c-krulak

General Krulak here: 1. I do not believe there will be a waiting list for Season Tickets for the 2009-10 season. Obviously I cannot promise that...and it would be great if there were such a waiting list. 2. I am not in the UK now...came home on a Sunday. 3. Villatony: I am not sure why the cost of an infant kit is at the level it is. I purchased one for my grandchild and it was "interesting". My sense is that we are no higher priced than other Clubs...but we can check on that. 4. In house Captain as the only person to talk to Ref. Sounds like something that would be helpful for the entire league. Unfortunately, things happen very quickly on the Pitch and the Captain may be in the back and the issue takes place up front...makes things a bit difficult. 5. Sold about 35,000+ for Bolton...should have 39,000+ at game. 6. New sponsor: It turns out that there are contractual restrictions as to when we can announce sponsor...so it will be awhile yet. Kit will be out as soon as we can get it out. We certainly want to get it out before we did last year. ST should be announced soon. Again, the prices for all seats on being discussed at the present time. 7. Both my wife and I like "Classic" Country and Western and yes, we know how to line dance.

General Krulak here: 1. Sad game!! Simple as that. ManU, once again, showed that we are still a distance away from where we MUST be. Beating a Chelsea, coming close with Arsenal and Liverpool...all means nothing when we are so outclassed by ManU. There is no question that they have a powerful, attacking, team...but they also have depth and strength across the Pitch. We need to continue to build our squad....we need depth and strength. As I have said many times before, Randy, the Directors and MON all see the play on the Pitch...the good and bad. We know what we need to do. Randy WILL support MON this summer. 2. Yes, we will beat ManU...we MUST beat them to get to where we want to be.

General Krulak here: 1. We plan to have all our normal activities and locations open for business before and after game. 2. paulanddonya: Next time you are at Villa Park, stop in the store and speak with John Greenwood and give him your suggestions. He would be most happy to hear what you have to say. As for someone with good merchandising experience, we do, in fact, have several of those. Understand that achieving scale is important in this business...and we are trying to do just that.

General Krulak here: 1. I recognize that the Derby will bring out emotions that are foreign to those normally encountered at a football game...UK or US. At the same time, I would hope that those minority of fans who fail to understand that their actions cause damage to the reputation of the Aston Villa Football Club will be truly be few in numbers. There are many kinds of risk but reputational risk is the most damaging. By the way, I am not avoiding anyone by not sitting in the Director's Box...I just think it will be a better game watching from the stands. 2. My sense is that we will keep the badge as is....too soon to change again. I couldn't take it. :winkold:

General Krulak here: 1. b23avfc: YOU are one helluva slueth!! Yes, that is me...and the female bunny is none other than Mrs "K"...the 5-star general in our house. 2. Thanks for the words re. the Sunderland fan. I only wish we had pummelled them!! I am still sick over the game...absolutely unable to eat and keep it down. 3. The security for the upcoming Derby is currently being coordinated with the police, tranportation folks, and Villa. There is no question that we want this game to go...and go with minimum disturbance. I wish I could say that we won't have any problems but I would be a fool to do so. You raise a very good point...we need to get info out to our fans as to what to expect from a security standpoint. As soon as we have it sorted, I will encourage the Club to put details on the official web site. 4. At the present time, both Randy and I anticipate being at the game. I will sit the entire game in our fan stands...to get a full sense of the spirit.

General Krulak here: 1. There should be no City fans in our seating...none. If there are, it is because our fans purchased tickets for them. If this is the case and we discover who bought the tickets, action will be taken. 2. The mosaics are, indeed, on the way. 3. Standing....the problem is simply that, although it is done in other stadiums, sometimes the "law" picks out one Club to make an example of. If it turns out to be us, we will find ourselves with a significant problem. We need to understand that it is fine to stand for the big plays, cheers, etc. but to stand for the entire game will get us in trouble. 4. I noticed the roll of honour myself and you are so correct...it is way out of date. We will fix it during the summer. 5. If any of you see me around the Club, please feel free to come up and say hello...I am very much a people person and would love to say hello to all of you.

General Krulak here: 1. I will get a count on the Bolton game tomorrow. 2. holte_k1: I think your comments were fair and spot on. I confess that I really did not see the aggressiveness I have seen for the majority of the season. I am not real sure what the cause....perhaps we were overconfident or underestimated a team fighting for survival. The answer is probably a combination of many things. Fortunately, MON does know how to handle this type of issue...unfortunately, we really could have used the win. Now it is behind us and we just need to get points in the games to come.

General Krulak here: 1. I just returned from a trip to UK. I had great meeting with Randy on Thursday in London and then went up to Villa Park for good meetings on Friday and Saturday. Then came the game. I was very disappointed in what happened. This was a game we should have won...a game we needed to win...and a game that our competitors around the league gave us an "opening" if we had won. It was just sad. I am sure that MON has had a long talk with the Lads...not just about passing and football skills but about confidence and aggressive football. This is a Squad that beat Chelsea and almost had Arsenal...they can do it. All I can say is that it was not good football and MON, Randy, the Directors and the Team all know it. There are people questioning whether Randy is really willing to spend money to improve the team. I can assure you, he is. Mon knows that and so do all the Directors. Both MON and Randy saw the game. They saw what you saw. I have said it before and I will say it again, we need to trust them. NO ONE is happy losing!! We want to win as much as anyone. When the team does not play to its ability, we are all gutted. 2. In contrast was the Youth Team. Yes, they lost but they fought the entire game and made us proud. We can take great satisfaction in knowing that we have some young players who will be starring for us in years to come. 3. Ticketing: I recognize the concern over the queues that were experienced. We are looking at some ways to solve the problem thru technoloy. At the same time, any businessman will tell you that it doesn't make good sense to spend too much revenue to fix a problem that only happens infrequently. We certainly don't want to be hiring a number of people just to meet a once or twice a season requirement. 4. Mosaics are on the way. 5. Yes, I was the Easter Bunny at the White House one year...in the "first Bush" administration. And NO, you are not going to get me in that outfit again.

General Krulak here: 1. First, ticketing: I spoke with Nicky Keye yesterday and she asked me to apologize to the fans for the excessive wait times they had to endure yesterday. Simply put, yesterday was one of the busiest days we have ever seen at the Villa Park ticketing office. We processed over 7,000 tickets for the upcoming Derby...not counting the tickets we processed for other games upcoming. As all of you know, SAFETY and SEGREGATION are paramount in the upcoming game. We needed to ensure that tickets sold went to valid Villa Supporters. For this reason, we did not outsource or use the internet facility. Nicky and her superb team worked long and hard to take care of the Fans...this was just a very tough day. Again, they were intent on doing the right thing. You would not want us to outsouce for the Derby....believe me. 2. John Cresswell: As I mentioned in my earlier comments, we were going to adhere to the requests of the family. We did just that. 3. I am saddened by what I hear about our players after the game. I am not sure why they did not acknowledge the fans. My only thought is that MON asked them to exit the Pitch quickly for some reason unknown to any of us. I will see if I can find out what the issue was. 4. paulanddonya: I hear exactly what you are saying. I must fall back on what I have said before: MON and Randy are seeing the EXACT same games as you are seeing...they are not missing any of them. They see what you see. They want to win as much as you want to win. They know what we need...both in position, talent, AND ability to fit in. I can only say to do what I am doing...trust them.

General Krulak here: 1. We support many charities but...ACORNS is our primary focus. Obviously not a day goes by that we aren't asked to support one good cause or another and we must be careful how we handle these requests. We have stated many times that our Charity of choice...the one we have dedicated ourselves to supporting...is ACORNS. 2, Paddy: I am not sure where the photos are...I will check when I get over to UK this coming week. 3. chefdoc2000: Take a peek at what I said too.

General Krulak here: 1. I can assure you that ACORNS is in the forefront of Randy and everyone else's mind at Villa Park. They deal with conditions that each and everyone of us can understand and have a heart to help. You would be surprised at Randy's dedication to this charity and how strongly he feels about the work that they do.

General Krulak here: 1. First off, not a good showing yesterday. I had to get the game over the net but it was obvious that we did not play well. I then spoke with people at the Club and they said the same thing. I would imagine that MON had a pretty tough talk with the Squad. We now need to get a helluva winning streak going. 2. brummybloke: good idea...and you are right, it would be great fun for the children. I will see what others think of the idea. Just need to be careful re. crowd control and that no one gets hurt as the mill about. 3. bubbadog: Re. caps. The answer is probably clear to everyone...whether accepted or not. I would imagine the answer has to do with safety. At some time, bottles w/caps were thrown out on the Pitch....so w/o caps, the bottles might not be quite so heavy when the arrive at their target. I would imagine that is the argument for the caps. As for bottles that are brought to the stadium...not much the stewards can do about that. I confess, the whole thing seems a wee bit unbalanced and I will ask why it is done...but I imagine the answer will come back that it is a safety issue. 4. avillafan.com: As I have said before about chants and songs....I just don't think it should be up to the Club to choose the chants or the songs...we shouldn't be placed in a position of telling the fans what to sing. If someone wanted to establish chants and look for assistance in getting them "out", then I think the Club could and would help. 5. Lift/share spot on web site. I will see what people at Club think. Might be just as easy to set up on fan sites too. 6. Grant(aka_eddy): In talking with the players, chants/songs aimed at 1-4 are very helpful. The players are not that keen on chants that "dis" the other team or fans...simply because that has a tendency to "fire up" the other squad and their supporters. The Squad would much prefer our fans directing their cheers to our Team vice slamming the other team.

General Krulak here: 1. shortshadyuk. Yes, I remember the good work at Columbus...I wanted to get there early enough to see the game but Randy and I got in late...so had to give up on your time on the Pitch. We did enjoy the Columbus game. 2. MON is NOT under pressure to sell players to generate funds...never. 3. Randy is prepared to do what is necessary to continue to move along with his 5 year plan.

General Krulak here: 1. For all who filled out the survey...thank you. Good luck to each of you for the S-T draw!! I roger your concerns re. no place for written comments. Part of the rationale for the survey was to focus in on some issues that we saw outstanding. We will be coming back for more comments on many issues as we proceed...and everyone will get an opportunity to "fill in the blanks." terrytini....please refresh my memory (what is left of it) re. the seats/stools in upper holte. 2. shortshadyuk: Hate to see you move from Philly but...so be it. Fan Day and mini-tourney...sounds like fun. We had something like that on the Summer tour to US last year...lots of fans had a great time. 3. Crisp65: I know you probably have a good deal of support for your idea but....lets please look at it from the point of a sponsor. They put down money to sponsor a Club...to get their name on the kit. Believe me, they do this to increase exposure of their name and brand. For us to then say to them that we will be selling a small number of shirts w/o the name is not right...nor smart. Let's just see what happens in the next 30 days...who knows what will happen. 4. We are hoping to get 38,000 for M'boro...which would be super after having to move game. 5. No plans yet for this summer.

General Krulak here: 1. joeycusack: The Club might consider a non-English international game at Villa Park but I doubt if it would rank high on our "to do" list at this particularly time. I am glad that there is now a "Randy Lerner way"...I think we can all appreciate that Randy has certainly tried to do the "right"...his concern for the history and tradition of Villa...his willingness to spend to make the Squad better...his concern for the fans...all point to that fact. 2. Sponsorship w/o name on the shirt. I can understand the premise you put forward but.....I cannot imagine a sponsor paying for a spot on the kit and then not using that spot to advertise. Let's just wait a little while longer and see what happens. 3. Ian_Taylor: VERY sorry to hear about the leg...terrible luck at this time. Here is what you need to do: Please call Duncan Riddle at ext. 413 and let him know about the problem and see if Villa can do something to help.

General Krulak here: 1. Obviously it is late in the day to talk to Nike about putting logo on back of shirt...my sense is that, even if we wanted to do it, this year would not be the one to start. I understand your comments about the back of the shirt but...I also believe that Villa IS center piece in our kit. 2. What would I like to ask the fans?....hmmmm, good question. I guess that changes almost weekly. At the end of the day, the overarching question would be two-part: How are we doing and what should we be doing that we aren't? 3. On-line view of seats and opening of the ticket office...hours of operation. Nicky Keye reads this site daily so I will ask her to send me her views.

General Krulak here: 1. jamesvilla: Your question has been asked before and I have recommended this to take place. I think the issue simply boils down to the time and effort it would take to update on a daily basis. I know that sounds "weak" but, at the end of the day, the totals that are tabulated daily by Nicky Keye and her folks would have to be transfered over and place on the net. Simple you might say but it would be one more thing that people would have to do that would detract from thier primary jobs. As you know, I can provide update when ever asked...better for me to fool with it than to have one of the employees at Villa Park now take on another aspect to their jobs. 2. chrisp65: I agree, Carol is a star! Thank you for your comment...I will pass it on. 3. wigsy: My recommendation is that you call Alison Plant at AVFC, extension 370.

General Krulak here: 1. paulanddonna: I will do alll in my power to come up with a reason for you to whinge and moan. The last thing I want is for you to become complacent so I will put on my thinking cap and see what I can come up with. Don't forget, we have the summer transfer window, the new kit, the new sponsor, the new flag, etc. etc. Believe me, I will irritate you before too long. Enjoy the peace and tranquility...it never lasts for long.

General Krulak here: 1. Thank you alll for the Birthday wishes...they meant a great deal to me....just as they did to Randy a short while ago. THANK YOU! 2. Curtis Davies: Do not worry about his contract...we are fine. His operation went well...he is obviously sore but it appears to be very successful at first blush. We put some very "state of the art" physio equipment into Bodymoor heath and we will now watch it pay off. He will come back...strong as ever. 3. Protecting the Holte Inn is a concern. We will obviously increase security in and around the area. We hope we can forestall any damage to the building or to the Park....but we need to be very vigilent. 4. We continually try to keep Villa Park clean...and it is a never-ending battle. Basically we circle the Park with heavy cleaning once a month...and try to keep it up to snuff in between. 5. The new sponsor will be announced soon. Again, I cannot jump the gun on this issue. 6. nr66: Obviously you have asked two questions that I cannot answer specifically...it just would not be right to do. I can say that Randy and MON both see the same Squad you do...and both know its strengths and weaknesses. As you have seen, they do work to a plan and will not do anything to hurt that plan. My sense is that they will do what they need to do this summer. As for the new CEO: You are way to worried about this. We have a CEO...his name, at the present time, is Randy Lerner. He spends a great deal of time in the UK so the club is not rudderless. He certainly manages to run the Cleveland Browns from New York and does a good job. We will appoint a new CEO when we feel the time is right. Until then, do not worry about the day-to-day....we have it covered. 7. Loan to purchase Club. Nothing more than smart business decision.

General Krulak here: 1. An update on future games in now posted on the official web site.

General Krulak here: 1. We have sold approximately 34,000 ticketsd for M'boro and have processed the majority of the cancellations from those who cannot make the game due to change. 2. Dante Stallworth is a great player and will help the Browns. I agree, I hope Villa makes the same type of signings this summer.

General Krulak here: 1. I got off the plane from my trip and immediately turned on my Blackberry and picked up the game line. Oh was I gutted. Literally the last second! I moaned all the way to the baggage area and then took some time to reflect on the score and how far we have come. Last year we got the same result at the same place but the "feel" was totally different. (Speaking of feel, thank ALL the away fans for their magnificent support....it makes a HUGE difference.) Yesterday there is no question that we were in the game and playing solid football against a solid team. Randy was also gutted but was very proud of the team and the fans. As he said, there is no question that MON has done a magnificent job with the Squad and we have come a very long way. At the same time, we still have a way to go. We recognize that fact and accept it as a voyage that we must continue to travel with passion and focus. The injury report is not good...we have lost a superb player for the season. I know we all pray for a speedy but complete healing...and wish all good wishes as the healing progresses. Again, 1 point at Arsenal away...obtained by the effort put it...is OK. We just need to win the ones we should win...from here on out. Thank each of you for the support you have shown over the season.

General krulak here: 1. Re. the mosaic. That was intended to be a secret...simple as that. It was to be a special gift from Randy to the Fans. I will not say where it is going to go or when...that would take away the only part of the secret remaining. Just know that Randy's sense of our history is very powerful and the mosaic is a perfect example.

General Krulak here: 1. Still on trip but got to a computer. 2. shortshadyuk: Don't believe everything you read or hear about player compensation. No need to comment on something that is not an accurate picture of how we operate. 3. I anrobo1: Randy and I were very familiar with the way football operates in the UK. Remember, we both lived here for over 5 years. BUT, you are absolutely right that the UK vs US concept of competition is remarkably different. In the US, NFL teams are "rewarded" with high draft picks for finishing poorly...in the UK, the teams are relegated. In the US there are salary caps for teams...obviously, that does not occur in the UK. The distribution of TV revenue is also different. Bottom Line: MUCH more incentive to win in the UK. 4. There is not a waiting list for season tickets at the present time....and I don't envision one in 2009/2010. BUT...the day will come when a season ticket to Aston Villa Football Club will be a much sought after item. 5. I am pulling for a win against Arsenal...it would be HUGE!!

General Krulak here: 1. I will be off the site until Sunday...I have to go on a business trip. "I shall return". 2. As you know, we are looking at the entire Villa Park and what might be done to "upgrade" our facilities. HOK is looking at this right now. Closing in the corners will be looked at as will other options. 3. Rise in prices. "Steep increases...prices rise significantly"....I do not believe that any decision has been made re. ticket prices for next year. Not only do I not believe it but...I know that no decisions have been made. That type of decision will be made over the next month or so. My sense is that ticket prices may well be upped a bit but not "sttep" or "significantly". Randy recognizes that ticket prices are important to the fan attendence and atmosphere. He is fair in the US and has shown himself fair in the UK.