GarryBarry Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 General, Really looking forward to this season and I firmly believe MON will have the players he wants by the end of transfer window. But Jesus, do you all have to make it such a nailbiter? I know the sterotype is that football needs more excitement if it's going to attract a large American Audience but I didn't think this included transfer dealings! Anyway, looking forward to the next few days - and the next generation of Villa fans was pleased with the performance against Newcastle. link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holteendhero Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 hi general i have just reading about the system nottingham forest are using for the leeds match this weekend where fans can text a number to report trouble in the crowd i was wondering with the problem of away fans in the home ends maybe villa could use a system like this and have special more trained stewards or even the police that can report to the area where there is trouble/away fans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulanddonya Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 General If you prefer not to answer this I understand but would love to hear your thoughts.. This isn't a transfer uestion , will just start out on the subject... I am as much frustrated as the next man about the lack of activity at the moment (thats it) but I am disgusted with some of the absolute tripe that some people are putting on this site. With threads like "Where did Villa go wrong" , and utter tripe basically saying that MON is a fool and Randy (and presumably you as his representative) are just spin men , all words no action and garbage like that. One even saying we only buy "english clowns" How does this kind of stuff make you feel, do you sometimes wonder why Randy / you bothered and could this kind of talk ever make Randy think "sod this for a game of soldiers - it ain't worth the hassle !" I really am appalled by some of the tripe some people are writing at the moment and I apologise for the hurt it must cause !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianrobo1 Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 General, Do you think all football fans are crazy?! Do we seem totally hysterical to you or are (American) Football, Basketball, Hockey etc fans just the same? Cos i read some of the stuff on here and its a bit embarrassing at times... Secondly, would you like your own song? I'm sure we could come up with something...!! Keep up the good work, UTV I think there is no doubt we are more passionate than other countries against any sport. Geberal, this has led to what Paul has mentioned, I think you guys understand this and if the passion can be funnelled in the same direction we would be unstoppable !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegiddygambler Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 General, I notice the new club shop in Brum city centre isn't selling match tickets yet, when is this going to be happening? The shops says this is upstairs, at the moment there's a counter up there not in use, there doesn't appear to be much queueing room up there. Most days there wouldn't need to be but I can remember queuing up myself in the "Cave" (the nickname for the previous city centre shop) on days when tickets opened and you'd get at least 25/30 people in the queue on a good day, with two ticket staff tills going. I think they'll be queuing down the stairs and up New street in this new shop! That said, I'm sure things will be sorted out. It is 1000% improvement on the previous city centre shop and I thank the board for this. Enjoy the game saturday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sid4ever Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 General Krulak here: 1. LSRM050389: You don't know your GF's Birthday??? You have more problems than you know my friend!!!! Better find out by "stealth"...do NOT ask her. You truly are a legend, even my wife laughed out loud at this comment. Keep up the good work. UTV VTID Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victie1 Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 General, Do you think all football fans are crazy?! Do we seem totally hysterical to you or are (American) Football, Basketball, Hockey etc fans just the same? Cos i read some of the stuff on here and its a bit embarrassing at times... Secondly, would you like your own song? I'm sure we could come up with something...!! Keep up the good work, UTV GENERAL KRULAK........OH, OH, OH GENERAL KRULAK........OH, OH, OH HE'S FROM THE U.S.A. TO HELP VILLA ON THEIR WAY Repeat until hoarse... UTV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villabromsgrove Posted August 25, 2007 Share Posted August 25, 2007 General, just a thought on the Holte hotel on matchday. How about inviting a large group of Villa Talk members on the same day before one of our matches, I'm sure we could create a bit of that pre match atmosphere. It would be relatively simple to administrate as interested VT'ers could pm their season ticket reference numbers to you. If you can arrange this, would you make sure it is on a matchday when you are available, as it would be my great pleasure to buy you a pint! PS. I have used my 1000th post to make this request and I hope it brings a positive response. Enjoy the match today, UP THE VILLA!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted August 25, 2007 Share Posted August 25, 2007 OK General......this is of paramount importance. THREE consecutive games, and I have NOT been able to get a pint of cider at Ramseys. The cider has been changed to Strongbow this season.........will I ever get to try it???????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagicMarlon Posted August 25, 2007 Share Posted August 25, 2007 General, I have just read in another thread that Zoltan Stieber reads VillaTalk. I'm just wondering if you know of any other players that read this site. You don't have to name them, but it would be nice to know that other players read this site as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashingqwerty Posted August 25, 2007 VT Supporter Share Posted August 25, 2007 Hi General, how are you feeling after the first win of the season and how did you celebrate? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c-krulak Posted August 25, 2007 Author Share Posted August 25, 2007 General Krulak here: 1. YellowCard: Cider at Ramseys. Refresh my memory...have I screwed something up? 2. As you know, we are still doing some "sorting out" at the City Center store. My sense is that we will have this under control soon. It will be a great place to go for many things when completed. 3. After 1 season and 3 games of the next, I can state, without a doubt, that UK Football fans are FAR MORE fanatical than ANT sports fans in the US. Yes, the "Dog Pound" is fanatical but that is just one part of the stadium. In the UK, it is much more intense. 4. It is true that many players will occasionally visit a web site to see what the fans are saying. 5. It was a good win...one that I think we needed! I liked the fact that we came out with a line-up intended to score goals and improved upon that line-up at halftime. We need to let MON work some magic this week and then come out firing on the weekend. Chelski will always be tough but we may be able to catch them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted August 26, 2007 Share Posted August 26, 2007 General, am I "yellow card"??? hahahah!!! Anyway, the bar keeps running out of cider - the best drink you can get in England. I'm sure someone isn't ordering enough barrels..... Last season we had Blackthorn, which tasted a bit watery. This season we have Strongbow, but I and my friends Don and Darren are yet to try it as its always RUN OUT! PM on its way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c-krulak Posted August 26, 2007 Author Share Posted August 26, 2007 General Krulak here: 1. We have read the comments made on other threads and on other sites. To start with, I think our attitude is that fans buy the tickets that help us with the cash flow necessary to run the Club. With those tickets comes the ability to attend the games and watch good play on the Pitch. Those tickets also bring the "right" to complain when things are not going right. Honest concerns, expressed with passion and vigor, seem to me to be very proper. When those complaints become personal, I think that is wrong. To complain that Randy or I are nothing more than "spin men", "all talk and no action", is, in my humble opinion, unwarranted. Randy is certainly more than just words....all one has to do is look around Villa Park and Bodymoor Heath to realize that. His willingness to spend money to improve the Club is a given!!! As for "spin men"....think of the many issues that have come up on this site (or others) that have been acted upon by the Club. If all we were interested in was "spin", we would see lots of communications but no action. The reality is, people get helped...the Club gets helped...off of these sites. I do not see Randy saying "sod this"...he is in this for the long term and loves the game and the Club too much to bid them goodby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthEndersInTheSky Posted August 26, 2007 Share Posted August 26, 2007 Hi General, A minor irritation, one I have posted before but to no avail, regarding the Villa Yearbook and the Claret and Blue magazine. As a season ticket holder I was promised these two items free, and was lead to believe that these would arrive prior to the start of the season. What I did receive was a 'token' for each, to collect when next at Villa Park. I have been to Villa Park four times in the last 4 weeks, but still nothing to collect. The worse thing for me is that, when I ask members of staff (one who was in a Management position), NONE of them could tell me when they might be available, not even a 'ball-park' estimation! Why is this? Don't your suppliers/printers have to give you delivery dates when you place an order with them? I work in a 'Supply Chain' environment for a national supermarket group and, if I told my 'customers' "sorry I don't know when you will get your promised goods" (four weeks in a row!), my boss would be asking serious questions to say the very least. Surely someone must know an availability date by now? If not, and you could provide me with order details, I could give you some of my free-time to try and find out for you! :winkold: I know this is a minor issue and, if the club had just changed hands rather than 13 months ago, I could understand it. But I have heard many, many people asking the same question as me at the club shop, so it might be worth addressing before the next year book is due out! :winkold: :winkold: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeeed1977 Posted August 26, 2007 Share Posted August 26, 2007 Hi general, Great win yesterday. Not sure if my heart can take many more of those though! Apologies for this slight moan as I am totally delighted with everything you guys have done so far but in the interests of improving on what great progress you've made so far I wanted to give you some feedback on a poor experience I had at the game yesterday. I'm a season ticket holder in the trinity middle. At half time I went to get a drink. I queued up at the "express drinks" lane.... for 10 minutes!! Wasnt quite as express as I'd hoped. Nevertheless I persisted. When I got to the front of the queue it was obviously close to the start of the second half. I was then abruptly (and quite rudely) told by a female steward that this area was closed as it was only for purchasing alcohol an that licensing states they must close the area. I explained I only wanted a soft drink but she said they only serve alcohol in this express lane. This was untrue as people in front of me were buying soft drinks for the 10 minutes I was there. I then had to go and queue again on another line which was taking a long time too. I decided not to bother but on my way back to my seat saw that your bar was still open and ended up getting my drink from there. This didnt seem right as surely if you had to close one area because of your alcohol license then the other one should close at the same time shouldnt it? I guess my question is, how can you make this process easier to get a drink at half time? I liked the idea of the express drinks lane but it didnt work for me yetserday. There was also no signage there to say that "this lane closes 5 mins before kick-off" or "alcohol only lane" or something to that effect so at least I could've had more warning. Theres nothing more frustrating than queueing patiently only to be told to clear off when you finally reach the front. Is there room for drinks machines in the concourse or people wandering around the concourse with drinks (a la most american sports) for sale? As I say. its only a minor niggle and I'm sure it was made all the worse by the fact we were 1-0 down at the time (!) but in the interests of improving everything we do I thought you'd appreciate the feedback. Thanks general and keep up the good work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b6bloke Posted August 26, 2007 Share Posted August 26, 2007 I think i can answer this if the General does not mind. There is a main post on the forums that goes on about this and i have added my reply from there below Ok we all know we are having problems at Villa with the catering and i made the same comment about the abuse a few weeks ago. I also complained to Villa about what was going on which included the so called new food which i never saw. I had a call off the executive chef last week who spent some time on the phone with me going over the problems and he was very concerned and wanted to rectify the problem. We discussed certain issues and i was invited to meet him at today's game. I met him and the General manager of Business villa before the game and met up again at half time with my mates to discuss what we thought the problem was. Even then they admitted that they are still having problems as it was right in front of them. I can not emphasise enough how much they really are taking this seriously and doing all they can. There were some good points raised by us and these have been taken on board for the Chelsea game as they have a cracking idea for the beer problem which will also speed up the queue for the food. Villa have brought in a whole new range of food and the promotion of this was not good so they have improved this also. Did you know that 60% of the money taken for food is taken in 20 mins at half time! That is no easy feat. Did you know that they now sell huge pies as an alternative to he crappy small ones? there is curry and rice, fish and chips, pizza and baguettes. I ask because nobody is buying them! pre half time only 2 of the pies had been sold. They are giving a 5 game trial to the new food and after what i tried today i would hate to see it go. I know that both these guys read our posts so put some ideas forward. If all goes to plan they will have bottle bars located around each concourse so there will be no need to wait for the beer to be poured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onelinedrawinguk Posted August 26, 2007 Share Posted August 26, 2007 General Krulak here: 4. Not sure what you mean by a "feeder club"...as an "official" affiliation. Obviously we have many affiliations and many teams who provide us insight into their players. General, would it be possible to share with us who these teams are? Many other big teams make it public who they are affliated with ie. Man Utd - Antwerp and Arsenal - Beveren. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeeed1977 Posted August 26, 2007 Share Posted August 26, 2007 Thanks for the reply. Its clear that the club are taking this serious which is fantastic and there has been some tangible improvements already in this field. I guess my observation was more along a customer service line really. I dont think there's ever going to be a perfect solution to speeding up of the half time food/ drink process. Its a fairly unique problem to solve- thousands of people all wanting the same thing very quickly. So I can totally understand and accept the fact that whatever the club does I will still have to queue a bit for some refreshment. The frustration yesterday was that, having waited all that time I was then not allowed to buy a soft drink and the abrupt nature in which I was told this only compounded my frustration. This couldve been solved by a simple sign saying "dont queue here unless you want to buy alcohol", or having someone stopping people joining the back of the queue becuase they know that the hatch will be closing in 5 mins etc... It was the lack of information and abrupt communiction that I was more disappointed with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b6bloke Posted August 26, 2007 Share Posted August 26, 2007 or having someone stopping people joining the back of the queue becuase they know that the hatch will be closing in 5 mins etc... This is what they ae supposed to do as we watched them do this in the Holte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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