The Big Interview

[Drummond]

Re:60k attendance...I doubt we'd sell out every game, but if we were consistently in the top 6 with a team full of top players then I could easily see attendances over 50k each week. I would imagine there would be a strong promotional campaign, cheaper tickets and a rebrand required to support this though.

One of the things that I do like about going away to Man City is that they have a full match day experience going on outside the ground...from entertainment to bars to quality fast food outlets to stores. The whole set up is very consumer friendly, and these things easily translate to a day out and a much better match day experience.

Yet that's what we had only a few years ago and still struggled to sell all our tickets.

[KRS]

Football has moved on a lot even since a few years back and we didn't have a team full of top players under MON. We need to become "fashionable", be consistently challenging for honours, playing an attractive style of football, have genuine top quality International players and the image/branding of the club needs to be improved significantly. That's a long way off where we were a few years ago with the string of 6th placed finishes.

[Drummond]

Yep, Mellberg, Laursen, Barry, Hendrie, Baros, Carew and Petrov was a shit set of players at that time.

[KRS]

I think you're missing my point completely Drummond...I'm not arguing that they weren't any good (obviously as we wouldn't have finished so high up) but they weren't bums on seats types of players which is what we need to attract that size of crowd.

[saunders_heroes]

Football has moved on a lot even since a few years back and we didn't have a team full of top players under MON. We need to become "fashionable", be consistently challenging for honours, playing an attractive style of football, have genuine top quality International players and the image/branding of the club needs to be improved significantly. That's a long way off where we were a few years ago with the string of 6th placed finishes.

I disagree. The media loves us for a while, we had a team full of cracking players, and the fans flocked to the games. Sadly it ended in tears.

[SoccerHQ]

Yep, Mellberg, Laursen, Barry, Hendrie, Baros, Carew and Petrov was a shit set of players at that time.

Many of those were inherited.

Point being made is we needed to lift us from 6th a sort of match winner we could hang our hat on to win tight games instead of drawing 7/8 a season in those times. Our "star" signing in 2009 was Stewart Downing with a broken leg.

Spurs finished 4th in 2010 and then went and signed Van Der Vaart. Around that time we MON confirmed we wanted Snejider but he went to Inter Milan and won the treble.

I imagine Dave was tongue in cheek but Heskey was well past his peak when he signed as we saw with being lumbered with him for 3 and a half years.

We have signed big names but they've tended to be years past their best (Ginola, Schmeichel,Terry, Micah Richards, Lescott) or up and coming players like Young.

Darren Bent was probably the last big name we signed in his peak. If we can get back to top half in the prem in the next few years can we go out and buy a couple of established internationals in the 25-28 age range who can lift the team up in mentality and ability.

Man. City finished 5th in 2010, signed Yaya Toure and David Silva that summer and won the league two years later.

[KRS]

Again, you're missing the point which is the type of players required to bridge the gap between 40k to 60k.

edit: that was in reply to SH.

[PeterWithesShin]

Yep, Mellberg, Laursen, Barry, Hendrie, Baros, Carew and Petrov was a shit set of players at that time.

And none were the type of player that alone would sell season tickets. Collymore is probably the closest we've made in my time. We've signed lots of good players, some have become great with us, but we've never made a 'marquee' signing in my 40+ years.

[saunders_heroes]

Again, you're missing the point which is the type of players required to bridge the gap between 40k to 60k.

edit: that was in reply to SH.

You've got to walk before you can run and all that.

[KRS]

At least you get it PWS

[KRS]

Again, you're missing the point which is the type of players required to bridge the gap between 40k to 60k.

edit: that was in reply to SH.

You've got to walk before you can run and all that.

You should email that to Wyness

[SoccerHQ]

For the level we're at Terry was a marquee signing.

A lot of us didn't like him coming in but he unquestionable sold a few more season tickets and shirts.

Harder to do that the higher you go up as the going rate would be minimum 100-150k a week for good international players but when you think of the wages we've paid to bog standard players I wouldn't have an issue with it.

[PeterWithesShin]

Not really, he's 38 and rarely played for a year. That would be a marquee signing for Rotherham, not Aston Villa imo. A marquee signing is a top class player at or near his peak. He's raised the media interest but that doesn't make him a marquee player for me. His name might be on a lot of shirts, but the vast majority would have bought a shirt anyway I reckon.

[Drummond]

Yep, Mellberg, Laursen, Barry, Hendrie, Baros, Carew and Petrov was a shit set of players at that time.

And none were the type of player that alone would sell season tickets. Collymore is probably the closest we've made in my time. We've signed lots of good players, some have become great with us, but we've never made a 'marquee' signing in my 40+ years.

I guess you're right; McGrath, Bent, Angel, Ginola, Merson, Carbone, Terry, Milner are the sort that were probably expected to by the top brass but the reality is that they don't. Terry has clearly sold a lot of letter Rs though.

[PeterWithesShin]

Bent is an interesting one, a great goalscorer and our record signing but not the type of player that would sell lots of season tickets.