c-krulak

General Krulak here: 1. I confess that I am surprised that there are those who don't appreciate the flags...but have come to realize that you REALY can't please everyone all the time. Simply put, the flags were an idea that Randy liked...he wanted to have something "special" for the kids who might come to the game during half-term...something that they could take home and remember the evening. If some don't like the flags, they don't have to take them or wave them. Again, it was a gesture of RESPECT to the Club and the Nation...seems pretty harsh to complain about them. It sort of sad when a gesture such as this one by the owner of the Club is "panned" by certain fans. It hurts no one and has a positive impact on our youth. Let's take it for what it is...a nice gesture by your Club. 2. davidplatt7: Welcome to the site. I think I agree with your analysis...being too optimistic is as bad as being too pessimistic. As I have said MANY times before, we will have our ups and downs. We will make mistakes and lose games we should win. No Club is perfect in every area. We still have a long way to go in this season. The key is one game at a time....win as many as we can, tie if we don't win and if we lose, get back off the floor and start fighting again. 3. Bob Kain will still be involved in both Browns and Villa...he is just not on the Board of the Browns. He continues to give advice and counsel to Randy. 4. snowychap: Thank you for the comments on the fight to close Guantanamo Bay and to end "enhanced interrogation techniques." This has been a long, hard, struggle and I am overjoyed to see the action that President Obama has taken. Many people have worked hard on this...not just me. I think my impact has been enhanced by the fact that I was known to be pretty conservative and when I came out for the repeal of Bush's policy, it had an impact. 5. tubby: The Browns are pretty much as you described...a Club that has a world of potential and just needs a good Coach and GM to bring success. Randy is no different in the US than he is in the UK. He cares about the Club, the Leadership of the team, the Fans and, overall, a winning team. I know Randy....he will get there. He has good people working at the Browns and it will come together. 6. We will be honouring our fallen players at the game.

General Krulak here: 1. Ticket Price for "Donny": We have agreed on the following pricing...5 pounds for youth, 15 pounds for adults. As you all know, this cannot be a decision made strictly by our Club...it must be an agreed price by both Clubs. As for kickoff time, we really do not have much "inflience" on the time of the match. 2. The only statue that is currently being looked at is the McGregor statue. 3. I find it very difficult to comment on FA Games because of the problem of evaluating the opposition. As an example, the team we played were a solid squad that played a very passion-filled game. To beat a Premiership Club like Villa would literally make their season. This is not to say that we don't address the game with passion but, simply put, the Donny's were playing for their season. We had chances...they had chances. Anything can happen in a game like that. The FA Cup is a great tourney because of the "Cinderella Stories" that can happen. NOTHING can be taken for granted...as Portsmouth will tell us. 4. monell: Great idea. 5. bully: The "mistake" we made in the Trinity Road move is that we did not involve the Fans in the actual move of seating. By not doing so, we failed to tap into a reservoir of good ideas that would have made the move more palatable. This became readily apparent by the feedback on the multiple websites I visit and in the face-to-face that Paul Faulkner, Nicky Keye and I had with Fans that were involved in the move. I am not above admitting when I make a mistake...that was one of them. 6. DalianDaley: We tried to be as "non-directive" as possible with HOK...and their mandate was not just to look at the stadium itself but the entire Villa Park.

General Krulak here: 1. Please know that we are very much aware of some of the difficulties with the Official Web Site...and the issue of online ticketing. We are striving to make the sort of fixes that will make the entire site more responsive and easier to negotiate. Interestingly, this issue has been at the forefront of some of our internal management efforts and we still have not got it where we want it. What is important for you, the Fans, is that we KNOW we have a problem. 2. The HOK report is in and we are studying it closely. The Board will make its recommendations to Randy and he will have the final say. Once decisions have been made, I can assure you that the Fans will be informed. We learned a big lesson from the experience of the recent renovation to the Trinity Road stand. 3. MON is tightlipped about transfers for obvious reasons. The last thing we want to do is telegraph who we are looking at. 4. We do not consider the matchday cover "dull"...in fact, we think it is very "traditional" for the Villa. 5. I do not think there will be AVTV coverage of reserves in the immediate future. 6. Obviously the final decision re. sale or purchase of players must rest with Randy BUT...the relationship between Randy and MON is such that they are on the same sheet of music and in synch with what needs to be done. Randy understands that MON knows what he (the Club/Squad) needs, who can play our "style" of football and who is available. He has Randy's total confidence and has certainly proved that such confidence is well placed. Trust in MON!! 7. I was not at the inaguration but watched it closely. I was a happy man. 8. The Club is terribly saddened by the loss of two great former Villa players. We will always contact the family before taking any action. At the end of the day, the Club will have a "Hall of Heroes" in our museum to honour such great legends of our Club. 9. Fozz82. Write or call Lee Preece and tell him what you are trying to do. 10. chelmsley_villan: Call Nicky Keye at Ticketing and she will give you the "Club's view."

General Krulak here: 1. I have to admit it...the games this season have not done much for my blood pressure. I sure would like to see one of those 5-1 wins that allow a person to chill out for a minute. Still, the lads have a great will to win and that makes a HUGE difference. Additionally, the support of the fans...both home and away...has really been special. TRUST ME, the Squad can hear you and they know you are supporting them.

General Krulak here: 1. What a game!!!! The players played their hearts out and MON probably expended as much energy as anyone on the field. It was a tough place to win and our lads came up strong. I thought all of them contributed but I would be remiss if I didn't say something about James Milner. He has been playing extremely well of late andbrings to mind all the comments made about him...paid too much, not as talented as needed, etc. etc. I think what he has done...and like Petrov and others have done...is prove the wisdom of our Manager. He knows what the team needs, he knows who is available, he knows who can play in "our system" and he goes out to get them. The players he chooses may not have the biggest names or the greatest "pedigree" but MON knows, better than anyone, what he needs to make a successful team. James Milner is a case in point. As to comments about "LUCK": My recently departed father had a sign he place on his desk...and it read, "The Harder I Work, The Luckier I Get." MON works his players hard at practice and asks them to play hard in the games...if the results are termed "luck", then I hope MON never changes the formula. You make your own luck! Was Chelsea "lucky" with their last second goal? Maybe but...they sure seem lucky a good deal of the time...and for several years. Hard work and hard play pays off!! As I have said before, we still have a very long way to go. We need to play one game at a time and not worry about what the next three games will mean..or what others are doing. We just need to focus on our own game and bring it home. Thankfully we have the greatest Fans in the Premiership and there motivation and singing and shouting add to the "luck" of the Squad. 2.Yuen_Biao: I am not sure how to answer such a question. Sell the Club to someone who has more money so that the Club can be successful? OUCH!!! How do you expect me to respond to a comment like that? I trust in Randy and MON and do not think that the key to success is found in $$$$. See my post above. 3. claretmahoney: Please "pm" me and see what we can do. 4. Yes, we have looked at affiliating with an MLS Club but do not think we will be doing this in the near future. My sense is that we will probably first look at associating with some state football associations to get the good young talent that is developing...before they reach the MLS stage.

General Krulak here: 1. The quoted price for Kaka is disturbing...and I say this as a Fan and NOT as a Director. There are no players in the US that make that sort of money is a year...we may have players who sign multi-year contracts for similar money but I can't think of one who gets that sort of money for a year. Imagine adding the extras that come with advertising, etc. My concern is that we may end up pricing Clubs out of the league...and ensuring that others can/will never move up. This is an issue that faced the NFL in the US and eventually ended up with the salary cap. Fortunately in the US the NFL was a "closed" entity that was not competing for players world-wide. This, obviously, is not the situation in the UK or in Professional Football. It is a world game and we are faced with world competition for players. This is a tough issue and one that, sooner or later, will need to be addressed. 2.Roger_moore: The Holte entry on game day is done on a lottery basis..names picked out of a hat. Please pm me and I will see if I can set something up for you and your child. 3. VillaLion: I have answered this question before but let me give it again...I do NOT envision Randy changing the name of the stand. It would be a slap in the face of Doug Ellis and would appear petty. This is not something that Randy would do...he is not that type of person. 4. ianrobo1: There is no question, MON is not only a superb Manager but a fine human as well. He is defintely a great leader. 5. Glarmorgan: As you can imagine, we have many requests from Clubs to provide kit for teams....so many that there is no way we can oblige them all. I am sorry but if we start with one club, we would need to continue with all of them. Perhaps if you call John Greenfield at the Club shop he might be able to help you in this area.

General Krulak here: 1. ramshackler: Nicky Keye (Hd of our Ticketing Operations plus a "wonder-woman") has said she likes your idea and will see if she can make it happen.

General Krulak here: 1. ianrobo1: Hmmmm, let me see if I understand this. The FA and UEFA (and our Club) enter into a contractural agreement with, say, a TV outlet...and in that agreement the TV outlet has the ability to move start times by a certain set amount providing they pay a set amount for the overall contract. We then decide that the start time is not to our liking but within the parameters of the contract...so we break the contract. Hmmm, doesn't sound like something The Board would want to do...and certainly Randy would not want to do it. "It is a stupid kickoff time and we should not have agreed to it for whatever money the TV Company will pay". Simply put, that statement overlooks all the obvious legal issues, contractural issues PLUS the reality of the cost of running a Premiership Club. If we want to play with the "big boys", we need to be able to generate the revenue to do just that. I am VERY sorry you are disappointed in the Club but...I don't think you are thinking rationally at this point in time. As I have said before, Randy does NOT have a machine in his basement that cranks out 20 pound notes. He does the best he can to meet the needs of the Fans and the Club BUT, we ALL have to understand that you cannot run a car on "fumes" nor a Club on confetti. 2. blunther: As of this moment in time, the 2nd leg is to be played on Thursday the 26th of February, 2009 with a kick off at 8:00pm local time. The venue is scheduled to be Luzhniki Stadium. I do not have an atlas with me at this time so I cannot tell you whether this is 1000 miles from moscow or not. Maybe someone else has an atlas handy.

General Krulak here: 1. Luke: You can make your own travel arrangements...just like this year. 2. Seats on the bench: I would guess you would NOT see "plush" seats in the dugouts whilst MON is the manager. I don't think they would be high on Randy's priority either. Take a look at the benches for football players in the US...as an example, The Green BaY Packers. Those lads play in 10 degree temperatures and 30 mph winds and sit on a hard bench...sometimes with no back rails. 3. Magazines in airports, etc. They must make economic sense to be placed in the stores...and so far, the marketing surveys have showed that they would not. 4. The Royal Marines: This is a superb outfit. They are well-trained, well-equipped, well-led and offer great opportunity for someone who is looking to serve their country, gain self-confidence and learn a skill. It is NOT all about shooting and warfare...there are many skills that are taught that can be applied in the civilian community. If nothing else, a Royal Marine will learn a great deal about leading. I wish that there were words I could give to reassure a Mum but....that is hard to do when we are faced with the realities of a dangerous world. Not every Royal Marine will be a rifleman...nor will every Royal Marine find themselves in the mountain of Afghanistan but....it is a tough life.

General Krulak here: 1 I am back from San Diego and the funeral on Thursday and burial on Friday. I want to thank all the fans on Villa Talk for their kindness towards me and my family. You all are superb!! 2. I do not have much to do with the Browns...although I am a fan. I did have a long talk with their new coach...Eric Mangini and found him to be hugely motivated to move the Club forward. I am not sure what is meant by the Browns fan's feelings towards Randy...it has been a tough few years but certainly not a result of Randy. He has supported the Browns just like he has supported the Villa. Hopefully Eric will make the same difference that MON has made. 3. Questions re. the yearbook can be answered by Nicky Keye. 4. Pre-season games...numbers and locations...will be determined by MON and will be released when he makes the decision. This is not a Board or Randy decision. 5. Villa providing coaches. We can only do so much...and we need to be good stewards of the money we do have...in order to keep the Club moving forward. 6. Marketing in OZ: We are marketing world wide...but we need to have a "product" that is recognized world wide. We are getting to that point but we need to keep moving forward. 7. stevenjos: yes. 8. 87Leatherneck: Welcome aboard Marine!! 9. It may be hard to believe but the Club is not normally informed about road work around B'ham. 10. Re. Thomas Cook (TC): For the rest of this season, all European travel will be with our current partner, TMG...so nothing will change. TC will only be handling European Travel (counting on us making it) for next season onwards. We will be working with them to ensure we have a great program. They are one of the world's leading travel agencies and handle European travel for such Clubs as Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs. This is a new partnership that is very important to our Club from a commercial point of view...NOT from what they charge fans for trips (we do NOT get ANY commission) but from the fee they have paid for the partnership. As I have said before, Randy does NOT have a machine in his basement that prints 20 pound notes....we have to raise money in order to keep the Club moving forward.

General Krulak here: 1. Claret and Blue: I will check and see what the situation is with retailers and the sale of the magazine. My sense is that there is a cost to having the magazine in the store and that it has been determined that the cost would not be covered by the sales...but I will check. 2. TimTheVillan: I have passed on your comment to Alison Plant.

General Krulak here; 1. Razor: I will bring this to the attention of Alison Plant. You are correct...this is NOT the way to do business.

General Krulak here: 1. Nicky Keye is, indeed, the person at the ticket office who can help sort this out.

General Krulak here: 1. Twisted Logic: Thank you for the kind words...I will pass them on to Randy. 2. TRANSFER WINDOW: Burp!!!! I am not going there.

General Krulak here: 1. dont_do_it_doug: My father is not doing well...although I was able to make him understand that Villa had a great game today. He's an old man and is prepared to meet his maker. He will go with grace and with dignity...which is all I can ask.

General Krulak here: 1. LJM: Will do. 2. ClaretMahoney: Contact Nicky Keye at AVFC and she will help sort this out. 3. Villa84: As I have said before, we are looking at some major renovations to Villa Park but they will be done in stages and they will be done with our history and ethos firmly in mind. We are not aiming at a specific date for completion...and, obviously, the economy will impact on what we do. We do not want to become another Club with huge debt. 4. The Game: What a remarkable, exciting, game. I thought our Lads played their hearts out and, if truth be told, we were the better team on the Pitch. I confess to being a wee bit worried when we went down 0-2 but even then I felt we had something special going. If you were a dispassionate observer, I think you would conclude that Villa was the better team. What made me feel particularly good was that we just never quit!! We knew the importance of the game and we just didn't quit. Kudos go to the players of course but....thank God for MON and his coaches...they really had the lads up for this one. I tried to think of who I would give MOTM to but I honestly think I would give it to the entire Squad. At one time or another, each lad stepped up and made a HUGE contribution. I would have loved 3 points but I will take the 1 and the caliber of play!! Well done lads. A special mention to our Fans...their effort was HUGE also!! Thank you so much.

General Krulak here: 1. Injury report. Obviously to produce such a report on an open web site might not fit in the Manager's way of conducting business. I am not sure it would be good for the Club to announce to the world a complete report on our injured players. I think what is important to note is that we have a splendid recovery facility at Bodymoor Heath...perhaps the best in the Premiership...and we have a great physio staff and access to superb Doctors. Our lads will be fit as quickly as possible....but, at the same time, we would not want to send them out to do battle until their wounds are healed.

General Krulak here: And a Merry Christmas to all my friends at Villa Talk...the very first site I appeared on...some 852 postings ago!! Mrs "K" is ready to kill me.

General Krulak here: 1. Word will be out soon re. Martin's knee....he is seeing the Doctor today for another evaluation.

General Krulak here: 1. Where are we behind schedule: I think a good example of where we are not where we want to be is something as simple as moving forward, faster, on the museum. It is taking us longer than we thought to move from the archiving stage to the "production" stage. 2. villaajax: There has been discussion about having players or staff come on the official site and answer questions but it has not been done for several reasons: 1) The time involved to be answering questions "live" would be difficult to manage. 2) to answer questions that were not 'live" would probably also not be a good use of time. 3) the type of questions would eventually get to the areas that would not be right to answer...transfer window questions as an example. I guess you all will just have to put up with me. 3. Yesterday I was on the espn web site looking at the Premiership. Normally you always have to wade through ads on ManU or Chelsea kits. Yesterday I went to the site and immediately an ad for Villa home and away kits came up!!! What a day!!! Believe me, this was a big deal on a yank web site.

General Krulak here: 1. Tubby: One of the big problems we face in the travel arena is that we are not a travel agency and time/money/energy expended in that arena is really not a worthwhile investment. We basically do what all other Clubs do...we charter out this effort. I doubt seriously if we are going to subsidize travel packages for Moscow....like everyone else, we are under the economy crunch too. This is probably not the best time to subsidize packages as we scramble to meet the requirements of pay, etc. for the Club. We WILL try to get the best deal for our Fans but I don't think we will be subsidizing travel. 2. Can we win the league: I have never done anything in my life where I didn't believe I could be a winner...or my troops. So my answer is obvious....yes. At the same time, I am a realist and have always said we still have a long way to go. We are not even 1/2 way into this season. We have a superb Manager, a very supportive owner, great coaches, top notch facilities, a strong team and passionate fans...that normally results in success. BUT, how much success is dependent on many things...lack of injuries, lack of red cards, a wee bit of luck, some stumbling by other clubs and our Lads putting it together at critical times. Whether this means winning the league...I really don't know. What I do know is that our Team will fight hard and will go into each game believing in themselves. 3. paddy: Yes, I think we are on course with the 5 year plan. There are areas where we are ahead of schedule and some where we might be a tad behind...but, for the most part, we are on track. I hope you are feeling well and that you have a great Christmas and a wonderful and healthy New Year. And yes, the thread is very informative.

General Krulak here: 1. Obviously if funding were available to "extend" Villa Park we would look very closely at the offer. There will be many rumours flying around as we get closer to the date...we all should just wait to see what sort of "official" move is made. Certainly one of the considerations would be the "control" over the end state of Villa Park. The ethos and tradition of the stadium must remain.

General Krulak here: 1. Solid win today...I thought Brad was easy MOTM. We still have a long season ahead but today's result was an important one. Well done to MON and the lads. I have always believed that you make your luck!!!! 2. Don't count us out on boxing day!!!!! In person beats the TV!!

General Krulak here: 1. I will pose the question to Nicky but...why don't you just call ticketing and ask for 1) Nicky Keye or 2) Nicola Salt. Either one will give you the correct answer. 2. Big John: He will be back and we do not see a need for surgery. We are taking it slowly because we know we want him at 100% when he does come back. 3. Big debate over POW's in VietNam. Most of the POW's I know feel that they have all come home. 4. Fozz82; You definitely NEED to become a Villa Fan!!! Stick with this forum and you will discover we have the most passionate fans in the world.

General Krulak here: 1. Coaches for boxing day: I do not think this is going to happen. 2. paulanddonya: You missed my point or I articulated my point poorly: I was sad that only 35,000+ people were at the game because I thought it was such a good game to watch from the stands. I was NOT busting on Fans for not showing up. Believe me, I do realize what the economy is doing to the Fan...it is having an impact on ALL of us. My point was simple...it was a shame that only 35,000+ fans had a chance to see Gabby point to where he wanted the ball, receive a pass that covered half the pitch, only to put it right where Gabby asked for it and to have Gabby volley it in with his left foot. A classic. No intent to bust on our fans...believe me.