MikeMcKenna

I have now also been contacted by SKY and another publication. Unfortunately both contacts are on holiday till early March so may not be able to get anything for Everton but may help later on.

Have now been contacted by ITV but cannot say if anything will come of it. Come on folks, don't be apathetic.Anything is better than nothing - the media are more interested than people realise.

I have contacted a lot of people in the media asking if they would like a fan perspective of the Villa situation and #Outthedooron74 v Everton and been invited to speak on air to Mark Regan on BBC WM tonight at 6.05. Please pass the word. It's a start!

Bump.... Lest anyone forgets (whether in agreement or not) we are still trying to get this rolling

I don't know at this stage. I don't want to give up my seats. How many will be midweek and Friday games? It is tough now making the journey on Saturdays and Sundays never mind Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. But ultimately I fear that the club have no intention of investing to get us back up.

Where I sit it would not be possible to display a banner. However if anyone in the upper holte was prepared to create and hang a banner in a prominent position that says "Walk Out the Door on 74" I will contribute a substantial amount, As for the chanting etc etc it needs someone with influence in the Holte to get it going. Ultimately we don't have a lot of time and only a few have volunteered to help. We are trying are via Twitter to get some momentum and have had a fair amount of feedback on the hashtags #avfc #outthedooron74 and if everyone here who agrees, whether they are going to games or not could spend 30 minutes pushing the hashtags we could gain further momentum. We also still need others to join to help promote via Facebook pages and other forums. Plenty of people making suggestions, but we need action.

Great post Richard and I couldn't agree more. I have come to accept the idea of going down, but what happens then? Living down here in Bournemouth, the easiest thing would be to stick two fingers up and find something else to do. I have had so many long miserable journeys home from VP in the last 4/5 years that I have often questioned my sanity. BUT for now I refuse to be driven away from my club by these absolute ****** who are ruining it! Over the years I have been as guilty as others on forums for winding up and point scoring. There has always been a bit of division between various groups of Villa fans but I have never known it to be this bad or for so many to be so apathetic. There is very little passion or unity among the fans. I You are absolutely right that "as long as we fight each other we do not fight for Villa" but it is the way of football forums. I see little changing. Although I go to every home game and some away, I know 10 times more Villa fans that don't bother anymore than actually those who go to the games. Many of those who stay connected via VT will probably drift away when we are out of sight out of mind in the Championship. I don't blame them, our record over the last 5 seasons has been appalling, but for now I want to keep going with hope against hope that we will turn it round. If I walk away I doubt that I will go back and those in power will not give a s'hit. However everytime we play and I am not there, I know I will regret it! The future of Aston Villa is unbelievably bleak :-(

No problem.

Call it "sarcastic realism' - if you read through this thread you will see that the most who agree with each other are the ones who slag off any attempt to get things going. If you think you can get 300 fans to attend an event "outside" VP I would be amazed. Get 3000 and I would be staggered. If you could get 30,000, you should be AVFC CEO!

Good luck

Great idea - you going to organize it?

No offence mate but read earlier posts, we have responded to the same question several times. We realise that many will never support any form of protest and that for some everything is 'a bit-pointless'. We are past the point of having to sell or explain the idea - if it fails so be it, but at least we will have tried.

Like you I am a season ticket holder. i do NOT want to stop going to Villa park, I want to renew next year but also want to know how they are going to stop the rot and reverse the decline. I believe they are hell bent on even deeper cuts and that recruitment in the summer will be minimal. I have no confidence in the current directors or Lerner but we are stuck with them. However we don't have to take it lying down. We need to send a message to the club about how angry and disgusted we are. Walking out on the 74th will be an illustration of how Villa fans can act together to get that message over. It will not persuade Lerner to sell or even drop his price but it might, just might prompt a positive response from the club. Banners, chants, abusing the players etc will have no effect - we need to do something different. Like you I will have paid in advance for my ticket for the Everton game. Rather than drift away as the fans did against LFC a simultaneous walk out on the 74th minute would be a much more powerful statement. It would show we care, are not apathetic and can act together.

I tweeted him at 2am this morning, :-) @StanCollymore Some long term Villa fans r considering a walkout. Will be promoted as Out the Door on '74 in recognition of 1874 founding 2:26am - 17 Feb 16

Ok we are going to try for the Everton game. All those who are willing to help, please start passing the word. If you are not interested in helping or disagree if you don't mind please leave this thread free for those who do. The hashtag on Twitter is #outthedooron74. The '74' represents the year our club was founded 1874 - we walk out on the 74th minute. Would anybody be prepared to set up a Facebook page and share with all Villa related pages? Does anyone have media contacts? Can Twitter users please post messages supporting the action using the hashtag #outthedooron74 versus Everton. Will some individuals volunteer to contact supporters clubs, other forums, groups etc etc The initial objective is to illustrate our disgust at the way Aston Villa has been mismanaged by Randy Lerner and the board of directors. Further protests may follow. It may make **** all difference but at least we will have tried and be able to vent our disgust with the way our club has been allowed to decline - VTID

Guys, we can try kicking this off and using Twitter etc but I still need to know who is going to help so that we can agree a plan. I have sent a tweet to Collymore and am awaiting for a response. As someone said we need ideally to do it during a televised game - is Everton on TV and is it possible to spread the word in time available? I can see that someone has started via Twitter after my Twitter post to Collymore, which is great but we need to act together. If not Everton we need to decide which game and then develop the plan. If it is to be Everton we need to get motoring quickly. Once we have agreed the game, we need to be clear on the reasons for the protest. In the event that the media contact us we must have a coherent response.

I don't disagree with much that you have said, but none of the things you suggest will happen from the off. We have to be practical and start with something that could kick things off. Then who knows what is possible?

Limpid, Look again at the responses to my OP. With a handful of creditable exceptions, the response was pretty luke warm and often negative. The only consistent response was for a boycott which anyone who has been involved with protests in the past knows will never get off the ground. I find it ironic that some even who admit not going to the games anymore also advocate a 'boycott'. As I pointed out in the OP, a walkout would 'NOT make Lerner sell' but then some posters said in effect 'what's the point, Lerner isn't going to sell'. Lerner isn't going to sell, he doesn't need to. But he doesn't like being in spotlight, doesn't want the directors slagged off or to be personally humiliated, and might be prepared to invest more money or do SOMETHING if the pressure can be increased in some way at VP. We are down now and frankly I am more concerned about what will happen next year. I suspect that there will be a lot more cuts, that they are not going to invest in the summer etc This isn't about getting Lerner out anymore it is about getting them to be positive, invest and turn the tide of despair. Chanting Lerner Out, Lerner is a ******, booing the players, hanging banners, abusing players via Twitter doesn't work. They are all par for the course and nobody takes any notice. Only something that is initially easy to do, unites the fans, generates momentum and makes a major impact from the off with the media has any chance. If 10K+ Villa fans walked out of VP simultaneously during a televised game, it may or may not have an impact but at least we would have tried. The actual objective was to show the club how pissed off the fans are and illustrate that we can protest in a co-ordinated and major way. However I will admit to thinking that had enough Villa fans been prepared to support the walkout, it could have snowballed, gained momentum and developed into to something bigger. I have no clue whether it would have generated a response from the club but next year in the absence of SKY's millions, the gate money will be much more important to the club and if the club is to recover it needs the supporters more than ever. I was prepared to stick my head above the parapet, provide financial support and do whatever I can, but living in Bournemouth, having a limited personal Villa fan network and, no media contacts I am somewhat constrained. Any effort needs to consist of more than a handful of volunteers. To get the message out, there must be a significant number of individuals here and elsewhere who will commit to developing stuff via Social Media, working Facebook, Twitter, other forums, contact supporters group, the trust, writing to the press on and offline and ideally some who have some idea of how the media works and contacts. I have been down this road before and have witnessed how the likes of Jon Fear and others were ridiculed, vilified and even threatened. Unless an idea has major support and backing from many fans across the board, the originator(s) quickly become disallusioned and worn down. Anyone who genuinely wants to give this a go please PM me, but there is no point even starting if only a handful contact me.

So having a go at a player who posts a picture of a 135K motor, effectively sticking two fingers up to the 'peasant' fans who pay good money is an 'over reaction'? Then he compounds his disgraceful action by giving us a load of BS, treating us like idiots. It wasn't interacting, it was purposely winding up the fan. He of all the players is supposed to be a 'Villa fan' and must have known how it would be perceived. I don't boo players - but he is finished in my eyes and I will make an exception when he next plays!

Absolutely no correlation with the fans. Thousands of fans go to every game, we may believe that we have little chance of survival, but we actually pay for the pain and still turn up week in week out! Players like Lescott, get paid massive amounts to turn up with a losing mentality and then have the ****** cheek take the piss out of us.

Just to clarify Ken isn't having a "transplant". I have spoken to him several times over the last few months and is he having heart surgery to correct an issue. He has been awaiting the operation for a quite a while. Like everyone else I hope everything goes to plan and wish him a speedy recovery.

Pete, Even with parachute money we are going to be in trouble. Is it still £60 million over 4 years? By my reckoning our turnover could fall by that much and more in our first Championship season. Although the club have reportedly renegotiated lower wages for the players, at turnover of £45-50 million, our finances will be down the toilet. I suspect that the cuts which have already have started will also have a big affect on the Academy and other playing areas. As regards being 'the best it can be with the available resources' we will not be finishing high any time soon, I fear we will more likely start tumbling down. Next year the Premier League clubs will have a massive advantage and the gap between us (and other Championship clubs) and those above may never be closed. Who knows they my even over the next few years agree a No relegation policy - then you might get your wish :-)

With hindsight I should have said 'not enough 'quality' experienced PL players'. That we acquired these so called experienced PL players you mention as a result of Lerners cost cutting strategy speaks volumes. Westwood should never have been bought from the lower leagues, Lescott was struggling at West Brom. Richardson is a journeyman who has lost whatever he had. Richards was stuck out in Italy and no other PL clubs wanted him and so on.....

Don't know how you can say he 'is not an improvement so far' when the stats prove otherwise. The Liverpool result was humiliating but most of us did not expect a win. Up till that point we were clawing our way back, albeit very slowly and were 11th in the form guide.

This is so true but as we have seen with the abuse Gabby, Bacuna etc etc have got, many fans blame the players/manager because they are the easiest target and targeting the French players is just another labelling blame game . That some are French or foreigners can be a useful splash of xenophobia. The idea that there are 'too many French' for me is bollox. However if it was expressed as too many players without PL experience or too many unproven players for me that would be more accurate. It has nothing to do the various the players nationalities. We simply do not have enough good players to support the inexperienced ones. Surrounded by more quality, I think the likes of Veretout would be outstanding, whereas the English players; Gabby, Westwood, Lescott are simply no longer good enough for the PL.