Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Rico on May 27, 2017, 04:55:08 PM
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We've probably all imagined this scenario before. Imagine that you are the owner of Aston Villa F.C. and that you are unbelievably wealthy (Bill Gates type wealthy). Obviously you love Aston Villa with a passion and you are more than willing to spend mega bucks on the club. What sort of things would you do to get Aston Villa back to being a force to be reckoned with? What would you do to get kids in London and Manchester to become Villa fans? It could be anything no matter how small or large, but let's try not to just say "buy eleven Lionel Messi's".
I'll start with a few things. (First of all let me offer an apology. I'm a child of the 70s and 80s so I get a bit nostalgic for Villa of that era.)
Remember money is not an issue!
• Knock down Villa Park and start again (Boom!) Rebuild it so that it is the biggest and best stadium in the country. Don't worry about not being able to fill it, you're so wealthy you can let the punters in for free, and anyway after a few seasons of trophy laden success, the ground will be full anyway. The new stadium must incorporate the old A.V. floodlights. They were so iconic I loved seeing them lit up at night on the approach to Villa Park.
• Make the Aston Villa kit into something iconic, something instantly recognisable. Apologies again, but the nostalgia is kicking in again. Make the home kit something like what we wore during the late 70s and early 80s, use the correct shades of claret and blue and then keep it. Don't change it, and don't put any advertising on it. Remember you are so loaded you don't need the cash.
• Season Tickets. Assuming that you are actually going to charge an entry fee, how about offering an incentive scheme where by every season see's a 10% discount on the previous season.
Right then. Over to you guys. I'm sorry that my ideas are not that great. I guess I'm not very imaginative, but I'm sure you can come up with better.
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Free cheese for everyone. If anyone doesn't like cheese ban them for life from Villa Park, Birmingham, England, Europe and Earth.
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I love cheese! Any wine with it?
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Are the staff who dole out the beer and pies those that will dispense the cheese? Not sure I'll bother.
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Everyone will have their own waiter/waitress who will bring a fine selection of cheeses to their seat.
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Everyone will have their own waiter/waitress who will bring a fine selection of cheeses to their seat.
This has extreme ramifications for the brand new 19,000 Holte terrace. The waitress will have to work Caerphilly.
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Everyone will have their own waiter/waitress who will bring a fine selection of cheeses to their seat.
Straight out of the fridge, knowing our feckless catering staff. hmmmf.
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Sausage train please
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Everyone will have their own waiter/waitress who will bring a fine selection of cheeses to their seat.
This has extreme ramifications for the brand new 19,000 Holte terrace. The waitress will have to work Caerphilly.
I Red Leicester had decent catering.
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Everyone will have their own waiter/waitress who will bring a fine selection of cheeses to their seat.
This has extreme ramifications for the brand new 19,000 Holte terrace. The waitress will have to work Caerphilly.
I Red Leicester had decent catering.
I don't brie-lieve that!
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Just wait until christmaas dam cheese lovers will be everywhere.
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So a lack of cheese is our reason for being shit for the last decade. Smeg!
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Pay the best manager in the world to bring the best players in the world. It's that simple.....
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Once I'd made the Villa world club champions I'd buy Chelsea and close the classless twats down
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Once I'd made the Villa world club champions I'd buy Chelsea and close the classless twats down
No that's too kind, every club needs a feeder club ! Although had to be honest I had earmarked that privilege for our near neighbours now I'm the uber wealthy owner .I just know how happy it will make them developing players for us to win trophies 👍
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Last home game of the season give free beer away.
Anyone who complains, just tell 'em bollocks
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I'd try and ease the travel chaos around the ground on match days by investing in Park and ride facilities for fans. Now the cross city line serves fans well from the north and south of the city. Clearly we need to help people from the west and east of the city.
There's a couple of places which are prime for redevelopment and the creation of park and ride Villa transport hubs. One is in Small Heath by McDonalds, the other is along the Soho Road just outside Handsworth. I'm pretty sure whichever party is in power after 8th June will be right behind my idea as it deals with the chronic problems of jealousy, knuckle dragging and bitterness that blight those areas. They can then form part of Greater Aston (Villa).
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Hire the best in the business for the management and scouting roles. Then back them by giving them everything they need to do their job.
Enter into partnerships with schools across the area to provide equipment and facilities for P.E. and school teams. (Not just football teams, all sports) this can eventually be rolled out nationwide.
Reasonable ticket prices, free tickets for kids.
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and set up something like Ajax/Barcelona production line for our youth team ;)
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Reintroduce the villa times
Bebuild the ads
Commission a kit that has some likeness to our traditions
Hand out song sheets so the under 50's can learn some proper villa songs.
Re open the chippy on witton lane.
Rename the north stand the witton end (officially)
Sack the idiot who sold our merchandising rights
Build a statute of Ron Saunders by the gas lamp
Get rid of that baffoon who would have you believe that the holte suite was full ( the steward) who annoys everyone in the queue.
Oh the round badge don't get me started on that one
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Get into them
Fuck them off
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Expenses portal on the OS for anyone with a match ticket to claim their travel costs back!
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Mila kunis and Emma Willis to frisk me at the bottom of the Holte steps before I am allowed up
Salma hayek and Monica belluci to frisk me again at the top of the Holte steps
Mount gay extra old sold behind the counter
Floodlights that read Aston villa along the top of the trinity road stand so as you drive past on the m6 it can be seen for miles
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Bring back the end of season pitch invasion
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Set up the best youth development system going by benchmarking with clubs like Ajax/Barcelona/Southampton.
Accompany this with the best and most widespread scouting system covering areas where loads of technically gifted players can be found, like South American and Africa. Set up youth clubs/training academies in those regions.
Hire top notch coaches to work with kids form early ages right through to the first team. There has to be untapped talent in the greater Birmingham area and we should exploit that more with better coaching and scouting.
Decide on and establish a way of playing that is both entertaining and effective (pass and move with tempo would be a good start) - apply this house style at all level throughout the club so youngsters can easily transition through the levels.
Target the best chief exec/manager/head coach we can and pay him what is necessary to oversee the above.
Ship out deadwood/deadbeat players like Agbonlahor, Richards etc. whatever it costs.
Get the proper colours back, preferably the 1970s stripey collar version
Redevelop the Witton End with a three tier stand that allows us to retain the proper football ground character of VP but increase capacity and reduce entry prices.
Redevelop the Witton Lane stand and call it the Ron Saunders or 1982 stand and remove all traces of the Herbert from it. Light up the stand and the names Villa Park Aston Villa F.C. so you can't miss it from the M6 or space.
Let under 16s in free if accompanied by a paying adult.
Street food served in the concourses
Multiple pint pourers to reduce queuing and sell more beer.
Ban the "shit support my lord" song cos it's annoying and stupid.
There simples innit.
Edit: Almost forget, the Mila Kunis thing could work well as well.
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Taylor Swift head of security wearing the kind of peaked cap uniform Diana Dors sported in The Worm that Turned.
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Everyone will have their own waiter/waitress who will bring a fine selection of cheeses to their seat.
I fucking hate cheese! Can I have twiglets?
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Buy MLS team (Chicago Fire), call them Aston Villa USA and watch the USA fan base grow expedentially.
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- Redevelop the North Stand so it is enclosed with the stands either side. Also include hotel and corporate facilities in the upgrade. Was at Villa Park the other day and i the North Stand really does look dated now.
- Rename the Doug Ellis Stand back to Witton Lane.
- Take down the banners on the Holte End and North Stand. All that is wrong with modern football.
- Bring back the circle badge and more traditional claret and blue colours.
- Totally revisit the youth structure at the club and ensure the development pathway of young players is a key issue at the club
- Try to do more to make the club visible in the city centre and local area.
- Address the issue of unfavourable reporting by local media, WM and Birmingham Mail in particular.
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Some good points made, particularly regarding the youth team. Over the years there appears to have been no shortage of players who have appeared on the fringes of the first team, but who have not then gone on to make a name for themselves with us, for example: Luke and Stefan Moore, Barry Bannon, Marc Albrighton, Steven Davis and Jack Grealish looks like he might go the same way. So it appears to me that the problem with development of home grown players is the coaching set up at first team level. So I guess that if you are the owner then looking to bridge the gap from development squad to first team should be a priority. As another poster pointed out go see how Southampton or Ajax do it.
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Some good points made, particularly regarding the youth team. Over the years there appears to have been no shortage of players who have appeared on the fringes of the first team, but who have not then gone on to make a name for themselves with us, for example: Luke and Stefan Moore, Barry Bannon, Marc Albrighton, Steven Davis and Jack Grealish looks like he might go the same way. So it appears to me that the problem with development of home grown players is the coaching set up at first team level. So I guess that if you are the owner then looking to bridge the gap from development squad to first team should be a priority. As another poster pointed out go see how Southampton or Ajax do it.
I was chatting to a London based colleague who told me her son plays for Southampton academy - I think he's early teens. I asked what position he plays and she told me they don't have a position as such, they are trained to play every position and then switch around, which means they all get to know every aspect of the game. I'm sure this echoes the way Ajax used to do things and probably still do. I wonder if Villa academy does anything like this - based on our success rate compared to those clubs, I somehow don't think so.
Another colleague has a son aged 9 or so who is attracting interest from local clubs and tells me that the scouting representatives of Villa come across as amateurish and flash, whereas Albion and Walsall academy scouts seem to know their stuff and are able to offer much better better advice to parents on their development programmes. He said he wouldn't want his kid go to Villa's academy, and he's a Villa fan.
It doesn't do much to dispel the widely held notion that our coaching and scouting set ups are not the best, also evidenced by our failure to develop the very promising players mentioned above into top notch players, and the fact our first team recruitment has seen us sign a long line of both expensive and inexpensive duds.
For me those two areas, scouting and coaching, are the first two priorities to get right for any owner.
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Interesting points regarding our scouting Network, and if true quite concerning. Maybe it's a hangover from the Lerner era. Let's face it Aston Villa became a by-word for amateurish. I hope that the current owner has been monitoring the situation and has plans to overhaul the youth development.
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Share this information to Dr Tony ;) When did he get an approach from Villa scouts ? is it during Randy's era or afterwards.
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Another colleague has a son aged 9 or so who is attracting interest from local clubs and tells me that the scouting representatives of Villa come across as amateurish and flash, whereas Albion and Walsall academy scouts seem to know their stuff and are able to offer much better better advice to parents on their development programmes. He said he wouldn't want his kid go to Villa's academy, and he's a Villa fan.
I've heard the same but you never know if it's the dad getting a bit arsey because his lad got dropped by the Villa!
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Simple
Rebuild the Holte in a single tier 20,000 like Dortmund.
Massively reduce prices like the German league.
Encourage walk up support on the day and reduce the perception of need of booking tickets online except for sell
Outs.
Invest in the kids and local and British talent.
Keep Jack.
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Simple
Rebuild the Holte in a single tier 20,000 like Dortmund.
Massively reduce prices like the German league.
Encourage walk up support on the day and reduce the perception of need of booking tickets online except for sell
Outs.
Invest in the kids and local and British talent.
Keep Jack.
Like the thought of the Holte End being restored to something like it's former glory. Wasn't it the largest behind the goal terrace in the country / world with a 29,000 capacity? 🤔
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Another colleague has a son aged 9 or so who is attracting interest from local clubs and tells me that the scouting representatives of Villa come across as amateurish and flash, whereas Albion and Walsall academy scouts seem to know their stuff and are able to offer much better better advice to parents on their development programmes. He said he wouldn't want his kid go to Villa's academy, and he's a Villa fan.
I've heard the same but you never know if it's the dad getting a bit arsey because his lad got dropped by the Villa!
The lad plays in various kids tournaments most weekends and there are often scouts around. My colleague's son has been offered the chance to attend academies at I think Albion and Walsall and his Dad thought Walsall were quite impressive and the best option, but also thought Albion's guy came across well. However the kid is currently not that interested, he wants to play for fun. My colleague has been around all the parents as they talk to club reps and mentioned the Villa ones seem a like a bit of a joke.
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I think if I was the owner of the club, whether I'd earned my Bill Gates-type fortune or inhereted it, I think I would come to resent the likes of Agbon and Richards taking literally hundreds of thousands of pounds each per month for very little in return. Especially when things weren't going so well on the pitch.
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Simple
Rebuild the Holte in a single tier 20,000 like Dortmund.
Massively reduce prices like the German league.
Encourage walk up support on the day and reduce the perception of need of booking tickets online except for sell
Outs.
Invest in the kids and local and British talent.
Keep Jack.
Like the thought of the Holte End being restored to something like it's former glory. Wasn't it the largest behind the goal terrace in the country / world with a 29,000 capacity? 🤔
Rebuild the Holte with a 30,000 capacity, single tier. £10 adults, £5 kids.
50% off these prices if you live within a mile of the ground.
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bumped into a mate in the bull ring who I had not seen since rover days and he is massive villa fan, his son was at Walsall and had been there for 12 months . he got a call from villa inviting his son down for a 6 week trial after 2 weeks he took away from bodymoor heath and back to Walsall, he told me take away the wow factor of bodymoor heath and the rest is pants
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For the person saying rebuild the Holte. Logical sense say rebulid North Stand as it got more room (No road cutting off corner) than holte end and it can be even bigger stand ;)