Villa Park Redevelopment

[LeeB]

The womens game was scandalously held back by the authorities for decades, anything that helps now should be applauded.

[kippaxvilla2]

I’m not sure why people are talking about it being Daly anyway when it’s quite clearly Sinead O’Connor.

[Sexual Ealing]

When I moan about people going on endlessly about the badge/kit, someone will, not unreasonably, tell me not to read the thread in question. I would suggest that the objectors simply don't look at the mural if it bothers them.

[cdbearsfan]

Sounds sensible. I shut my eyes through the entire 2015/16 season. Sadly, so did the players.

[Bad English]

I wandered along Witton Lane, nattered by the North Stand, Daly by the Holte End, yes, this is my kinda mural. So long Aston Villa! Here's lookin' atcha!

[edgysatsuma89]

Sounds sensible. I shut my eyes through the entire 2015/16 season. Sadly, so did the players.

I think Agbonlahor should have his own mural. I absolutely, 100 percent, pinky promise that I wouldn't deface it.

[Rory]

Sounds sensible. I shut my eyes through the entire 2015/16 season. Sadly, so did the players.

I think Agbonlahor should have his own mural. I absolutely, 100 percent, pinky promise that I wouldn't deface it.

Do we have a big enough wall?

[pablo_picasso]

I like the fact that Rachel Daly is on the mural, but I do appreciate that people have no interest in the women's game. I agree that the 'England have won the Euros' was a stupid thing to say, not least because it made me (who likes watching some women's football) think "oh f*ck off". It's not a good way to attempt to win people over, but of course that probably wasn't their intention - it was more to say "I'm a better person than you".

But, anyway, because I'm a better person than most, I like watching the Villa women's team and I don't bang on about it. (That's a joke, btw. I love to bang on about it). I watch it because it's a great way to help brainwash my children. We go to a couple of matches a year, and it's a really nice day out. Nice atmosphere, and I'm not stressed by the result. We take some of my eldest's class mates, and I think I have managed to convert some of them into Villa fans as a result. A few of the girls that we've been with have got more into football and gone on to join teams. It's quite satisfying seeing, in real time, how it can inspire them.

How closely the men's and women's teams should be connected is an interesting debate. They are miles apart in terms of 'quality', revenue etc, but they are part of the club. And, whether you see this as progress or not, it's only going to go one way, isn't it? The women's game will continue to have money invested in it, they quality will improve (I'm expecting a massive uptick in quality in the next 5 years or so, when all these new academies start bearing fruit), and crowds will improve. Personally, I'd want Villa at the forefront of something like that, and if having our women's team captain on a wall near the ground helps, then I'm all for it. I don't see it as being forced down our throats, it's just a picture that wasn't there a week ago. I want the women's team to attract bigger crowds, and I want Villa to win a trophy in the women's game. Not 'as much' as I want to see the men's team, but it isn't either or.

I very much subscribe to the "If you hung 11 Villa shirts on a washing line 5,000 fans would turn up to watch them" philosophy. Youth team, women's team, Hong Kong Soccer 7s - if the Villa are in it, I'm interested and I want us to win. If Rachel Daly was on every billboard in Birmingham, that would be a good thing for the Villa, in my opinion.

I agree with all of this.

[john e]

weirdly in our house me and my Son will happily watch Womens football when it’s on England or Villa
Where as my daughter and wife refuse to watch they say it’s rubbish

The sisters are not doing it for themselves in our house

[Brazilian Villain]

I wandered along Witton Lane, nattered by the North Stand, Daly by the Holte End, yes, this is my kinda mural. So long Aston Villa! Here's lookin' atcha!

It doesn't take much to see that the problems of a few mural objectors don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

[Hookeysmith]

Maybe we should have a separate shop for the women's stuff too? Or given that they are also Aston Villa, and their kit is also released today, and plenty of people look up to them as well, that Rachel Daly being on the mural is completely appropriate and right.

Well that's me told. Sorry I had an opinion.

At no point have I said to lessen the woman's achievements, quite the opposite actually. Rather than percentage wise look like a token, the entire team or key players, should be on a wall on thier own but next to the men if that is an issue

[amfy]

As a child who loved football, I really wanted to play, but girls pretty much just didn’t then.

I love that girls play now, and that they can see a way forward for their ambition. I used to dream of playing for Villa just like boys did, but it was some wild ‘out there’ convoluted thing with loads of barriers to get through.

My grandson’s teams have girls in. Even before the women won the Euros, it still seemed a bit odd seeing them there, but after the England women won the Euros, something changed and it just looked right.

I watch our Villa women when they are on TV, and have been to a few games in person and whilst it isn’t ’the same’ it’s enjoyable. Like Boozey & Risso, I don’t hurt about the Villa women’s team in the same way, but I follow the women’s fans Facebook page, and there are a massive group of fans that do. Obviously not as massive as the men’s team, but it’s all relative as crowds iro 5000 is still a big number. It is important to a lot of people.

For a lot of families now it’s a cheap and easy way to take in a Villa game when they couldn’t otherwise. The atmosphere is better for small children than the aggression in men’s football crowds. For those reasons it will grow.

We don’t do this with other sports. Female runners, tennis players, rowers, gymnasts etc aren’t called out for not being as good as the men. The women’s game has a long way to go in terms of the standard, but more and more girls are growing up with a ball at their feet now, and this will change. In my grandson’s team, one of the girls is one of the best players now, she’s the one who has the natural movement, the drop of the shoulder, the twists and turns that make everyone look.

There has clearly been a tradition of it being a ‘men's game’, but just like we now see parents taking their daughters in a way they only used to take their sons to games, it’s changing.

I don’t believe in a forced parity. I agree that the talking about teams without saying they are the women’s team is a major annoyance. I nearly had a heart attack when our women’s team announced their new Manager! They shouldn’t be paid as much as the men until they bring in the money that the men’s game does. It’s. The entertainment industry at the end of the day. I don’t think the women winning the Euros was like the men winning it, but it was fun.

It has its place & its supporters, and they walk past that wall too, and little girls who love Villa see someone they can aspire to be, alongside their male heroes. Being able to ‘see yourself’ there is something men have always taken for granted. Now we can too.

[Drummond]

Brilliant.

[FatSam]

Well said amfy

[Drummond]

Came across this on Twitter.

If you notice the roof of the Trinity, it has the stripes, both of adidas, but also the Villa shirt collar.

No idea if it's fake, though I suspect it may be, but nice nonetheless.