Easter in Como (hoping that the NEXT GENeration is better than the previous)

[Axl Rose]

Great stuff Archie!!
Glad to see you're well. Still have fond memories(despite the result of course)of watching the Carling Cup Final in Padua with you and your friends back in 2010!
Cheers and hope to catch up with you again in future!
Nik

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

Villa in Lake Como I know, I know, its really serious.

[nigel]

I hope the lads get to parade it around Villa Park at the Fulham game.
It should get the crowd going and really lift the place.

[Clampy]

Yeah great pictures Archie, hope you enjoyed it.

I know someone who was chatting to Sid Cowans after the game on Sunday and he reckoned Chelsea might have been too tough for us. Glad he was wrong.

[Louzie0]

Just read this about the proposal from UEFA to sponsor its own version of NextGen. I think it's a well-written piece and so is the report of the match on another page. Worth a look IMHO!

  http://hereisthecity.com/2013/04/02/how-aston-villa-just-gave-uefa-the-middle-finger/

[Archie]

Great stuff Archie!!
Glad to see you're well. Still have fond memories(despite the result of course)of watching the Carling Cup Final in Padua with you and your friends back in 2010!
Cheers and hope to catch up with you again in future!
Nik

Nik, I had lost your traces, glad to hear you're well even if in the other part of the world!

[olaftab]

Well done for being there.
It's common knowledge that we use funds raised from our first team activities to develop our youth, that's our main purpose for existence nowadays!

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Just read this about the proposal from UEFA to sponsor its own version of NextGen. I think it's a well-written piece and so is the report of the match on another page. Worth a look IMHO!

  http://hereisthecity.com/2013/04/02/how-aston-villa-just-gave-uefa-the-middle-finger/

"Uefa coming in is flattering to us. Although they have had 50 years to do this". Says it all.

[Dave Clark Five]

We are not popular enough for them. 'Don't invite them to enter, just in case' is what they might be saying.

[Billy Walker]

We are not popular enough for them. 'Don't invite them to enter, just in case' is what they might be saying.

I think this situation, potentially, is a great opportunity for the wider football community to call UEFA's bluff: are they genuinely interested in the sporting integrity of the game or is football, for them, all about money and building up the brands of the clubs with media/petrodollars behind them? 

[not3bad]

We are not popular enough for them. 'Don't invite them to enter, just in case' is what they might be saying.

I think this situation, potentially, is a great opportunity for the wider football community to call UEFA's bluff: are they genuinely interested in the sporting integrity of the game or is football, for them, all about money and building up the brands of the clubs with media/petrodollars behind them? 

I imagine they will continue to answer that question one way and act in a way that clearly shows they mean the other.

[Billy Walker]

We are not popular enough for them. 'Don't invite them to enter, just in case' is what they might be saying.

I think this situation, potentially, is a great opportunity for the wider football community to call UEFA's bluff: are they genuinely interested in the sporting integrity of the game or is football, for them, all about money and building up the brands of the clubs with media/petrodollars behind them? 

I imagine they will continue to answer that question one way and act in a way that clearly shows they mean the other.

You could be right but there's an opportunity here for Villa (and last year's winners, Inter) to kick up a fuss and make a stand.  I'm sure the likes of Sporting would be opposed to UEFA's moves too.  The ideal solution would be for UEFA to team up with the NextGen people and keep things as they are.  If UEFA try to make academy football a closed shop, too, we may as well all pack it in.