about £250m, Harris said it could not have been foreseen when the Icelander bought the club for £85m two years ago.

"He was one of the wealthiest men in what was a very wealthy country," Harris said regretfully. "His intentions were entirely honourable. The fact that the Iceland banking system was over-leveraged and hanging by a thread, I don't think anybody knew at the time. The collapse was due to the turbulence of the global financial system and not something anybody could have envisaged."

Harris emphasised the seriousness of the world's financial crisis, referring to the situation in Zurich, Europe's private banking capital, where the giant global financial institution UBS has recently been bailed out by the Swiss government. The turmoil is making it more difficult, he said, to find buyers for England's football clubs.

"It is not a question of price negotiation," he explained. "But people are wondering: 'Should we?' Is now the time to spend the money? Should I be buying what are essentially trophy assets today?"

Newcastle, Harris said, is still a desirable club to buy, because it has a 52,000-seat "fabulous stadium" already developed in a one-club city where the supporters have amply demonstrated the fierceness of their devotion.

The owner, Mike Ashley, who bought Newcastle only last year, has not fallen victim to the financial crisis but Harris said Ashley is committed to selling because the St James' Park faithful turned against him after Kevin Keegan's resignation as the manager. There is, Harris confirmed, "an interest from two parties, wealthy investment funds, not from the Middle East", adding that the US magnate, Philip Anschutz, reported to be interested, is not one of them.

Everton, the other Premier League club which has instructed Harris to seek investment, is, he said openly, not as encouraging a proposition to buyers looking to increase the value of their investments.

"There is no progress at all," Harris said. "The demographics of Liverpool as a city are not hugely compelling. It is not a very wealthy city; Everton share the city with another club which arguably has been in the vanguard for the last decade and they both have a stadium to build. So the economics need a lot of looking at."

Of English football's general health Harris said many Championship clubs have serious problems and are losing money, caused substantially by the "huge gulf in income" between the two leagues. He believes that the debts of the Premier League clubs are not at "high-risk level" as the FA chairman, Lord Triesman, warned last month, pointing out that much of it is "soft" interest-free debt to owners and most other clubs make enough money to service their bank borrowings.

However, he said, he is concerned about Liverpool, who owe £350m to two banks, Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia, which have suffered severely in the downturn. The money is due to be repaid in January, although Liverpool have an option to extend the loan until next July. After that, Harris said, they will find it difficult to extend or refinance the loan. They would have to raise cash, which could be difficult, and the club, owned by Tom Hicks and George Gillett, could then be in trouble, Harris said, before adding that a solution was likely to be found.

"It's a brave banker that would repossess Liverpool Football Club," he said with a smile.

[yesnomaybe16]

Hey General, I was watching an old Channel 4 documentary entitled 'War in Europe' about the conflict in Kosovo as part of my university course. It was very exciting to see you speak on the matter, and even have pretty much the last say on what the intervention meant for the future of the area. I may be using that in my essay on 'how humanitarian is humanitarian intervention?'...

ANYWAY, good work.

[c-krulak]

General Krulak here:

1. Paddy: Yes, I did give a Villa scarf to President-elect Obama....whether he got it is another matter. I will ask.

2. Stephen_evans: Obviously I cannot comment directly to your question...it would not be fair to our Club or to MON. Simply put, MON has a clear vision of where he wants to take this Club and what it will take to execute that vision. He has, with the help of Randy, been building to that vision since he set foot at Villa Park. We ALL recognized we would have our ups and downs...that we would have good days and bad. Our key has always been to minimize the bad days and maximize the good ones. MON's plan is to do just that...and to date, he has been executing well. I continue to believe (and so does Randy and the Board) that we have a SUPERB mananger and that he will bring us to our goal.

3. villanfromluton: Please have your friend pm me with his issue...I will then make sure that we take care of it.

4. Stuart Taylor: Amen!!!!

5. prestonvilla: Please call Nicky Keye and see if she can help sort this.

6. didiersix: There is no question that Keith Harris assisted us in purchase of Aston Villa Football Club and remains a personal friend of many on the Board. At the same time, he is not Randy nor can he read Randy's mind. To state that Randy "plans to own Villa...for seven to ten years" whether from Keith Harris or the media, is an inacurrate statement and not based on any facts. Randy has demonstrated time and again that he recognizes AVFC as more than just an "asset"...but also as something very special and personal. Please do NOT read anything into this comment in the article...it has NO foundation in fact.

7. I remember doing the "War in Europe" special...it was fun.

[villaboynick]

evenin general

just wondered when the details of tickets for the trip to hamburg will be announced

sorry if metioned elsewhere.

thanks

[MYSTERYMAN]

General ,

Re ground developments had an interesting conversation with somebody at VP regarding the ground and that there are no plans in the forseeable future to increase ground capacity because of the monies involved and current climate and the fact we would struggle to fill it . I agree !. There is one area you were looking at finishing off which was the Park suite in Trinity Road just wondered what the plans were for it ?

Can you give a big thank you to the staff and the running of the Trinity Lounge areas really is first class and every time I take guests they comment on how good the facility is .

[knowles]

General,

I am a Current season ticket holder at Villa Park as my dad, grandfather was before me. And I was wondering if you can tell me if Randy and the Aston Villa Board have looked into possibly implementing the Modern and Popular "Safe Standing" Zones at Villa Park???...some modern examples are the ones implemented in grounds in Holland and Germany have been a resounding success!

A move like this would absolutley Delight all the Aston Villa fans, and honestly make Randy twice as popular with the Villa fans as he already is!!

I look forward to your reply

[NulliSecundus]

I hope Obama got one! Obama is a Villa fan! Imagine that one ringing out the holte

[roger_moore]

Hi General,

First of all, best wishes to your father and I hope your preparations for Thanksgiving are going well (In Britain we have our Thanksgiving on July 4th:) arf arf!!

Just wanted your 'non Villa' opinion on where the credit crunch and forecasted economic slump (even deflation) will leave not only British football but world sport over the next few years?

In an environment where very few organisations can survive without benefactors (commercial or individual)- be it in the NBA, NFL or European Football (Aston Villa included at the moment), How long will sky and setanta be able to fund English football for instance?just how long can the staus quo continue? and at what stage will the worlds sporting bodies be forced to look at consolidation of organisations, wage caps etc.

It would be interesting to hear your personal opinions, which of course are not necessarily those of Aston Villa FC.

Best Regards General

Roger

[imavillan]

Hi General

Who and how can i contact at the club for stadium maintenance?

I have two season tickets in the upper Trinity stand. At last Sundays game, and to make things worse, i had to suffer continuous drips of rain water on me from a leaking roof. It did not matter where i shuffled myself in my seat, the drips kept getting me. This also affected the person in the seat next to me......the wife!!!........ Now given that we are moving into winter it is inevitable that we will encounter more rain.

Who can i speak / write to so i can get this leaking roof repaired and sit in comfort?

Cheers....a dry....for now....imavillan

[MancVillan]

General,

I am a Current season ticket holder at Villa Park as my dad, grandfather was before me. And I was wondering if you can tell me if Randy and the Aston Villa Board have looked into possibly implementing the Modern and Popular "Safe Standing" Zones at Villa Park???...some modern examples are the ones implemented in grounds in Holland and Germany have been a resounding success!

A move like this would absolutley Delight all the Aston Villa fans, and honestly make Randy twice as popular with the Villa fans as he already is!!

I look forward to your reply

Ditto to this. Would be very interesting if Randy were to be a maverick and implement a safe standing area. I'm sure many other premiership teams would follow.

[limpid]

Not wanting to speak for the general, but the question about standing has been answered several times before in this thread. The answer is no. The club would not get a safety certificate.

[carlitobrigante]

general, with all the recent excitement regarding the race to the whitehouse and with you and McCain sharing similarish backgrounds, have you ever been tempted to dip your toe into the murky world of politics and run for office?

[c-krulak]

General Krulak here:

1. Standing: limpid has it right...we will not be implementing a standing area because it has been deemed a safety hazard and we would not be allowed to do so.

2. imavillan: Please contact John handley at Villa Park and describe to him the problem...he will sort it.

3. By now everyone, I am sure, is aware that we are entering a global recession. It is no longer a question of "if"...it is a reality. My sense is that we will probably not come out of that recession until 2010...with the first signs of progress coming in the 4th quarter of 2009. The only thing that might change this timing is the willingness of the world community to recognize this is a world problem. The monetary steps for coming out of the recession need to be coordinated withing the world community so that we don't have counter-productive actions taking place at the same time. As an example, we cannot afford to have skyrocketing energy prices during a time of recession...or any other critical commodity for that matter. To say that footballl is recession proof would be naive...but, at the same time, people need some sort if diversion during tough times and football certainly does it for me. As long as the telly can make money off of advertisements, etc., they will be more than happy to show games.

4. Please don't lump me in with McCain. No, I have not ever considered going into politics. After spending time in Washington, DC, I don't think I would enjoy it.

5. I want to win!!!!!! Go Villa.

[the-savman]

General, wow. Just wow.