Greetings,

It’s been a while. We may have skipped Villa’s dodgy start, but let’s get going again with this newsletter, now it seems Unai Emery and the team are back in business and setting up a season full of possibilities.

I will now endeavour to get some momentum going and make this newsletter a lot more frequent. I will be catching up on some more serious stuff in the next one, as there’s a venture about to launch that all Villa supporters can get involved in. First of all, though, let’s catch up on a couple of things…

Being Unai Emery

You may have seen that a book called The Rise of the Villans – Inside Unai Emery’s Aston Villa Revolution has been released, which was written by Guillem Balagué, the author of both the official biographies of Ronaldo and Messi, to name just two of his books.

A personal friend of Emery, with a lot of history with some of Emery’s family members and backroom staff, Guillem had excellent access to be a fly-on-the-wall at Bodymoor Heath and Villa Park, and beyond that to more private realms.

Since this was more than a by-the-numbers biography and retelling of Villa’s last season, I made the effort of travelling to see Guillem at the home of Biggleswade United (near Cambridge Way), the ninth-tier non-league club that Balagué is the chairman of. Our wide-ranging discussion on the inner workings of Emery and the transformation of Villa under him was actually recorded in the middle of the Biggleswade United dressing room.

Below is a short extract from our chat, while the audio of our full discussion that lasted over an hour can be found on My Old Man Said podcast here

Guillem Balagué Interview Extract

David Michael: I met the Villa owners within the first week of them taking over Villa, when they met the Fan Advisory Board. I asked Wes [Edens] why Villa? Considering he had earlier been interested in Inter Miami with David Beckham. His first two words were “Champions League.” So that’s their aim and the thing that marries with that is Unai’s dream to win the Champions League. He’s taken Villa and already stitched them back to their early eighties European Cup roots - beating Bayern, revisiting Rotterdam - but, in terms of Villa, how patient is he now for his goal?

Guillem Balagué: This summer was a realisation for everyone that boundaries had been pushed and you have to take a step back. You still have to win, maintain standards, keep demands high - even when you step back. The tension, I think, in the camp was: what happens now? They knew they couldn’t get the signings wrong. Every choice mattered.

DM: Some supporters wonder why Emery takes so long to use new signings. You spend good money, fans expect them straight in. Then they see other club’s new signings hit the ground running.

GB: But Villa play positional football. Every space has a role, obligations, responsibilities. If you throw in two new players who don’t yet understand the timing - when to press, when to move - the whole thing collapses. So you teach them. It’s about education. You can’t just buy players and expect them to know.

DM: The John Duran story really stood out [in the book] - this fascinating clash of Emery’s scientific positional football plan meets this wild maverick meteorite. Should there be more room for that kind of chaos that at times rescued Villa in big moments?

GB: Emery always has one maverick. Always. He loves it. I was glad the Duran story happened because it showed the other side of him. Duran represents what fans love - unpredictability, genius, the guy who makes you win from nowhere. Rock and roll football. And Unai embraces that, even if it clashes with the system.

DM: I’ve heard you play down silverware and winning things, with you putting the onus on football being about the memories and the journey, which is obviously a big part of it, but at a base level, silverware is how success is validated, isn’t it?

GB: In the eyes of the fans, yes. Perhaps, in the eyes of Unai - not so much.

DM: But you’ve also got the owners. When they bought Villa, they were standing on the centre circle with the European Cup (Champions League) - which basically sends the signal of what their intentions are.

GB: Yes, but they are in a rise process, call it whatever you want - where if silverware arrives, brilliant. But the target is to keep growing, to keep being in Europe, to get better players to allow you to do that in an easier way. You cannot stop. That’s the thing about Aston Villa. You cannot stop growing. You have to keep growing, even if it’s difficult.

You can buy Guillem’s book Rise of the Villans at a discount here

Check out our in-depth interview here

Aston Villa Opera

With the opportunities new technology brings, I’ve always been keen to use it to evolve and transcend football media through MOMS. I also strive to fuse in my background and interest in film and music whenever possible.

Going back a few years, when talk increasingly built to the rising cost of English football and how it was losing its working-class soul, comparisons to the price of going to the opera were often made - as if that were the sport of the bourgeois.

Now, Premier League and European match prices have not only matched but often surpassed the opera - so, in a nod to that irony, and mainly because the drama of opera offers up an entertaining juxtaposition with the swearing and bluntness of football chants, I’ve released the first couple of Villa operatic adaptations: the Villa version of the My Old Man chant (naturally), and an older rendition of Holte Enders in the Sky.

They’ll be more to come - you can drop any requests in the comments.

You can follow the operatic journey and listen on Spotify here or any streaming platform.

My Old Man Said Opera

Holte Enders in the Sky (Traditional Verse Aria)

PS - have you heard the new in-house band on the MOMS podcast? Check out their cracking funk/soul intro detailing Villa’s last week in this show. This is likely to be a weekly occurrence.

The Kids Are Alright

Hopefully, Aston Villa’s foray in the Champions League last season isn’t a one-off, but here’s a good deal to remember Villa’s return to Europe’s top tier and the 150th anniversary of the club. Classic Football Shirts now have the third kit in kids sizes (ages 1 to 4) at over 70% off at £14.99. Plus, you can get a further 10% off using the code MOMS10 here. They also have reduced adult sizes for all three kits from last season too.

Speak soon.

UTV

David

Follow me on Twitter/X & Facebook & Threads & Bluesky

Greetings,

Welcome to latest AVWTF.

With Aston Villa’s annual pilgrimage to the Bescott over, the 2025/26 season is now up and running in earnest for Unai Emery’s men. After the club’s recent brush with UEFA - and despite dodging a PSR bullet thanks to some Chelsea-like manoeuvring by weaponising the Women’s team on the spreadsheet - it’s certainly going to be an intriguing season for both Emery and Monchi to navigate.

We’ll focus on what it means for Villa’s summer transfer window first, before taking a look at the potential evolution of how you can actually watch Villa, if you can’t make it in person to Villa Park.

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UEFA Rules Turn Villa’s Transfer Window Into a Game of Chess

I knew in May that an UEFA fine was incoming. The club had informed the Fan Advisory Board, that the owners had basically decided to take it on the chin. If you go back to December 2024, the football department were concerned at the time by a big drop off by their forward players, and it was obviously threatening the ambition of the season.

Despite the wage bill being high and the club in danger of breaching the new UEFA wage-to-income ratio rule, the owners decided to roll the dice on the substantial wages of both Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio to fire up the team again. The aim was obviously to give them a chance of progressing in the Champions League (getting through to the last 16 round, basically covered the eventual UEFA fine) and rekindle the challenge in the league to qualify again for Europe’s top tournament.

While they ultimately came up short, you could perhaps say the gamble overall hit par, with decent revenue from a deep run in the Champions League and qualifying for the Europa League, which before the turn of the year, wasn’t exactly looking likely.

Aston Villa’s recent settlement with UEFA wasn’t just a slap on the wrist though - it’s a warning shot. The club has been fined €11m (£9.5m) for breaching key financial rules relating to both their wage-to-income ratio (squad cost) and improper financial adjustments in their accounting. A further suspended €15m (£13m) fine hangs in the balance over the next three years, conditional on Villa toeing the line.

For the 2024/25 season, Villa needed to have a wages to revenue ratio under 80%, which they failed to do. This year, the ratio will settle at its permanent level of 70%, after a soft launch that started at 90% in 2023/24 (when Villa were in the Conference League).

So, what does this mean for the summer transfer window?

In short: every move must be calculated, strategic, and, crucially, revenue-backed.

Under UEFA’s rules, Aston Villa must now demonstrate a positive net spend if they want to register any new players for the Europa League. No player can come in unless someone goes out first - and for the right fee. This rules out speculative spending or gambling on potential - the club must now think three moves ahead.

Selling the Women’s team helped with the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), but UEFA explicitly does not allow intra-group asset sales to count. That loophole is shut - so selling training grounds to sister companies or creative swaps won’t work here.

Villa’s summer strategy must focus on three key ideas:

1. Smart Sales – Offloading players not just to free up wages, but to finance compliant acquisitions.

2. Squad Cost Discipline – Wages and amortised transfer fees must now aim to be below 70% of club income.

3. Registering Rights at Risk – Fail to comply, and Villa can’t register their shiny new signings for European football.

So, if you’ve noticed a slower pace in transfer news from Villa Park, this is why. It’s not hesitation - it’s caution. Every move this summer will need to be surgically precise. The club has learned from its Champions League gamble. Now, it’s about maximising value and staying in the game.

A big name coming in? Someone will have to leave.

A big wage offer? It’ll need to be backed by outgoings.

Europa League ambition? Only possible with financial discipline.

This isn’t just a transfer window. It’s checkmate or bust.

For further discussion of how the UEFA ruling impacts the club in more practical players terms listen to our discussion on it on the latest My Old Man Said podcast on Apple, Spotify or any good podcast app.

Villa Park… But Make It Sci-Fi

While most of us for the first home game of last season against Arsenal, were stuck in long queues due to the club’s migration to digital ticketing, and navigating overflowing urinals in the Holte, some of our friends stateside were having a very novel and futuristic experience.

That same game became the first Aston Villa match to be screened at a COSM venue - on what can only be described as a stadium-sized screen. COSM’s Los Angeles site is built around an 87ft wraparound fine-pitch LED screen, housed in a 9,600-square-foot dome that physically places fans inside the match. There are no edges, no frames - just football enveloping your vision. It’s not watching a match, it’s living inside one. Surround sound, multiple replay angles, the glisten of sweat on John McGinn’s forehead - it’s the closest thing to Villa Park on the other side of the Atlantic. COSM currently operates in Los Angeles and Dallas, with Detroit and Atlanta next on the radar.

Even more intriguing for Villa fans in the UK is that COSM’s CEO, Jeb Terry, is said to be scouting London for a venue. A visit took place in April, and partnerships and locations are now being explored to bring the experience across the pond.

With 500 seats at venues, fans have been booking booths and bringing flags, trying to create an atmosphere, as if they’re on an away day.

It’s certainly a GA++ price though, when you compare just turning up to your local pub. The price for general admission (standing) is $22, while higher levels with booths can be $66 to $83 a ticket. A Eight-Seater Party Booth will set you back $352 in total.

Would you pay that amount? Maybe a one-off experience?

Virtual Villa Park

In a previous newsletter, I referenced a talk that ex-Villa CEO Keith Wyness did to some Sports Business students. In that, he also mentioned that Villa had been in talks with Nokia regarding virtual reality season tickets for Chinese spectators.

“We did experiments. I realised in China, virtual reality had been adopted more than any other country in the world, so we worked with Nokia on new cameras for virtual reality, and we were on the verge of selling season tickets for virtual reality headsets in China . We were way ahead of the game.”

I also wrote about the potential of a virtual Villa Park in the metaverse, a couple of years ago in a wtf newsletter. The hype around the metaverse has since quietened, as Donald Trump and Wall Street have subverted the crypto space and derailed its four-year cycle. Still, the idea will resurface soon enough. Monetising international fanbases remains a top priority for clubs, and this kind of technology has real potential to be a game changer in generating new revenue streams.

Regardless of how the evolution comes, the accessibility and cost of suitable interfaces to such technology is always a stumbling block in terms of delivering a good customer/fan experience.

The advantage of the huge wrapped screens seems to give you a similar immersive experience akin to being in the stadium to some degree, while also giving you the community aspect that headsets and personal screens don’t provide.

There are huge screens in the old Holte Suite, now the Lower Grounds, which have been used for away game screenings, especially for European ties. More interesting though is whether The Warehouse building at Villa Park, that should open later this year in December, will bring any invocation or wow factor to the table. Hopefully, they’ll take it beyond just replicating the Box Park model.

With technology redefining how fans experience football, Villa now has a real opportunity to think bigger than beer halls and basic big screens. The future of watching Villa doesn’t just mean being in the ground, and it’ll be interesting to see how close to feeling like you are, we get.

Retro Deal

While the Y2K bug never happened when 1999 turned to 2000, during the time, Villa’s kit did glitch into two stripy numbers that provided the team with a fresh new look. With the home shirt boasting broader stripes than the Muller shirts of 1993-95, could you imagine the meltdown on social media, if it existed then, for such a bold direction.

Very much the shirt of Dublin, Carbone, Taylor, Joachim and Boateng, the retro version of the shirt is now available to buy.

If you’re interested, while the club are selling it at £45, the long established 3Retro are selling it for £40 and if you use the code 3RETRO10, you can get it for £36. There’s free postage on orders of £60 and over too.

Check it out here - 3 RETRO

Speaking of shirts, what do you think about the new Villa home shirt released this week? There’s finally a long sleeve option, something, if I’m not mistaken, supporters haven’t seen since Macron supplied the kits. I remember picking up a long-sleeve white away shirt for £10 in the sale. This new one… is a bit more than that!

Check out the new home range

Thanks for reading and make sure you’re subscribed for the next edition. Take care out there.

UTV

David

Follow me on Twitter/X & Facebook & Threads & Bluesky

PS - P.S. You might remember I mentioned a free retro football manager mobile game a while back in AVWTF. There’s a 2025 update now out - so you can play with Unai Emery’s current squad and manage Villa in Europe - check out the 2025 version here.

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Finally, the sleepy period of June is over. Every year, people seem to forget that the first few weeks after the season closes is the football industry's holiday season — the time when players cut loose and spend their hyper-inflated wages. Those same wages, of course, are at the root of the PSR (Profit and Sustainability Rules) flux that fans increasingly obsess over.

At the final FAB (Fan Advisory Board) meeting in May, the club admitted they’d been closely monitoring Chelsea’s attempt to sell their women’s team - essentially, to themselves. The London club have fast become experts in navigating PSR regulations. So while it might leave a similar taste to fans copying another club’s song, as the motto goes: if you can’t beat them, join them.

In the face of the increasing corporate creep of English football, it's becoming increasingly clear that the rules governing the game need a rethink. Many are no longer fit for purpose - from tokenistic attempts to protect heritage assets to financial rules that aim to stop clubs overspending but end up being anti-competitive.

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Premier League Rule Change Meeting

Earlier this month, I attended a Premier League stakeholder meeting about rule changes for the 2025/26 season. I was one of about 15 supporter reps present - a positive step, with supporters now officially considered stakeholders in the game.

The meeting followed an in-depth survey (that included video football footage scernarios addressing intepretation of the rules). While the meeting's content is still confidential (the Premier League still has to consult club captains, managers, and others before going public), I can say, that a few of the proposed tweaks are aimed at reducing player in-game time-wasting.

It would have been remiss of me not to mention what happened at Old Trafford on the final day of the season, especially with both Premier League and PGMOL representatives present.

VAR is supposed to eliminate injustice. But when the desire for a higher contact threshold is paired with a policy of letting play continue for VAR review - and then undermined by PGMOL’s push for on-field referee primacy via “referee’s call” - the contradictions become clear.

As we saw at Old Trafford, if the referee gets it wrong, the entire VAR protocol is compromised.

PGMOL admitted to me that the referee made a mistake. A fat lot of good that does Villa now. So what's the solution - or is human error just an immovable part of the game?

Opening Day Fixture Deal

At the last FAB meeting, we learned that, due to the redevelopment of the North Stand, Villa have requested to begin the 2026/27 and 2027/28 league campaigns away from home. This is to give contractors maximum time to make the stadium fit and safe - even an extra week helps.

In turn, the club proposed to the Premier League that they open this coming season at home, leading to the now-confirmed opening fixture: Newcastle United at Villa Park.

According to Opta Analyst, Villa have the easiest opening five fixtures in the league. Hopefully, Unai Emery’s men can take advantage of it.

Ticket Price Insider Stories & Win-Win

Today was the deadline for renewing season tickets. While there's a 5% rise for most, some key improvements - which I directly helped bring about - deserve attention.

The Villa FAB, which I co-chaired last season, had called over three ticket consultaton meetings between February and May for a price freeze. But Ben Hatton, the club’s Chief Operating Officer, predictably moved forward with a 5% increase.

That said, this was the first time the FAB (or its predecessor, the Fan Consultation Group) went into consultation properly prepared. In previous years, I’d heard some frankly ludicrous comments from fans supposed to be representing others at such meetiings.

For example, one member once told the club to "charge whatever you think you can get away with" for a Carabao Cup match against Liverpool.

Another, last season, suggested £200 tickets for Cat A games - reasoning that if United or Liverpool fans bought tickets in the home end, at least the club would make money.

When asked what Champions League tickets should cost, another said: “Charge me what you like” - seemingly unaware that he was cosplaying the "take my money" meme.

Needless to say, this kind of feedback emboldened Chris Heck and his team to gouge prices during an anniversary season that should’ve been celebratory, without any bitterness.

Consumer Apathy

Some fans still wave the white flag and say there’s nothing they can do. But apathy is the enemy.

In 2013, I was the only Villa fan marching on the streets of London to protest rising ticket prices at the Premier League offices. The main focus at that time was on away prices - fans were faced with increasing prices, like being charged £62 at the Emirates. From that came the “Twenty’s Plenty” campaign to cap away tickets at £20.

I organised the Villa Park arm of the national protest and joined a second London march with a handful of fellow Villa fans.

The result? Away tickets were capped at £30, a cap that remains in place this season.

Stopping 200% Season Ticket Hikes

A couple of seasons ago, a major pricing overhaul - including new zones, concessions, and categories - was presented to the Fan Consultation Group. I jotted down numbers during the meeting. Later, back home, I did the maths.

It turned out some season ticket holders were facing three different compounded increases, with some older and youth concession fans looking at a rise of over 200% on their season tickets.

I flagged this to the club. They quickly capped rises to 50% - still high, but far better than what could’ve been.

If the club were going to hit fans with another increase for this coming season, then it was important to get some wins for supporters, especially with season ticket holders facing increasing diminishing returns.

We knew there is a major concern in terms of the rising average age of match-going fans, so there was always a good chance for a price freeze on youth concessions and capping domestic cup games at £25 (which had proved successful in attracting new and younger fans).

The key issue for me was the 20% fee season ticket holders were charged if they couldn’t attend a game and used the club’s resale platform.

Given how fixture dates change at short notice - sometimes with just five weeks’ notice - it felt completely unfair, especially with this coming season seeing even more televised games. No other club had a fee that punitive. Until last season, Spurs even allowed fans to resell at general admission prices to make a profit.

After surveying fans, it became obvious: the fee was stopping people from using the platform.

Now, the twist in the story… it also resulted in lost revenue for the club.

Consider this: from the figure presented to the FAB, 5–6% of season ticket holders can’t attend any given game. If all those tickets were resold, the extra money the club makes on resell, when you consider both Category A and GA+ mark-ups - could potentially bring the club in circa £1 million extra across the season.

It was clear across the meetings that Villa’s commercial team struggled to believe there was such a 20% charge. It was something they had inherited and it had flown under the radar.

Thankfully, they saw sense to remove it for this coming season.

It was something of a win-win for all concerned - certainly, in terms of tackling PSR, my idea of removing it was better than that idea of charging fans £200 a ticket!

Interest Free = Interest Free

Another issue on the table was the club’s proposal to introduce an arrangement fee for the monthly payment plan - something over a third of Villa fans use. Other clubs do charge fees, but if Villa had gone ahead, it would’ve potentially amounted to an additional 5–10% price increase, on top of the general 5% increase.

Hatton had tried to frame the cost to the club of arranging such finance, as “equivalent to a 3% price increase” to justify any overall price increase that might come later. You would assume that the cost of finance would have already been baked into ticket pricing over the years. It smelled like a backdoor hike.

We surveyed supporters through the FAB. The message came back loud and clear: adding fees to payment plans would hurt many fans and further erode goodwill. For some, it would actually put them off renewing.

The club again saw sense and kept the interest-free option - genuinely 'interest free'.

Change doesn’t happen overnight. But when supporters speak with clarity and conviction - and back it up with facts - clubs listen. Better outcomes are possible, even in a game increasingly dominated by spreadsheets, suits, and sportswashing.

It starts with showing up - and not waving the white flag.

Oasis’s Brum Significance

This week sees the Oasis reunion tour kick off in Cardiff. I won’t be forking out a fortune to see them, but I was lucky enough to have been around when they first appeared on the scene, and I saw them live a couple of times in the first half of the 1990s. I was living in North London at the time and would spot the Gallaghers almost every week - in bars, clubs, and on the streets of Camden, when it felt like the centre of the universe for a year or two.

A curious little fact I only learned fairly recently: Noel Gallagher actually first laid eyes on a physical copy of the first Oasis record while he was in Birmingham. It happened when Oasis supported Saint Etienne back in December 1993 (I had personally seen Saint Etienne earlier that year - Pulp supported them on that occasion).

Here, Saint Etienne’s manager at the time, Martin Kelly, recalls a defining moment for Noel in a 2020 interview:

“Bob [Stanley of St Etienne] had a copy of the Oasis demo tape and we were keen to seem them play live. Saint Etienne had a string of Christmas shows coming up, so we asked if they would support.

“December 1st was the opening date in Birmingham. Tim Abbot from Creation Records turned up in the afternoon with a box of Columbia 12 inch singles. I remember being stood in their tiny dressing room as the box was cracked open and Noel - with a beaming smile - picked a copy off the top. The first Oasis record he’d seen.

“After a few seconds looking at it he said “here you go” handing me this very copy.

”During the sound check he walked over and asked how much of the PA could they have - ie how loud could they go - I replied “all of it” and they didn't disappoint.”

Please do subscribe to this newsletter and share it about, and I’ll get another one out to you real soon.

UTV

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Pictures - The ‘God’ one is from Brigada 1874, while the two others are from my own collection.

Listen to the My Old Man Said podcast to get further insights into Villa both on and off the pitch.

To help with the cost & access of watching football and to protect your privacy while doing so, get a great deal and four months free with NordVPN, here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/moms

Greetings,

I hope you’re good.

It’s been a while since WTF dropped into your inbox. But with everything going on behind the scenes at the club – and around it – it’s time to start pulling back the curtain again.

I’ve not been idle. Behind the scenes, I’ve been deep in the club’s recent ticket price consultations and co-chairing the Villa Fan Advisory Board (FAB) and trying to get it functioning in a way that’s constructive, not performative. That’s taken time, effort (including building a website for it), and more patience and hours than you'd expect.

To the extent, it was hard to justify the hours and days volunteered to the FAB, as it was impacting on my own life and the time I had for My Old Man Said.

I decided at the start of the year to step away from the FAB, after the ticketing consultation was completed. I’ll write more about that decision in the coming weeks.

So astonvilla.wtf is back.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be digging into some stories and truths to keep you better informed - there’s plenty of Villa misinformation out there to clear up and the record needs setting straight on a few things too. Of course, we’ll also have a few laughs along the way.

Coming Soon in Your Inbox:

The Ticket Price Story
What really happened in the club’s pricing discussions. Did supporters get a say, or just a PSR pitch? And what did we try to change?

The Badge Saga
Did the club break FA and Premier League rules? I’ll cover FA and Premier League posturing, rushed processes, and why this wasn’t just a design issue. If someone can come in from overseas, change a club’s heritage asset on a whim, and leave within two years, doesn’t that suggest there’s something fundamentally wrong with the FA and Premier League rules in the first place?

The Real FAB Story
What exactly is the Fan Advisory Board? What it was meant to be, and can it be more than a Premier League box-ticketing exercise?

Chris Heck: Hero or Headache?
Now the ex-president of business has crossed back over the pond, having met him several times and upon hearing plenty of other’s first-hand accounts - I’ll look at whether he was the self-proclaimed success he thinks he was, or whether he was the a**hole others make him out to be?

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For my thoughts on what’s been happening on the pitch and the team in general, you can catch up on the latest My Old Man Said podcast episode.

If you're still here after over six months of silence – thank you. I’ll keep these emails tight, honest, and worth your time.

First proper post lands later this week.

UTV.

David

Follow me on MOMS Facebook or MOMS X

(Unfortunately, the pictured Unai Emery, Funko Pop 2025/26 edition, doesn’t actually exist!)

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Greetings,

I trust you’re good.

What a week this is going to be. After a title six-pointer with Arsenal in Villa’s first home game, we’re then only a few days away from the genuine excitement of the Champions League draw. The fact Villa will face eight unique opponents - instead of playing three teams twice - offers a great way for Villa to return to Europe’s top-tier competition.

Pot 4 Hopes

While the 36-team league stage may feel like the European Super League in disguise, if we had to again wait another 42 years to participate, this new format makes for a more intriguing European adventure to embrace.

If you look at the chart below, created by Charles from MOMS Match Club, he has used last year's group stage results to generate a large group table. He has also highlighted the pots the clubs came from, giving you a rough idea of what to expect from Pot 4, which Villa will be placed in.

With eight group games this year, rather than the previous six, Villa will have the advantage of facing two teams from Pot 4. In theory, this should increase their chances of gaining some extra points.

Last year, Pot 4's Real Sociedad managed to finish in the top eight, which in this year’s tournament would allow them to skip the play-off knockout stage that the teams finishing 9th to 24th would enter. Similarly, Newcastle United, who narrowly missed qualifying from last year's 'Group of Death' with PSG, Dortmund, and AC Milan, might have progressed under the new group format.

1. Green = Pot 1, Yellow = Pot 2, Orange = Pot 3, Purple = Pot 4

In short, with the addition of two extra games, three wins out of eight should be enough to secure a spot in the knockout round. Given Villa's experience in Europe last season, they should be well positioned to navigate this expanded group stage successfully.

Why there’s a Double Decker Lounge

This season, the AV82 shuttle bus won’t be the only double-decker experience at Villa Park. At the last Fan Advisory Board meeting in May, details were shared of a new temporary drinks and catering structure to be housed in the North Stand carpark on the Trinity Road side (old player’s car park).

Since then, the club sought planning permission for two-year period for this temporary structure, which they announced this week to supporters.

The reason for ‘The Lounge’ - the temporary structure - is that ‘The Warehouse’ project has been delayed and will not be opening at the start of this season, and possibly not even the next. So, ‘the Lounge’ will serve as a stopgap solution.

The Spacecube structure for Villa Park

In addition to offering pre-match catering and drinks for supporters, the club hopes to attract fans arriving early for the increasingly popular player coach welcoming ritual on Trinity Road. The Lounge will be constructed by Spacecube, a company originally founded in Melbourne, Australia. Spacecube specializes in modular building systems designed for temporary and semi-permanent infrastructures. They have previously provided structures for Silverstone, the Australian Grand Prix, the Australian Open, and the Women's World Cup in Sydney.

Chinese Prison Update & Villa Park Chef Fraud

“What ever happened to that guy?” This used to be the common retort from former Villa CEO Christian Purslow, whenever ex-owner Tony Xia was mentioned in Fan Consultation Group meetings.

In a recent talk to Sports Business students, former Villa CEO Keith Wyness, who worked alongside Xia, reflected on his time as a footballing CEO, covering his time at Villa, before he provided an update on Mr Xia.

Wyness discussed the challenges of taking over from Randy Lerner and the state of the club at the time. One thing key issue he quickly identified was the fraud within the club’s catering operations.

“The head chef had brought some allotments about the size of a football pitch. He had grown vegetables there and resold them to the club at inflated prices,” Wyness explained. “Every pint of milk that was coming into the club had his tax, his surcharge on it. In the end, we counted £10m had been defrauded through the club by the chef and his little game.”

“That should have been spotted long before, but because I knew the numbers of what things really should be in a budget, I was able to spot it quickly. It was very scary,” he added. “It was almost like organised crime, and you were up against some pretty unsavoury characters.”

“At that time, Aston Villa had become a catering club that played football, rather than a football club that did catering.”

Speaking of fraudsters, when Wyness reached the part of his story where Tony Xia’s financial troubles came to light, essentially when the sh*t hit the fan for the Chinese owners, he concluded bluntly:

“Our China man had run out of money completely. He was a complete fraud. He’s still in jail for another three or fours years and we were left with a mess.”

£20 Shirts

In a world where a new football shirt can hit you with three figures, a heads-up to a retro bargain.

Restocked with more sizes for Aston Villa’s 1957 FA Cup winning shirt (see below) and the home and away 1980/81 shirts. There’s still some sizes left, but we quick.

You can also use the code ‘GOAL’ to get free UK postage.

Check out the retro range here

Eddie Munster or Kosta Nedeljković?

I’m sorry, but once you see it, you can’t unsee it!

UTV

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Greetings,

The Euros are over, and from an Aston Villa perspective, while the minutes for our players have been minimal, it should have a big positive impact on the season ahead.

While Scotland ultimately flopped in the tournament, at least John McGinn gained the experience of a major international competition. Expectations were low regarding the involvement of both Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins for England, but they both had significant takeaways, with Konsa starting a quarter-final on top of his substitute appearances and Ollie Watkins getting an iconic Hollywood moment with his last-minute winner against the Dutch in the semi-final.

In terms of the Champions League to come, all three players will have had a massive confidence boost and believe they belong at Europe’s top table.

So, with the new season about to start, when are we going to see Villa’s kit for the 2024/25 season? Well, apparently not in the first preseason game…

Villa Kit Launch

While many of us have seen the kit design, it won’t be officially launched until next week. Back in May, I was originally told the kit was slated for a July 15th release, but such releases do tend to be subject to change.

When you factor in the crest change and the switch of supplier into the long lead times involved in designing, producing and shipping a kit, you were always looking at a later release time for Villa’s first Adidas kit.

With little time to work with in terms of design, it’s a pretty straight-up template number.

Potentially, you may see the release of some Villa training kit this week, ahead of the kit release the following week.

Temporary Poundland Shirt

According to information, I was told last week, Villa will play in a one-off kit against Walsall on Wednesday night (the club since released image, added below). That kit will then be auctioned off after the game, with proceeds going to the Aston Villa Foundation.

Update…

The Sweat Test

After both Aston Villa and Newcastle United ditched Castore for Adidas for the 2024/25 season, with Villa effectively ripping up their contract, the sportswear brand has been fighting to rebuild its reputation in English football.

While Castore provides kits for the Ireland national team and European clubs like Bayer Leverkusen, Sevilla, Athletic Club, Feyenoord, Club Brugge, and Rangers, they have faced a damage limitation exercise concerning the Premier League this season.

Next season, their only Premier League team will be Everton, which Castore is promoting as 'The Originals.' They also managed to get relegated Burnley on board, causing some concern among Burnley fans. In Burnley's recent Fan Consultation Group meeting, fans raised the issue of Villa’s experiences with the brand.

Burnley reassured their fans, stating, “We have been reassured that the same thing will not happen with us. One of the benefits of working with Castore is that they are so advanced and would continue to offer kits and options we’ve not seen before.”

What like the ‘wet-look’ option? Villa fans certainly hadn’t seen that before.

Speaking of which…. during the Euros in Germany, Villa’s new kit provider, Adidas, had Villa fans sweating a little when Belgium’s dark red kit replicated the Castore ‘wet-look’ during their games.

Is Villa’s shirt release date being pushed back related to this?

Adidas’ share price today registered a two-year high, so they will certainly be hoping to avoid any shirt scandals similar to Castore’s this season. Meanwhile, interestingly, Nike’s share price is the lowest it’s been in over four years. Adidas’s move to partner with the Premier League’s two most likely teams to challenge the Top Six is perhaps symbolic of their forward-thinking approach while Nike seemingly struggles with fresh innovation and markets.

Stretford End Lessons for the Holte

In the early stages of Villa's obsession with General Admission Plus (GA+) hospitality, when Villa was first planning the Terrace View, which was originally going to be a simple £25 match-day bolt-on for fans, Manchester United was seemingly moving in a different direction.

With United’s equivalent to the Holte, the Stretford End, the club had agreed to fans continuous requests to remove the executive seats from the Stretford End in an attempt to help revive the atmosphere at Old Trafford.

'Following requests from fans, the club worked with its Fans’ Advisory Board to review the presence of executive seating within the Stretford End, in support of successful ongoing efforts to enhance the Old Trafford atmosphere.'

When I mentioned this fact to Chris Heck in his first Villa Fan Advisory Board meeting, the attending fans were told that we were not Manchester United in terms of income.

This was fair enough, but I added that once the Holte stood as Europe’s biggest single top end stand, and the club, in its short-termism, was perhaps missing the revenue-boosting and profile-building potential of being the Premier League’s answer to the iconic Yellow Wall of Dortmund.

To be fair to Heck, the Terrace View wasn’t his initiative, although his team put the lipstick on the pig, in terms of velvet ropes, hostesses, and lanyards, turning it into a venture that takes away normal season tickets and match-day tickets from the fanbase.

The Lower Grounds initiative was under his watch, and while he has since admitted that they learned not to touch the Holte, the damage had been done.

Going back to Heck’s comment on United’s income, bridging the revenue gap is understandably his prime motive, but there are lessons to be learned here.

By removing the hospitality from the Stretford End, United hasn’t suddenly decided they're not interested in its resulting revenue, but rather how it could potentially impact the overall bottom line and the match-day ‘product.’

It’s a cautionary tale in how success ultimately impacts the demographic of your match-going fanbase to the detriment of the club. It took United 20 years of lobbying by its Supporters Trust and a five-year campaign to ‘Reclaim the Stretford End’ to learn it. Hopefully, Villa will heed the lessons quicker moving forward.

UTV

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Greetings,

I hope you’re having a decent summer despite the weather (if you’re in the UK).

Apologies for the lack of frequency on the WTF newsletters. With so many plates to spin in the MOMS ecosystem, it’s hard to keep on top of things with the time available. There are several of these newsletters in draft stage, that haven’t seen the light of day. The information in them is still very relevant and not realised elsewhere, so I will definitely endeavour to get them out for you in the forthcoming weeks, before the new season starts. So make sure you are subscribed.

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With fan media and social media tending to stick to the frequency of parroting whatever the club or media release, it’s important to provide supporters with real information that impacts them and cut through the false narratives that can get perpetuated.

Before I release some of the previously planned newsletters, let’s get up to date with what’s been happening since the close of the season…

Villa’s Emery Transformation

Last season was certainly a big step in the right direction for the football club on the pitch. An excellent start to the season, including that long-winning run at Villa Park, set Villa up for top four. In the second half of the season, Villa faded, but luckily the likes of Spurs, West Ham and Manchester United had similar injury and form issues and didn’t take advantage.

There are concerns with momentum going into the 2024/25 season, when the Champions League will also perhaps take away the focus from the Premier League. Hopefully, though, new players and the return of familiar faces can refocus the team to kick-on in a season full of great opportunity.

While PSR may still temper the extent of any major headline signings, Emery and co will need to box clever to freshen up the team and make it more robust for the tough season ahead. Help is on its way though, with the return of Emi Buendia, Jacob Ramsey and Tyrone Mings, who will all feel like proverbial new signings, while the eventual return of Boubar Kamara, will provide a big boost too.

You can’t help but think that the injuries to Kamara and Mings took away the defensive resilience the team would have needed to get past Olympiacos in the semi-final of the Europa Conference League.

I was lucky enough to go to the final in Athens, and I have to say, based on what I saw, if Villa had got there, they would have beaten Fiorentina and lifted the trophy. The Italians simply set-up to sit deep and stay compact to nullify the Greek team’s undoubted threat on the break (that had made short work of Villa).

If you’re a match-going fan, the Europa Conference League is certainly hard to beat. Away ticket prices are capped at 20 Euros and the home prices are potentially under half of what Champions League prices will be. It has a proper sporting element to it too, with seven or eight teams in it having realistic designs on winning it.

Speaking of Champions League prices…

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PRICES

I remember a Villa Fan Advisory Board (FAB) meeting last season when the Everton League Cup pricing was challenged as being incorrect. The club representative replied that Newcastle United had charged £60 for their European fixtures. They were reminded that Newcastle were in the Champions League.

Ironically, Villa’s Champions League prices are expected to be well above £60. Due to the novelty of playing in the Champions League, the club will certainly take advantage of fans who will understandably be desperate to go.

Single Premier League match tickets have gone up on average by 12%. Next season, a Category A game in Price Zone 1 (top zone) will increase from £68 to £78, while the common Price Zone 2 will be £72.50. Wolves was a Category A game last season - £72.50 to watch Villa vs Wolves in the Holte End is bordering on a joke.

The FAB had proposed that Champions League prices be capped at Category A Premier League prices, but that seems to have been ignored.

The club stated publicly in the last FAB meeting notes, that in terms of Champions League prices:

‘There will be no categorisation.  There will be one price for the League stages of the Champions League played at Villa Park.’

Also, the club warned that most likely won’t be any bundle deals on group game pricing ala the Europa Conference League, last season.

Of course, the actual group draw on August 29th will provide a clearer picture of what the club is likely to do, but hopefully they won’t take the pi** out of supporters.

WAITING LIST

To any Villa fans asking, “Where am I on the season ticket waiting list?”

It’s pretty irrelevant. Being on the waiting list fans won’t give any fans access to any season tickets this season. The amount of normal season ticket holders has been trimmed by 2000 over the past two seasons, with their seats taken up by hospitality offerings.

As the club stated in the FAB notes:

We have 27,000 season ticket holders (this figure does not include GA+ or hospitality season ticket holders).  Two years ago, we had 29,000.  As a result of the small net reduction in GA ticket availability for the 2024/25 season we will not be offering new season tickets to those on the waiting list this summer.

The supposed 30,000 waiting list has ultimately proved to be a useful marketing tool for the club, to intensify the FOMO and channel fans into buying GA+ season tickets and memberships. Considering approximately less than 20% of people on the waiting list have visited Villa Park in the last four years, according to information I’ve heard, it shows you that the composition of the list wasn’t robust enough to push ahead with the new North Stand rebuild.

It is expected that the waiting list will become a benefit of paid Villa membership packages, which it’s been mooted will also have a tiered revamp at some point.

VAR VOTE

As you may have read, Wolves, spurred on by their fan groups, tabled a motion to the Premier League AGM to scrap VAR. It lost with a vote of 19-1. It was obvious that Villa would vote for VAR, as Unai Emery is for it. The fact it provides certainty to his offside high-line largely dictates this.

While I personally don’t agree with Wolves binary approach to VAR, hopefully their blunt sentiment will make PGMOL and the Premier League actually think about the application of it in-stadia and how its impact is ruining the in-the-moment emotion of the game for both supporters and players alike.

CREST ISSUES

The club has maintained that, in their opinion, they have not breached FA rules. In reality, as with most rules in English football, they are retrospective, and the situation is only now being examined by the FA.

The club didn’t register their crest with the FA until Friday, May 17th, giving the FA zero working days to respond, since Villa released the badge publicly 48 hours later, on the following Sunday. This is despite the club deciding to change the crest back in the autumn of 2023 and registering variations of the new crest with the Intellectual Property Office in both December 2023 and February 2024.

The FA couldn’t address the situation until it was registered with them. The club’s legal team obviously identified this weakness in the rules, and the club seemingly waited until the last minute to submit it to the FA.

This is all well and good, but when they actual said, “no” to any supporter consultation process, telling the FAB, it “would be left to the professionals”, it’s a bit fanciful that all their public communication since boasts about a supposed thorough consultation process with supporters.

Chris Heck, Villa Business President on the crest - December 2023

Let’s not forget, the FA, Premier League, and the club themselves, have come up with their respective rules, standards and plans to be seen to be giving supporters a voice in protecting a club’s heritage assets, after pressure from the government’s football governance review.

As I’ve said to the club, it seems they preferred to look for loopholes rather than honor consultation on a heritage asset.

This isn’t about opinions or agendas around the actual badge design itself, but respecting the process and supposed protection of heritage assets that they agreed to. The point here is that, at the first stress test of heritage asset protection for supporters, all initiatives seem to be uncovered as empty posturing and box-ticking.

It’s a worrying precedent for all English football club supporters whose clubs have been bought out by overseas owners who may be disconnected from tradition and the fanbase in search of boosting the commercial bottom line. We’ve seen concerning recent examples in the cases of Hull City and Cardiff City, where their owners tried to change everything from club names to colours and crests.

Villa Park Trademark

A couple of weeks ago, on 25th June 2024, the above image was listed at the Intellectual Property Office for trademarking and is currently in the ‘Pre-Publication’ stage. Most likely, it is for use for merchandise and/or as a logo for commercial activity.

NO TURKEY

Reflecting on the night last season when Aston Villa squeezed past Lille on penalties in the Europa Conference League, there had been the prospect of playing Fenerbahçe in the semi-final until Olympiacos beat them on penalties.

Due to the government's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office travel warnings about traveling to Turkey because of terror threats and the Syria conflict, the club was deliberating whether to take up an away allocation if Villa were to play in Istanbul.

After discussing the situation with the club, they told me that they would most likely have leaned on the side of caution and not requested away tickets for Villa fans.

Something to think about next season in the Champions League, if you’re planning on advance booking flights to a country that might have some issues.

Can You Do Better Than Gareth Southgate?

On a more fun note, Retro Football Manager has brought out a new free mobile games, where you can manage a national team in the current European Championship in 2024. So, you can see if you can do a better job than the much maligned England boss, Gareth Southgate.

Based the old retro Championship Manager of a couple of decades ago, it’s easy to play and good for killing time on your commute or even on the toilet!

You can also manage international teams in classic World Cups and Euros, so relive the World Cups of 1966, 1970 or 1990. Or even, try and go one better in Euro ‘96.

You can download and play International Football Manager, for free, here - https://rfmie.onelink.me/CLvo/momsinternational

There’s more WTF newsletters coming your way soon, so please do subscribe to make sure they land in your inbox

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Greetings,

OK, let’s get this newsletter back up and running. Apologies for the long hiatus. I will catch up on several key Villa supporter matters in the coming week or so, but first a couple of recent updates to get us into the swing of things again…

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Legia Warsaw Villa Park Plans & Improvement

Plans have been put in place for the arrival of the Legia Warsaw fans for the final Europa Conference League at Villa Park. Due to the reputation and behaviour of Legia Warsaw’s away fans - specifically at both the Leicester City Europa League game in 2021 and their recent trip to AZ Alkmaar - Aston Villa, UEFA and the West Midlands police, have been preparing an operation to try and ensure a safe and hassle free night for all.

As I’ve mentioned before on the My Old Man Said podcast, the policing of the game will resemble a Second City derby.

First of all, Legia Warsaw will be receiving a restricted allocation of away tickets of around 1000 tickets to hopefully mitigate any trouble. Normally, they would receive 5%, which would be 2,100,

While AZ Alkmaar were offered the full allocation of tickets, they didn’t take them up (there were around 1,200 AZ fans at Villa Park on the night). The demand would have been a lot greater amongst Polish fans, but many without tickets are still expected to come.

Ultimately though, the club want to make our Polish visitors as welcome as possible to Villa Park.

The club and police have been preparing for Legia Warsaw with dress rehearsals during the Luton Town league game and the AZ Alkmaar game.

One thing that evidently needs addressing from the trial runs is the rearranged exit from the North Stand side.

Anybody who left the AZ Alkmaar game at Villa Park from the North Stand side, were rerouted out of the car park exit behind the club shop. Several Villa supporters dropped me a line, saying it was crowded, poorly lit and a potential hazard with the uneven ground.

Villans on MOMS social media confirmed it potentially presented a dangerous situation, with many supporters describing leaving the AZ game, as unnerving and unsafe.

I raised this supporter feedback with the club and police, and the club took the comments into their debrief of the game.

I have since been told that it will be sorted for the Legia Warsaw game, so expect improvements.

It should be an entertaining evening, with both sides knowing that if they win the game, it should secure winning the group.

Having made the trip to Warsaw for the first game between the teams, the Legia fans were excellent and it is a shame they can’t have a full allocation to add to the atmosphere at Villa Park. However, it is understandable to be fair to the club.

New Away Ticket Allocation Method?

If there’s one perpetual issue that supporters are constantly not happy about and which causes the most frustration, it’s the allocation of away tickets for Aston Villa supporters. For many it is a closed shop.

There’s accusations of fans passing on tickets they don’t attend to preserve their booking history. There’s the problem of fans buying tickets for European games and then not going, thus preventing other supporters going. There’s also an issue of spare tickets not being offered to supporters, despite the last booking tier not taking them all up.

I’ve seen loads of examples of injustice and supporter frustration, and it would take too long to go through them all here.

The biggest problem though is the fact that away game tickets are considered a closed shop to even season ticket holders.

Instead, I’ve contributed to an idea that will hopefully try to create a fairer system and give more Villa supporters an opportunity to see Villa away from home, while safe guarding the so-called ‘Same Old Faces’.

There is no silver bullet to solve this issue. One thing is clear though, a ballot of 50 pairs of tickets (an increase on last season’s 25 pairs), which was in place to counter the notion of a ‘closed shop’, is inadequate and something of a gimmick.

75/25

Essentially, you need a method of distributing away tickets that both protects the loyal away fans with the top-end booking history, yet also opens it up to at least season ticket holders. After all, season ticket holders have suffered consecutive price increases, while having their benefits slowly stripped away.

MOMS member, Ben Redding, initially proposed to me the radical idea that circa 1500 tickets would be given to the Villa supporters that go to every away game, then the rest would be made available to season ticket holders.

That was a bit harsh to supporters who had say a 17+ booking history, but with a tweak, the idea had potential.

So, after further discussion, we settled on the notion of a 75/25 proposal for away allocations that are 3000+.

75% of such an allocation would go to cover the fans with the top booking histories, while 25% would be open to all season ticket holders.

For games with lesser allocations, it would revert to the usual booking history tiers. After all, if you’ve done the hard yards of following the club away throughout the season, you deserve to have a better chance at the smaller allocations like Bournemouth and Luton Town.

So, for example, a 3000 ticket allocation game, would have the following breakdown:

2250 tickets would be available for the top away booking history. So, the Same Old Faces would be sorted out (probably up to around a 16 or 17+ away game history) and their loyalty and effort continued to be rewarded.

750 tickets would be left for season ticket holders (no doubt there would be some lost to hospitality, as there currently is). Any seasoned away fan would probably be sharp enough to know the drill to still pick up a ticket, while all season tickets holders would have at least a realistic chance to get a ticket. The 100 tickets normally allocated to the ballot would be included in this amount.

Of course, you can’t please everybody, but at least the notion of the closed shop would be removed. It would be business as usual for the most regular away fans, while every season ticket holder wouldn’t feel alienated from having the possibility of following Villa away.

The idea was put to the club at the Away Working Group meeting earlier in the month, and to the credit of the club, was warmly received as a possibility for 2024.

Here is the official notes response to it:

Away Booking Criteria 2024

The club then invited the group to advise on what criteria we should consider for 2024.

Having viewed the data from 23/24 season, it was suggested that the club should rethink the tranche system to enable more opportunity for season ticket holders.  The club should maintain protection for those on 19+, then consider 16+ but beyond this point, release the remaining allocation for all season ticket holders.  We may wish to consider this for full allocations of 3,000 or more only and maintain a tranche system for lower allocations.  It was felt that some season ticket holders would be happy being able to obtain tickets for 1 or 2 games, and that hose on 15+ to 11+ would not be impacted too much by the change.

On hearing this suggestion, other group members were invited to give their thoughts.  The suggestion was warmly welcomed by the group.

Following this feedback, the club agreed to circulate two suggested criteria plans for 2024 to the group.  One will follow the existing system with a tranche system based on 23/24 fixtures to date, and then a second one opening out for sales as per the suggestion from the group.  The club will then seek further feedback from the group prior to deciding.

Any away FA Cup matches will be integrated into any criteria as had been agreed at previous meetings

Feel free to offer any constructive views on the idea or any suggestions in terms of tweaks in the comments below.

The overall ethos is to create more winners than losers, when it comes to away tickets.

Free Retro Manager Mobile Game

A bit of light relief from the serious matters above…

There’s a Retro Football Manager game for your mobile which is totally free to play, where you can take control of classic teams from memorable seasons.

In a Villa context, you could try and take Villa's 1980/81 squad and win the league like Ron Saunders. Or manage Villa's European Champions in 1982/1983 and continue the success, rather begin the decay that led to relegation shortly after. You could try and beat Brian Little's league finish of 4th in 1995/96, or even try and outdo Unai Emery with the current squad.

There’s a good selection of seasons and leagues, a real throwback to the old school simple game play of Championship Manager.

It does make you watch ads while playing it, which can be a pain, but at least you get paid £1 million for each ad, which helps with your squad building.

I've tried it on the 1982/83 season. I'm totally guilty of selling Peter Withe and Gary Shaw, then getting in a young Gary Lineker and Michael Laudrup to replace them, on a fraction of their wages.

Check it out here: Retro Football Manager

Until next time.

UTV

Greetings,

Welcome to the latest edition of the AVWTF newsletter. Over the previous editions, I’ve given you the heads-up on several mooted changes to Villa Park, ranging from rail seat placement to frictionless kiosks. This week, I’ve got some updates on the progress on some of these initiatives.

None of this info has anything to do with the recent Q & A session that Villa CEO Christian Purslow conducted with the Villa Trust. According to Chris Budd, who was present at the session, the topics discussed have either been previously covered in this newsletter or already in the public domain.

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‘Safe Standing’ Finally Coming to Villa Park

While I have previously mentioned the discussions regarding the installation of rail seating (commonly known as Safe Standing), I have received confirmation on good authority that Aston Villa has consulted the local authority's Safety Advisory Group regarding the implementation of rail seating in both the Upper Doug Ellis and Upper Holte End.

AVWTF had already reported that Villa had identified these two sections for consideration for potential standing provisions, so it’s good to see the ball is finally actually rolling on getting them in place at Villa Park.

If all goes according to plan (and there’s no reason it shouldn’t), the rail seating will be in place for next season.

While there’s still red tape to overcome on the North Stand redevelopment, it’s unlikely, considering the current macro economic factors, it will begin straight after the conclusion of the Bruce Springsteen concert. A potential second summer concert is in the offing too, which is yet to be announced, but according to my intel, will be the American singer, Pink (P!nk).

One of the incentives of the redevelopment of Villa Park is surely to make the hosting of big summer concerts an annual event, and an extra out of season revenue stream. It’s a no-brainer for the City of Birmingham to back Villa Park’s redevelopment for the long-term fiscal win for the city.

Frictionless Lower Holte Beers

As I mentioned last month in AVWTF, Villa will be introducing a frictionless kiosk in the Lower Holte End, and now I have a specific date to share with you. The kiosk is set to open for the Villa Park clash against Leicester City, currently scheduled for Saturday 4th February.

The club will begin work to install the kiosk, which is thought to have cost them in the region of half-a-million pounds, during the World Cup period. It’s then expected to take four weeks in the new year to install all the required cameras that are integral to the system.

The idea of the frictionless Tap & Go kiosk is you scan your bank or credit card to access the kiosk, shop for items (pour your own beer or choose a pre-poured beer) and then have your desired goods tracked and placed into a virtual basket.

Apparently, this entire transaction should take a fan 15 seconds, in contrast to the current recorded average of 48 seconds (more like five minutes, plus!).

As mentioned previously, the system has been operational at Leicester City's King Power Stadium since the beginning of this season. I have been informed that it has been well received by Foxes fans, who quickly transitioned from considering it a novelty to accepting it as a normal part of their matchday experience.

The system had its initial trial in the Liverpool end during the Community Shield final at the King Power Stadium. It provided Leicester with a bit a learning curve, as the visitors that day took some liberties. Ultimately though, the transgressions of the Liverpool fans allowed certain weaknesses in the system to be ironed out. It is clear that, for obvious reasons, the system is more suitable for home supporters than for implementation in away sections.

Saints Dropped Catch

The club also approached the Safety Advisory Group earlier in the season regarding housing Villa fans above the away fans in the Upper Doug Ellis for fixtures that have there away allocations capped off to 1,600 (just the lower tier).

Unfortunately, as you would have seen at the recent Southampton game at Villa Park, the club didn’t exactly do a good job of getting the word out to Villa supporters, leaving 1000 unsold seats in the Upper Doug Ellis for the Saints game.

With most fans believing the fixture to be a sell out, it was bit of a dropped catch for the club, considering the lost revenue and the current demand for home tickets.

Crest Design Round Two & Three

If you read the previous edition of AVWTF, you would read I was pretty bullish coming out the first Villa Fan Consultation Group meeting on the new crest design. It was a very constructive three-hour meeting and should have provided the design agency, Dragon Rouge, with all the insight on Aston Villa to inform several different new dynamic crest options. As well as looking at the tradition badge concepts, we also encouraged them to explore fresh approaches.

The motto of the design agency declares, "we design for brands with bold ideas and brave hearts." However, during the second meeting, there was little evidence of this mantra. Based on the working examples we saw, it would seem, we might potentially only receive slight alterations to existing ideas (a tweak of the current lion with the use of ‘Aston Villa’ in a round badge?) ala what the agency did with the Paris St Germain badge; one of the two football badges, along with Lille, they have previously designed.

Based on the working examples we saw, it appeared that we might only receive slight modifications to existing ideas (such as a tweak of the current lion emblem with the inclusion of 'Aston Villa' in a round badge). This approach seemed similar to what the agency did with the Paris St Germain badge, one of the two football badges they had previously designed, the other being Lille.

Aside from a round badge variation and a lion emblem without any outer casing with "Aston Villa" written beneath it, the remaining options were not noteworthy (they were merely different lion variations within various shield templates). The majority of the options were rather underwhelming (which I told the designers straight-up).

Hopefully, the feedback provided by fans during the consultation will sharpened the designers minds to come up with a stronger line-up of options in the next round of design concepts, which I’ll see this coming week, when the Fan Consultation Group views them.

It is undoubtedly preferable for the final Villa crest to be the best choice among a robust selection, rather than being chosen simply because it was the only acceptable option.

The final selections will be subject to a supporter vote. Ideally, all the options under consideration would be deemed acceptable.

Make sure to subscribe to this newsletter to receive my initial reaction to the next round of designs.

UTV

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Greetings,

Trust you are well.

Welcome to you latest dose of proper Aston Villa news and insight directly into your inbox.

A decent return from Villa’s the last two games - both at Villa Park - now makes the international break bearable and hopefully lays the foundations for further improvement in October. The upcoming six games in that month will undoubtedly play a significant role in defining what type of season Villa will have.

While the injuries to the club’s two main new signings, Diego Carlos and Boubacar Kamara, are a concern, if the likes of Coutinho, Buendia, Bailey, Luiz, McGinn, Watkins, Ings, Mings and Konsa all improve on their offerings of last season, then we should still see improvement.

Despite the injuries, the buck rests with Steven Gerrard and his coaching staff, as there’s still enough talent to choose from, so let’s see what October brings.

Meanwhile, let's shift our focus to three off-the-pitch issues.

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New Crest Design

A few weeks ago, I attended a Villa Fan Consultation Group meeting focused on the new Villa Crest and overall aesthetic of Aston Villa’s future branding. Also present at the meeting was a designer from a London-based agency who will be working on the project.

As you may recall, a couple of days prior to the meeting, the club had released a survey for supporters to provide their input on the design (which you probably participated in). Personally, I found that survey, wasn’t set up to gather the constructive information it sought to collect, as it funnelled the aspirations of supporters into token marketing buzz words like ‘fun’, ‘energetic’, ‘premium’, which ultimately aren’t too useful in informing the process.

Furthermore, asking fans to choose their favorite badge from rival Premier League and Championship clubs, where tribal influences could potentially affect judgment, was a somewhat limited exercise.

It’s worth pointing out that the Fan Consultation Group had expected for the ‘consultation’ process to begin with the survey, but that was publicly released before any input could be given.

However, the actual meeting itself proved to be much more constructive and substantive. I was pleasantly surprised to find that other FCG members were open-minded regarding the approach to the crest design and there was plenty of constructive debate.

Like many Villa supporters (including those at the meeting), I have a strong fondness for the round badge from the 1980s, which was used between 1974 and 1992. It was my first Villa badge and symbolises a golden age for Villa, when they achieved their greatest success. In my opinion, it surpasses any badge that came after it.

However, it's important for the club not to dwell on the past or be trapped in stagnant fan sentiment or lazy nostalgia. While those at the meeting were also advocates for the round badge, they largely shared the view that the club should explore every possibility and adopt a ‘green hat’ approach to revaluate core elements and be open to fresh concepts and ideas.

Personally, I stressed that merely designing a badge that sought to please as many fans as possible (and avoid a potential backlash on Twitter) would result in a run of the mill, generic and conservative design.

To give you an idea of some of the key things that were discussed, lets start with the obvious approach to appease the social media masses…

Take the current lion with a star, throw it into a round badge and swap AVFC with ‘Aston Villa Football Club’ in a modern font. That would pretty much be considered job done.

However, I believe this is a lazy approach that would result in a badge resembling the current direction taken by clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester City, Brentford, Brighton et al. In fact, it could potentially bear too much resemblance to Chelsea’s latest design.

Wouldn’t this be wasting an opportunity to set Villa apart from other clubs?

After all, one of the motivations for the new badge was to attract potential new overseas Villans.

Star Thoughts

During the meeting, there was an interesting debate regarding the inclusion of a star within the badge. One person suggested it was expendable, implying that it should not define us. They argued that immortalising the star within the badge suggested a lack of aspiration and the belief that such achievements would never be attained again.

Furthermore, throw in the fact that the likes of Nottingham Forest and Chelsea have won it twice, also makes Villa look a little small time.

There was a suggestion that the star should only be displayed on the shirt, either above or below the badge, when Villa participates in European competitions. This line of thinking has its merits.

Personally, I have shifted my viewpoint from considering the star as an essential element within the badge. I now prefer the idea that it should be used outside the badge. After all, if/when Villa do win another Champions League, then you’ll need another new badge.

As it stands, I prefer the away shirt badge, when the star is the same claret colour as the lion. On the home badge, the white star alongside a yellow lion gives the impression that the lion is following the star of Bethlehem.

Speaking of the lion, I am not a fan of the yellow color. In principle, it should be claret to enhance visibility and make it more visually appealing.

Lion

When it comes to capturing the essence of the club's history and origins, the rampaging lion, with its Scottish heritage, stands as a key and singular element. However, I would argue that Aston Villa has yet to find a lion representation in any of their badges that is truly satisfactory and definitive.

Does the current lion emblem truly resemble a "rampaging lion"? Does it exude fearlessness or pride?

I’d argue it could be improved.

Interestingly, in this regard, it often doesn't take much to alter the perception and appearance of a badge. Take, for example, the redesigned Tottenham Hotspur badge shown below.

During the meeting, I jokingly mentioned the cockerel in Spurs’ previous badge looked like a depressed chicken. In reality, all the designer literally did was adjust the bird’s posture by puffing out its chest, and it dramatically transforms the feel and message conveyed by the badge.

With its posture adjusted, the Spurs cockerel now looks a lot more proud and distinguished.

Maybe a small tweak or two on Villa’s lion is all that is needed?

As previously mentioned, if there is to be a lion, it has to be claret to connect it to the club and to be used out of a badge context (more of that later).

Aston Villa vs AVFC

The prevailing sentiment at the meeting was largely that if you’ve got one of the best and most unique names in English football, then it should be on the crest, rather than using a hashtag-like abbreviated form that significantly undermines the club's image. This viewpoint appears to align with the feedback received from the club's fan survey as well.

However, if we are considering all possibilities in this design process, it may be worth exploring an option that departs from both the lion symbol and the club name entirely.

Let’s get minimalist…

A & V

One avenue I thought was definitely worth exploring was to look at the possibilities of what could be done utilising the letters A & V. From a design perspective, these letters possess great aesthetic qualities and an inherent symmetry when combined. They are iconic across the Villa spectrum - from the former unique and fabulous A & V floodlights to younger Villa fans making A and V signs with their fingers in social media pictures.

Perhaps the A and V may be underutilised in Villa's current branding?

There are various possibilities for incorporating them in inventive ways within the actual crest, ala Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, or Fulham. Alternatively, creating a personalised typography with a focus on the A & V could be explored to enhance the overall branding of the club.

Another approach could be to use the A & V as a frame for the badge, with the lion positioned in the middle, an A shape on top, and a V shape below.

It's important to avoid overcomplicating the badge and attempting to include too many symbolic gestures. Sometimes, a minimalist approach can be more impactful and meaningful.

Moving Elements

That being said, if the design team can create an improved lion design, it would open up more dynamic options for the overall design.

Take Liverpool and Spurs as examples, where their shirts feature a key element from their crests rather than the full club crest. Spurs use their cockerel, while Liverpool showcases the Liver bird. This approach not only looks visually appealing but also allows the key element of the club's identity to be utilised in a more dynamic fashion as a logo on shirts, rather than as a traditional crest.

The crest itself can be reserved for other purposes such as the stadium, gates, letterhead paper, and badges.

Additionally, why not get creative with the third kit? Incorporating the new lion into old-style badges from Villa's history could be a unique approach, making important elements adaptable to Villa's branding. For example, on the anniversary of winning the European Cup, the third kit could feature the round badge. Similarly, on the anniversary of the club's founding, the first-ever Villa badge could be used. There are numerous possibilities to make third kits more significant and meaningful.

I will be attending a follow-up Fan Consultation Group meeting this week to potentially view some early designs, so I’ll update you accordingly.

New Sponsor Ahead?

After a strategic review of their European operations, Cazoo, Aston Villa’s current shirt sponsors, have announced they are proposing to "‘wind down operations in mainland Europe to focus on core UK market’.

The company had earlier this year announced cutting 15% of its workforce (thought to be 750 jobs) in an attempt to save them £200m. Plus, after sponsoring Everton for two-years, they were unable to negotiate an acceptable extension to that deal.

Cazoo’s withdrawal from the EU market is ultimately motivated by further cost-cutting and downsizing. It will remove the need to potentially overextend themselves in propping up European operations with further funding. It is estimated to result in net savings of £100m by the end of next year. With a focus on cash preservation during a difficult macro-economic backdrop, boosted by record UK revenues, the Company is now expecting to breakeven by the end of 2023.

You’d expect them to potentially retreat from the expensive practice of football team shirt sponsorship (Villa are reported to obtain circa £6m-a-season), after an outlay of millions across several European football clubs.

So, all roads seem to lead to a new Villa shirt sponsor next season.

Speaking of shirts…

Early Shirt Sales

The normal Aston Villa shirt price of £65 had seen a head-shaking 14% price increase on last season. I discussed in an earlier myoldmansaid article how Aston Villa shirt prices stacked up against the rest of the Premier League. Only Spurs (£115) and Chelsea (£114.95) charged more than Villa (£110) for a pro-fit version of their shirt.

Interestingly, since the 2022/23 season kicked off, Villa supporters only had to wait a matter of weeks before shirts were being offered up at substantial discount prices of 25% off.

Now, Fanatics control sales offers and obviously have well-oiled price reduction formulas to shift stock levels, so are these earlier than normal sales, an indication that perhaps the club got the initial pricing wrong?

UTV

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Greetings,

Welcome to the second astonvilla.wtf newsletter of the past week, as I catch up on things new and old. If you haven’t read this before, please do subscribe to get a dose of real Villa news and insight directly into your inbox. Think of it as a break from the battery hen style of clickbait that passes for journalism nowadays and the hysteria of Twitter.

Yesterday evening, I attended the latest Villa Fan Consultation Group meeting at Villa Park. It lasted over three hours, as we discussed a host of topics, including: the potential new Villa crest and general aesthetic of the club, an update on the North Stand development and what went wrong - catering wise - at the first home game of the season.

The Villa CEO Christian Purslow wasn’t present, as it wasn’t one of his allotted meetings, so there was no direct conversation about the playing side of things.

That said, without being able to say too much, rest assured Villa are actively on the hunt for the right deal/s.

CB Issue

With less than a week to go of the transfer window, Aston Villa are indeed looking to improve matters player-wise, but they are obviously faced with the dilemma of availability of players to upgrade the first XI. Steven Gerrard already labeled it a “bloated squad”, so that’s the clue they’re not in the market for squad filler.

Ahead of this summer window, the centre-back position was identified as a key position. To get in one player that would be a likely starter, you would not only upgrade that position, but increase the competition for the other centre-back spot and thus sharpen the focus of Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa and Calum Chambers. A win-win.

That is why Villa acted early and spent £26m to get a head of the pack and bring in Diego Carlos. With the Brazilian centre-back being 29-years-old, and very much bought for this season, his unfortunate long-term injury means the club have seen a large chunk of the value of their sizeable outlay literally vanish.

Whatever the expectations of transfer hungry fans on Twitter is, in the real world, losing millions of pounds isn’t an easy pill to swallow. Obviously, the owners will be cautious to throw good money after bad.

That said, it was indicted that Villa are actively still searching for a centre-back solution, but there is a problem…

From the original due diligence and research into the centre-back position, the club did when they bought Carlos, from the initial list of potential centre-backs compiled, all of them have since signed for new clubs. The two that didn’t, signed new contracts with their existing clubs during this window.

We’re talking a comprehensive list of centre-backs too. So, the question is, can Villa unearth any viable options in a short time frame that make sense?

North Stand Bigger Picture Concern

While the new images of the North Stand development (see above) are very exciting, there’s an underlining concern from the club about the current marco economic factors that are impacting the construction industry.

With rising inflation in developing countries, there’s been a dramatic knock-on effect in the construction industry. Supply chains have been compromised, as prices of building materials, machine hire, consultation and labour, are significantly rising.

The uncertainty in terms of pricing makes it difficult to quote and budget for major projects, so a lot of risk has entered the industry.

Economically speaking, you could say, it’s one of the most difficult times in the last few decades to undergo such a major construction project as the North Stand redevelopment.

So, do bare that in mind, if there are delays in the North Stand redevelopment…or Villa aren’t dropping another £26m to replace Diego Carlos!

Futuristic Beers

If you went to the first home game of the season at Villa Park against Everton, there’s a good chance you’d have encountered a catering or drinks issues on the Villa Park concourses and kiosks (those that were actually open).

Suffice to say, the club are not best pleased with the incompetence demonstrated by Levy (the company who run the kiosks around the ground).

While they may have suffered from not having a Villa Park preseason friendly this summer to get back in the swing of things, there’s no excuse for some of the malpractice that supporters had to endure on an especially hot day (closed kiosks, chronic queues, poor beer quality, wrong pricing, lack of water etc, etc, etc).

I’ve read the statement that the club will issue (you may have already read it by the time you see this) and I was particularly interested in the mention of a few things, that are long overdue in terms of actively trying to address queue times at kiosks.

Never mind the Everton game, these Fan Consultation Group meetings have been venting supporter frustrations about kiosk queues for years now, without seeing any real visible attempts to find solutions. I also reiterated at the latest meeting, the concern that supporters are paying premium prices for a poor standard of beer. Which simply isn’t good enough.

It seems judging by the statement, action will finally be taken.

The beer quality is being reviewed (and hopefully improved), while pre-poured beer is being introduced to concourse kiosks.

As well, as a bunch of other measures (as indicated in the forthcoming statement), the most interesting development is the introduction of ‘Frictionless ‘Tap + Go’ payment and self-service technology.

The self-service technology has already been introduced by Levy at Leicester City’s King Power stadium, a video of which, I posted up on the My Old Man Said Facebook page a week ago (talk about willing it into Villa Park existence!)

In terms of self-service technology, think those new Amazon Fresh stores, where there is no checkouts. You enter a zone. Tap in, with your debit/credit card, and then take what you want. A series of cameras picks up what you’ve taken and you are automatically charged as you leave.

I’m curious to see this in action. It’s expected to be rolled out sometime this season (I think the Lower Holte concourse maybe the initial guinea pig site).

New Restrictive View Policy

Look at the below picture...what do you think? Is this a restrictive view?

All last season, this was my new season ticket seat, which cost £615. It was sold to me with zero warning of any potential restriction.

Originally, at the start of the season, after I emailed the above picture in, asking them politely, wtf? The club offered to move me. But, I asked them would they mark it up as a restricted view in the future? The interesting thing was, at every turn, they failed to acknowledge there was even a restriction. It was soon apparent, that the same seat would continue to be sold on to other fans without any warnings, as it continually had been over the years (no doubt like other seats around the ground).    

The Villa supporter who sat next to me, who has been there for 15 years, told me, that no season ticket holder ever stays in the seat.

I kept the seat during the season to essentially to fight the good fight.

At one stage, the stadium Green Guide was quoted at me, which stated, that as long as you can see the corner flags and goal posts, it’s not officially a restricted view.

The seat immediately to the left of me the pitch isn’t restricted by the rail, but you can't see the bottom right corner flag from it. So, according to the Green Guide, this would be a restricted view. Bonkers.

I wondered what the common sense guide stated on these seating matters?

Pretty much any large venue you go to in Birmingham - for example, the Arena or the Symphony Hall - will always be very transparent, when you buy a ticket, about there being a hand rail in view (even if it doesn't offer a price reduction). Such transparency is pretty much standard practise for most good theatres or music venues in the world. It’s a pretty basic expectation.

So why should football fans be treated differently? I mean, they even have a ‘Green Guide’ to justify the mistreatment!

Anyway, onto the good news.

Long story, short. After discussing the situation directly with the club’s directors at a previous FCG meeting, they made the commitment and actioned the process of assessing all the stadium’s seats and flagging any with a restricted view on their website seating maps for ticket purchases. So in the future, all Villa fans will know what to expect from the the seat they purchase.

As well as the club’s commitment to better communication of rescheduled fixtures (that I detailed previously), it’s a positive step in the right direction of providing a better level of ‘customer service’ to supporters.

Now, let’s hope matters improve on the pitch.

UTV

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Greetings,

Welcome again to the newsletter that hopes to give Aston Villa supporters an alternative to the battery hen style of clickbait churnalism what passes for journalism nowadays.

Due to being busy on the myoldmansaid.com front for the 2022/23 season, this one has been on the backburner for a few weeks, so apologies for that. I’ll put out another edition next week to make up for the shortfall. I’ll save discussing what’s happening on the pitch for a future edition, as I’ve done plenty of that in the My Old Man Said podcast and also in my weekly Tuesday column for the BBC Sports website.

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Make sure you’re subscribed and now let’s get up to date on a few matters…

Villa Park Meltdown

If you were at the opening game of the season against Everton at Villa Park, you’ll maybe be aware that the warm weather caused a few issues. There was a lack of drinks, water, staff and open kiosks, while seemingly poor planning and communication of the situation to Villa and Everton supporters.

Obviously, the Villa Fan Consultation Group (FCG) has been in touch with the club about this, and we were told they are investigating the situation and there will be a club statement on the matter very soon.

A Villa supporter left the following comment on My Old Man Said’s Facebook page regarding details of a call he had with the club regarding the situation, which provides some useful insights ahead of any statement.

‘Had a call off the club on Tuesday, a wholehearted apology and they agreed they need to do better, I was told 55 staff never even turned in for work & on a normal 12.30 kick the stadium usually sells around 8,000 bottles of soft drinks, over 13,000 were sold last weekend, beer coolers couldn’t handle the heat, hopefully this was just a one off and there will be improvements for West Ham.’

I’m due to attend a FCG meeting next week at Villa Park, regarding a couple of other matters, so no doubt we will get some further insights then.

The Holte End Future

You may have read that the Premier League have given the green light to Premier League clubs to install safe standing/railing seating, after it was trialed from the beginning of the year at a handful of grounds.

Now, while Villa have fallen behind in being active on the issue (having been the first Premier League club, back in the Randy Lerner days, to offer to trial it), an interesting factoid popped up in the recent Villa FCG meeting about the North Stand redevelopment. For the eagle eared of you, I’ve already mentioned this previously on the MOMS podcast.

In terms of fitting rail seating in the Holte End, rather than simply replacing the current seats with the new ‘safe standing’ ones, there is another option, that could potentially expand Villa Park’s capacity further.

Apparently, according to Villa’s Head of Estates, around 35% of the rubble of the old Holte terrace is buried under the current Holte End.

It’ll probably come as no surprise to older fans, as it seems like the classic kind of move Deadly Doug (Ellis) would make to save on the cost of excavation!

Apparently, clearing this out could create the space to allow for a restructuring of the Holte and its lower concourse to potentially increase the capacity of the stand by 2000 to 3000 fans.

It’s an intriguing proposition, but any such work on the Holte would come in a phase after the North Stand has been rebuilt. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to see how Villa Park can potentially have a further increase in capacity without having to rebuild an entire stand.

Get ready though for the selling off of the Holte rubble… ‘Another chance to own a piece of the famous old Holte End’.

Maybe Ellis missed a trick there?

International Market

The Australian preseason tour looks to have been a big success. Of course, it helps strengthen ties with Villans based down under, some watching Villa in person for the first time. Having personally previously lived in Australia for a couple of years, I know the struggle of silly o’clock kick-off times, so the chance to watch Villa at a civilised time cannot be underestimated.

Photo: Daniel Njegich

Once upon a time, the focus of football clubs had been their season ticket holders and filling their respective stadiums. For Premier League clubs to truly thrive and expand nowadays (and meet their increasingly astronomical wage bills), their international fanbase is king, as it offers an upside not restricted by a seating capacity.

Premier League clubs like Villa have been frustrated in recent years due to the fact they have millions of social media followers, but because they don’t own the social platforms, they can’t directly monetarise them or collect the data off them. Beyond vanity and using them as a reference to show would be sponsors and advertisers, they are limited in use.

The Covid-19 lockdown period certainly focused football clubs minds on utilising this international social media following. How could they migrate them onto in-house platforms and - to put it bluntly - harvest them for financial gain?

Currently, Villa have taken a more cautious approach, which is not a bad thing.

Villa’s Movements

Beyond concentrating on their membership offerings and improving their OTT offering of Villa TV, the club did agree to a sponsorship deal with Socios to run their AVL fan tokens.

Currently, beyond ‘VIP experiences’ and meaningless polls, these tokens offer very little utility to fans. The true motivation for the club was simply the upfront sponsorship money to offset some of their Covid losses, and to use it as a learning curve on such products going forward.

Fan tokens with proper utility could provide a potential gateway for international fans to interact with the club, especially when it comes to future metaverse offerings (more of that later).

Socios mistake was perhaps using the term ‘fan engagement’, which in the English game is very much a political term. Due to this, it’s triggered the Football Supporters Association and a slightly hackneyed pitchfork brigade to regard all crypto, NFT’s and Web 3 in football, as bad and akin to gambling.

The technology and software side of it all is not, it is inevitable evolution. To put it simply, it is the next stage of the internet and the world’s financial system.

NFT Restraint

Villa have been wise to sit on the sidelines and exercise restraint so far in the NFT space (Non-Fundgible Token’s are essentially digital assets, which can collected, bought and sold). The NFT market very much had a bubble of extreme interest in 2021, before it quieten down due to the recent crypto market downturn (echoing other financial markets).

Last month, Barcelona sold a one of a kind NFT via a Southby’s auction for a incredible $695,000. The NFT is a 40 second golden animation of Johan Cruyff’s iconic flying goal against Atletico Madrid in 1973 (pictured above), which allegedly took over 10,000 hours to make.

You can imagine the Villa hierarchy thinking, “Hmmm, I wonder what we could get for an NFT of Peter Withe’s European Cup winning goal?'“

If they haven’t thought that yet, they certainly will after reading this!

Maybe you will get a free chunk of old Holte rubble with the purchase of a future NFT of the former Holte End terrace?

At the moment, the Barca NFT is a best case example, while others haven’t fared so well. Liverpool recently brought out their first NFT range earlier in the year, and as someone who has a knowledge of the market, it looked a little crass and mismarketed to me.

Liverpool players made up as cartoon superheroes?

They released a run of 171,072 randomly generated ‘Hero’ tokens (priced at £57.20 each), while a further 24 unique ‘Legendary’ tokens were put up for auction through Sotheby’s.

Liverpool were projecting they could raise more than £8.5 million through sales.

With a poorly realised concept - too many tokens released, lack of current mainstream adoption of NFTs, poor art aimed at the wrong demographic (I don’t think kids are really going around dropping their pocket money on NFTs) - it was no surprise when they only sold 5% of its ‘Hero’ tokens on release (a good NFT project of standard 6,000 to 10,000 allocation, normally sells out in a matter of hours).

The sales of the 24 ‘Legendary’ images raised close to £100,000, with half of the money going to the Liverpool Foundation.

All in, Liverpool raised roughly around the £500,000 mark for their NFT collection, but you then have the costs of creation, marketing and Sotheby’s fee to factor in.

Anyway, currently, while the crypto savvy might know how to buy and store NFTs, the vast majority of a club’s millions of social media followers won’t. So better mainstream understanding and easier interfacing of such digital assets is something clubs are no doubt willing along, so they can fully take advantage of it.

Currently, Villa have time on their side, but they’ll see the potential is there.

In short, with no need for international postage, expect digital merchandise to become a big thing for overseas fans, whether it’s a collectable (ala digital Panini stickers like Sorare) or an online flex, like a Villa shirt for your Fortnite gaming character.

Virtual Villa Park

Then there’s the potential of the Metaverse and Web 3 for clubs to sell unique viewing opportunities for their international fans.

Imagine being able to watch an actual Villa game live in a virtual Villa Park, standing on a virtual Holte next to your friends from around the world. Then at half-time, walk around virtual concourses to meet up with other friends. Maybe even go to a virtual Villa Store without any queues to buy merchandise (digital and real) and then a music concert after the final whistle, hosted at the virtual version of the proposed new ‘Villa Live’ building.

Whatever the interface this ends up being through, whether it’s virtual reality goggles or some other system, the possibilities are endless. And if they add the possibility of queuing 20 minutes for a virtual beer at half-time, it will be a very realistic experience too.

In match reports of Villa games there would be no doubt two attendances reported - the actual stadium’s and the metaverse stadium’s (which could be unlimited or have a capacity cap to drive demand and price).

Manchester City recently signed a three-year deal with Sony to develop their metaverse stadium, so this is something that is happening in the now, as apposed to the distant future.

All of this is predominately being fast-tracked to capitalise on increasing numbers of international supporters and the expansion of oversea’s markets. Football as we know it is changing.

Be warned…the Modern Game 2.0 is coming.

UTV

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Greetings,

Trust you are well and welcome to your latest dose of behind-the-scenes Villa alpha info into your inbox.

Preseason is upon us. Lower league teams have already started their friendly games and some Villa players (including Matty Cash, Tyronne Mings and Ollie Watkins) have been seen in recent weeks with their personal trainers around Bodymoor Heath and at overseas facilities, sharpening up for their return.

It’s a big season for Villa. The Gerrard revolution begins in earnest and the club have to make-up for underperforming over the past couple of seasons, when they had budgeted for a top-half finish.

The players return for pre-season this week and play their first preseason fixture in a week’s time against Walsall.

In the meantime, lets catch-up with a few things…

(Please do make sure you subscribe below, if you’re not subscribed already, to make sure you get future editions of this newsletter in your inbox when it drops.)

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Wrecking Ball Returns

You may remember the wrecking ball picture below used in the first edition of the astonvilla.wtf newsletter, referencing what former Villa CEO Paul Faulkner had told me, that ultimately, the North Stand needed a wrecking ball put through it and to be rebuilt from scratch.

In the Villa Fan Consultation Group (FCG) meeting with Christian Purslow back in April, it had been explained that in terms of building a new North Stand, Villa were planning to take a similar approach to Liverpool’s recent stand rebuilding.

In that, the new North Stand would be developed behind the existing one and built over it. This would allow the club to pretty much continue to operate at full capacity on matchdays, while the building work was undertaken.

Fast forward to the FCG North Stand consultation meeting that I attended this week, and it was confirmed that there had been a change of heart and the North Stand will be levelled and rebuilt from scratch.

While the ‘build over’ approach offers the short-term win of not losing a percentage of matchday revenue due to maintaining capacity, there is the potential for the actual stand to become something of a Frankenstein monster.

Potential compromises mean new infrastructure is connected to old, and there’s also the issue of creating a bigger footprint in terms of the actual building site.

In their assessment, the club’s architects and estate development team have concluded that building a new stand from scratch offers the best solution and also better future proofs it for decades to come.

The main concern here for supporters is of course the reality of a reduced Villa Park capacity. Potentially, it could be lower than 35,000, across two seasons (an exact timeline isn’t known yet).

The current North Stand season tickets holders would obviously have to be migrated to other parts of the ground.

Villa Park hasn’t exactly been a stranger to compromised attendances recently, with Covid forcing the club to play over a season behind closed doors. Then, let’s not forget, during the Championship seasons, Villa closed the Upper Trinity due to a drop in ticket demand at the time.

During the seasons of rebuilding the North Stand, Villa are expected to be running a largely ‘season ticket only’ policy for match days. With very few individual tickets expected to be up for grabs, if any.

With 95% of season ticket holders renewing this summer, the club is likely to take the step of increasing the number of overall season tickets holders, tapping into the waiting list of of circa 25,000, with a view to the increased capacity the new North Stand will ultimately offer.

While season tickets have gone up in price considerably for the upcoming season, holders should at least reap the benefit of actually being able to see Villa play, when it comes to the 2023/24 season onwards.

North Stand Plans

PS - Just to confirm, unfortunately, there will be no Villa Park monorail, that I joked about in A Venglos View, to solve the potential transport issues.

Communication Improvements

You will recall that the final home game of last season against Burnley, was rearranged from its original December 2021 date due to Covid.

At the time of the postponement, the club stated that they would be contacting every season ticket holder who had sold their tickets on, regarding reinstating the tickets back onto the season ticket.  

Fans (like myself) who had ‘officially’ passed on their season tickets to friends/family for the game via the club's box office (who raise a pdf ticket for another fan to use), due to being unable to attend over the Christmas period, assumed we were in the same boat and would receive a direct communication from the club.

None was forthcoming. That said, after five months, you'd expect the ticket to revert back to the season card holder, since they're the people who actually paid for it.  

It's obviously what hundreds of fans thought, but their season tickets didn't work at the Burnley game and they were left stranded outside the ground, when the match kicked off.

When you've got hundreds of fans stranded and queuing across all the various ticket offices at the ground (with very slow-moving queues), you know it's a club caused problem, rather than a fan one.

After initially receiving a disappointing response from the club about the issue, I flagged the situation to senior staff at the recent Villa FCG meeting.

The good news is the club has now given an assurance to put a more extensive communication plan in place for future rearranged fixtures. The communication plan for any rearranged fixture will now need to be approved by both Villa’s Commercial and Communication Directors to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

This welcome move will hopefully make sure such supporter inconvenience and frustration doesn’t happen again at Villa Park.

Fixture List Formation

I’ve already written an article on MOMS regarding why Aston Villa begin the upcoming season once again with an away game - in short, it’s because of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham are happening on the opening weekend of the Premier League season.

The perception that generating the season’s Premier League fixtures is an entirely random process is a bit of a falsehood. So for your information, here’s a little insight into the actual process.

When setting a season’s fixtures - which is actually done by a contractor employed by the Premier League - all clubs are asked around March time, whether they have any requests to accommodate any local circumstances or events.

Carnivals and festivals are one of the main such requests - (Pride events and the Notting Hill Carnival  are obvious examples), and other requests include Political Party Conferences and other sporting commitments (the Rugby League final at Old Trafford or the aforementioned Commonwealth Games in Birmingham).

Clubs may also make a request if they have work to be done on their stadium, at the start or end of the season. The fixture scheduler will usually allocate an away match for that weekend, but they could also designate a day other than Saturday.

Unless a club makes too many requests, they are almost always accommodated, if advised at that time - the police, who are also consulted on the fixtures, will also have an interest in these as it impacts on their policing capacity. 

There is a confidential final meeting review, a couple of days before the fixtures are announced, that a Football Supporter Association representative, as well as the police, attends.

So, if there is an issue because of a major event happening at the same time of a big game, it’s normally because the home club didn’t have the foresight to flag it up to the Premier League.

Obviously, in the case of the Commonwealth Games there was no such issue, as both Villa and Wolves requested to play away from home on the opening weekend of the football season.

UTV

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2-0 up. 15 minutes to go. Then you allow a team to score three goals in the space of five minutes…

Now you know why this is called astonvilla.wtf!

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3-for-1

While I prefer to stick mainly to Villa supporter issues on WTF, here’s a little bit of alpha info into the Villa transfer window picture, that I haven’t mentioned before. It may help explain why Villa have been linked to so many players of the same position in recent weeks.

Villa’s CEO Christian Purslow declared in the last Fan Consultation Group (FCG) meeting with him, that his aim with Johan Lange was to provide Steven Gerrard with three legitimate options he’d be happy with in each of the positions he was looking to strengthen in.

Now, of course, it’s standard practice to have a list of preferences for any position a manager seeks, but it was interesting that the Villa CEO stressed that they would provide three distinctly good options for Gerrard to chose from.

You’d expect the ground work on each of the three to be a little more thorough than if it was simply just a player on an ordered wish list. Thus Villa’s approaches to these players would be a little firmer than usual and have the potential to spin off into bigger transfer rumour stories.

For example, in the case of the centre-back position, Villa’s three options could potentially have been: Diego Carlos, Kalidou Koulibaly and James Tarkowski.

Something to think about when you see further links to players in positions Villa have already bought this window.

Comparing Apples and Pears

The biggest eye roll of the transfer coverage so far has been the increasingly inane usage of comparison stats, when comparing players from different level leagues.

Yes, your comparison charts looks nice, but does it actually mean anything?

It’s not an exact science comparing a French Ligue 1 or Scottish Premier League player’s stats to a Premier League player’s. It screams content for content’s sake, offering very little insight to the ultimate question, when it comes to a player’s potential adaptability to the English game…

Can they do it on a cold rainy night in Stoke?

Remember Jores Okore? Great stats in the Danish Superliga and he had Champions League experience.

Okore Against Stoke?

Useless.

27 February 2016 - Stoke City 2 Aston Villa 1.

(For those wondering, Okore currently plies his trade in the Chinese Super League.)

It’s perhaps unfair to single Okore out, as many Villa players bought with a stats-leaning moneyball approach around that time, especially from the French Ligue 1, very much flopped at Villa.

With character very much one of the core qualities Steven Gerrard is seeking in his new recruits, hopefully his own intuition when meeting the players will prove a more reliable factor in Villa’s recruitment.

Unsavoury Highs at Villa Park

Once a month during the season, I sit on the West Midlands Police Football Unit Independent Advisory Group (IAG). It’s not something I ever envisaged doing, as you always consider the dynamic of ‘us vs them’, when it comes to the old bill and football supporters.

But if you want to get to the truth of a matter`(especially with the state of today’s media), it’s good to have all sides of the story and as many sources as possible.

In terms of getting proper information and intel for Villa supporters, and in some cases, even helping some fans that have been in a spot of bother, it’s proven very useful.

It’s also a good platform to actually question and challenge the police on matters, whether it be the proposed uses of DNA spray and drones at games, and ask questions on things like their operations ahead of policing the Villa vs Blues derby.

I’m no cheerleader of the police, but in my experience of this IAG, they have been surprisingly transparent and very respectful.

Some titbits from the last meeting, before we get onto the main issue of the increasing issue of match day drug usage.

The visit of Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal to Villa Park, always presents the issue of away fans getting tickets in the home ends of Villa Park.

In the recent visit of Liverpool, three Liverpool fans were evicted from the Lower North. Punches were thrown and there’s now the possibility of these Liverpool fans getting banning orders.

Perhaps more unsavoury though was the actions of a Villa fan in the Trinity Stand at the game, who was reported for a ‘hate crime’ towards Jurgen Klopp (in the context of his heritage). Apparently, Klopp didn’t hear it, so hasn’t pressed any charges himself.

The Increasing Presence of Drug Dogs

In the bigger picture though there’s been an underlining theme to much of the disorder at games in the past season.

Policing Minister Kit Malthouse recently admitted that, "More and more the police are finding class A drugs at the heart of [football] disorder”.

What happened at the Euros 2020 final at Wembley last year was a headlining example of this.

A West Midlands Police member working Wembley that day, told MOMS that while they were experienced in the full spectrum of football supporter behaviour, on that day, “it felt very different”.

The cocaine train has also pulled up at Villa matches too.

Earlier in the season, at Villa’s away trip to Leeds United, three Villa fans were outed by Yorkshire Police drug dogs and refused entry to Elland Road.

More recently, at Villa Park, for the visit of Liverpool, the club employed a private drug dogs firm. Another cost that the rise in your ticket prices is probably covering.

At the recent Wolves vs Manchester City game, according to police, drugs were behind a fight that broke out in a stand, that led to a steward suffering a dislocated knee.

Ironically, it was the rise of recreational drugs usage (mainly ecstasy, acid, weed etc) and the influence of rave culture from the end of the eighties onwards, that contributed to helping ease the hooligan problem and unsocial behaviour at football matches.

Like VAR, recreational drugs aren’t necessarily bad, it’s just when they’re used by idiots things can go wrong.

Maybe getting charged up when going to games is a reaction to recent times? With last season being the first season back for fans after lockdown, maybe there is a feeling of making up for lost time? A subconscious reaction to the frustrations and limits to freedom that the pandemic brought?

We will soon see next season, if it is simply just a reactionary societal fad.

The government have already seen enough though. Starting next season, anyone caught in possession of or supplying class A drugs in connection with football, faces a five-year ban and their passport being taken off them.

Not quite the death penalty that has been mooted at the Qatar World Cup, if football fans are caught smuggling in drugs, but a clear indication that the issue has to be addressed, before it gets worse.

FFS EFL

On a slight aside, I did like the EFL’s attempts to get down with football fans with the frequency of their messaging, after the recent spate of aggressive incidents towards players during several celebratory end of season pitch invasions.

FFS - For Football’s Sake.

Gold star to the marketing person behind that!

UTV

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Greetings,

Welcome to the early adopters of astonvilla.wtf and thanks to all the new subscribers who have signed up since the last edition.

The aim of astonvilla.wtf is to give you a once-a-week shot into your inbox of real Villa supporter information, insight and opinion. Without any BS, ads or clickbait.

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The hot topic at the moment is the recent Villa season ticket price rises, which I can give you a bit of a behind-the-scenes info about below and give you an insight to how the Villa Fan Consultation Group at least averted some unsavoury price increases.

There’s also a bit on how the club sees the bigger picture, in terms of the ultimate aim of breaking into the Premier League Top Six, and a step you can take to make the club think about the atmosphere at an expanded and more gentrified Villa Park.

Please add any questions you may have on any of the topics discussed in the comments section, and I’ll do my best to answer them. Give the newsletter a ‘like’ too, if you found it useful.

UTV

Hard Pill Price Rise

As I stated in the last edition of wtf, during the recent Villa Fan Consultation Group meeting with Villa CEO Christian Purslow, I was privy to the club’s report on the club’s last 10 years of ticketing prices and the various benchmarks it was compared to.

After three seasons in the Championship and a season-plus period of no gate receipts due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was inevitable that ticket prices were going to rise.

The benchmarking against the rest of the Premier League club prices, saw Villa in the bottom three of several pricing categories. Those three seasons in the Championship had certainly slowed prices down in terms of a Premier League context.

When you have this scenario, coupled with a season ticket waiting list that currently sits at 24,000, it was clear that the club were going to be embolden to take the opportunity of using this 10-year report for a hard reset on pricing Villa Park.

Unfortunately, the rumour of a 30% rise that preceded the meeting had set up a situation where the club’s 10% rise across the board was greeted with relief, rather than being questioned by the fanbase at large.

I wrote in the previous wtf newsletter, the FCG had sent the club a statement regarding their concern at some supporters being hit with the compounding effect of triple price rises - 10% across the board, zone change increases and concession reductions.

I personally did the maths on a couple of examples. For example, Under-21 supporters in the Lower North were on schedule to receive a 250% price rise, while a 66-year-old+ supporters in the middle Lower Holte would be looking at a 200% rise.

Eye-popping percentage rises that were always going to be seriously rotten PR for the club.

Due to these findings and the statement, the club called a meeting the evening prior to their price announcement on Wednesday.

They agreed that the compounding effect needed addressing and announced they had capped any potential rise to a 50% max.

There are potentially around 1,600 fans that this applies to.

Following the FCG’s feedback, we have addressed any anomalies where fans may see excessive price increases due to compound effects from concessions, zoning and general pricing. In these cases we have introduced a cap on these fans’ renewal price. They will be contacted directly and their price will be adjusted accordingly when renewing online.

I’ve also noticed from what the club have since published, that supporters aged 66+ looked to have benefited from the FCG highlighting this issue, as the initial proposed rejigged concession rate for them had been reduced considerably lower than the 35% average that was published yesterday.

We have also reviewed our over-65 pricing and have increased the concession age of this category from 65 to 66 in line with government changes to retirement and pension ages, bringing the level of discount to the Premier League average of 35%.

In my opinion, if you’re going to restructure the pricing system (zones etc) in the current economic climate, maybe it’s better to do it across two or three seasons (including a softer across-the-board rise than 10%), rather than a single season whammy, that will financially be a hard pill to swallow for some.

Still, at least the club had listened to the FCG when it came to some of the more extreme proposed price increases.

Speaking of listening…

Secondary Market U-Turn

As reported in the first edition of wtf, you may recall that the club were considering a sponsorship deal with Seat Unique to take over and run the resale of Villa tickets, as Viagogo and Seatwave had done in recent partnerships.

Such outsourcing is controversial as it leads to a situation where fans can exploit their fellow fans on resale prices.

Currently, Villa do ticket reselling in-house, but supporters only receive 80% of their season ticket price after it’s divided by 19, which is way below the face value of the general admission price of the ticket (almost 50% in some cases).

The club informed the FCG group that after the feedback from the group in the meeting regarding the proposed Seat Unique deal, they had decided not to go ahead with it.

I’d venture that the since the club have increased season ticket prices on such a major scale, that they should increase the % amount that season ticket holders can get back if they sell-on individual games (if they can't make the fixture) through the club’s in-house resale system.

Considering the constant late notice nature of fixture time and date changes for TV, it's the least they can do.

Atmos - Have Your Say

In other news, if you haven’t already, do take the chance of putting forward your views on the expansion of Villa Park via the club’s survey. The club have received over 10,000 surveys back so far and will only keep it open a few more days.

It might be a good opportunity to mention something about the actual potential atmosphere in the ground.

The increased gentrification of football stadiums (including price increases!) tends to lead to the ‘library effect’ ala The Emirates and The Etihad.

This is something that needs to be considered before the rebuild, rather than after it’s done, so it would be worth flagging it in the survey.

The Club’s Twin Ambition

For some big picture insight into where Villa currently sit…

“To be the best of the rest” is very much Aston Villa’s immediate objective when it comes to the Premier League’s current hierarchy, according to what Villa CEO Christian Purslow, said, when he last met the Villa Fan Consultation Group.

In short, that’s the spot behind Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Spurs and Arsenal.

That goal is very much the first part of the owner’s ambition. Once/if obtained, then the focus would be very much a case of the club's hierarchy sitting down and looking at a strategy to then break the current Top Six status quo.

Obviously, the pressure of trying to compete at that level is a situation fraught with financial risk, and as Purslow hinted at, across the various topics he addressed, the clubs in power now purposely make it harder for other teams to compete.

Purslow welcomed the upcoming major strategic review of the FFP rules, but the level of effectiveness it could possibly operate at to level the playing field is questionable.

Obviously in sports in the USA, the idea of wage caps and drafts aim to level the playing field to keep the sporting element alive and kicking.

That horse may have already bolted in terms of being able to introduce such wage caps to English football. It should have been done back when the Premier League was initially founded out of the old Division One.

The idea of limiting a squad’s wages to a % of the total revenue has been long mooted. A current ballpark suggestion is 70%, which Purslow insists Villa currently fall under.

In Martin O’Neill’s final season with the club, Villa’s wage bill was 90% of their revenue, which was unsustainable and a clue to why Randy Lerner started to tighten the purse strings.

In that same season, Manchester City’s wage bill was 114% of their revenue, so you see already how ‘sporting’ that club’s approach had been from an early stage.

Currently, the top six club’s revenue is roughly between £400m to £600m each, while next year, Villa are projected to come in at around the £200m mark. So that gives you a insight into the huge obstacle they face in bridging the gap, if Villa are restricted in their comparative spend.

The current FFP rules have done nothing more than locked in and secured the status quo of clubs. And those who have blatantly broken it, mentioning no names, have constantly got away with it.

A wage cap rule could be used by the Top Six teams to try and peg Newcastle back in terms of their potential to spend freely now they are backed by a sovereign wealth fund (whatever the Premier League say about its status).

Purslow, like many Premier League CEO’s, was certainly not happy with how the Premier League dealt so limply with the Newcastle United takeover situation.

Chelsea (with their alleged laundering of a Russian Oligarch’s money), Manchester City’s perpetual flaunting of FFP (as persistently exposed by De Spiegel) and now the threat of Newcastle United’s spending power, have all warped the Premier League picture, and make it harder for Villa to break the top tier.

If the Premier League was a poker game, you’d walk away from the table, because the game is so obviously rigged.

Now, with Villa’s current spending potential, academy and first team squad, the potential to be the ‘best of the rest’ is there, but it looks like we may have to pray for a Leicester City-like perfect storm miracle to move-on from there.

UTV

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What’s Next For Aston Villa Fans…

Greetings,

I trust you are having a good Easter break. After four consecutive Villa losses, it’s probably a welcome break from the Villa too!

First off, thanks for the positive feedback from the first edition of astonvilla.wtf and to the new subscribers (many of you were already on the My Old Man Said mailing list, in case you were wondering how you received this).

The aim of astonvilla.wtf is to give you a once-a-week shot into your inbox of real Villa supporter information, insight and opinion. Without any BS, ads or clickbait.

Please do sign-up below (it’s free) - soon it’ll only be accessible by being subscribed.

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Villa CEO Fan Consultation Group Meeting

Since the last newsletter, I’ve attended the Villa Fan Consultation Group (FCG) meeting at Villa Park, with Aston Villa CEO Christian Purslow and several other senior Villa staff.

You have probably have already seen the general notes from that meeting.

The ‘off the record’ nature of the twice-a-season meetings with the Villa CEO allows for an open and frank discussion. The meeting notes are just a snapshot of what was spoken about, but those who take part do have licence to offer further insights.

Ticket Pricing Concerns

During the meeting, the group was privy to a confidential report that Chief Commercial Officer Nicola Ibbetson and her team had compiled on the last 10-years of ticket pricing at Villa Park.

Of course, the data is slightly compromised by the period of behind-closed-doors matches the Premier League experienced due to Covid. Villa’s three seasons in the Championship have also stunted price movement, while the product on the pitch for the best part of the past decade has hardly been enticing.

That said, compared to other top tier clubs, Villa Park prices have largely been considered by fans as reasonable and benchmarked favourably against other teams.

According to Football Supporters’ Association research, season ticket rises next season in the wake of lost revenue to Covid, aren’t unusual. Everton and Leeds United fans will have on average a 10% ticket price rise, Arsenal a 4% rise and Norwich City a 7% increase; the first rises these clubs have experienced in several years. That said, the likes of Spurs, Manchester United, Southampton, Watford and Brighton, at the moment, have all frozen season ticket prices.

At the FCG meeting, we requested that the club allowed us to announce the next day that there would be an underlining 10% minimum increase on tickets next season. The main reason to announce it ASAP (while we waited for them to compile the meeting notes), was to quell social media rumours that there was going to be a 30% increase of ticket prices.

Having seen the proposed pricing structure changes for next season, in the days that followed the meeting, FCG fan reps became increasingly uneasy with the fact certain fans could be hit by what was in effect a three-fold price increase - the 10% across the board rise, an upping in zone price and a cut in concession rate.

I personally did the maths on a couple of examples of concession groups, that would potentially see such an increase. While due to the confidential nature of the report, I’m not going to publish my findings here, but let’s just say, there’s some eye-popping compounding percentage increases.

Due to this, the Fan Consultation Group emailed a statement to the club on Thursday, expressing their concern at the potential increases some fans may face and for the club to look into such three-fold price rises.

Hopefully they will give it due consideration and such price action will be averted.

Reshuffling the Pack

With all the recent talk about price rises and stadium expansion (more on that later), I’m sure most supporters want to know what the plans are on the pitch, especially when it comes to the summer transfer window.

Purslow admitted, that the window would not be one of wholesale change like the initial seasons under Dean Smith back in the Premier League. Yet, at the same time, he said, it wouldn’t be a case of just getting one or two in.

The approach to this summer’s window will very much be about rejuggling the squad. It was pretty clear supporters can expect several players to be moved on, to make way for what you’d expect to be an incoming four or five players.

It was stated that the starting line-up at the start of the 2022-23 season would have a noticeably different look to it.

While no players are apparently locked in yet, it was suggested that Steven Gerrard would be given several good options to choose from in each of the respective positions he has identified.

From the experiences of this season, while the Villa CEO vocally praised Johan Lange on the squad that has been assembled in recent transfer windows, Villa’s recruitment will increasingly come under a sharper spotlight.

The contribution of the three players that Purslow had stated last summer would replace Jack Grealish ‘in the aggregate’, have been disappointing considering the expectations all three carried and their respective transfer fees.

Both Danny Ings and Emi Buendia have each only featured in 57% of the Premier League minutes that Villa have played this season, while Leon Bailey has only played 22% of them.

If recent games against Newcastle, Watford, Arsenal, Wolves and Spurs, demonstrated anything to Gerrard, it would be the need for greater physicality, discipline and presence in the middle of the park.

No doubt increasing the squad with that kind of profile of player will certainly inform the upcoming reshuffling of Gerrard’s pack across the board.

So will the player’s mentality.

Purslow pointed to a culture shift at Villa, with Gerrard not taking well to losing games. There are Villa players with credit in the bank from previous seasons, but Gerrard will certainly not care for any sentimentality that some fans may carry for certain players, when it comes to who’s heading through the exit door.

There’s a school of thought that Gerrard should be currently getting more out of what is an expensively assembled squad, but there was no comment in the meeting on his progress so far. The focus certainly is on the summer ahead to provide Gerrard with the foundations for a season that he will ultimately be judged on.

With the current goal of the club to be the ‘best of the rest’ (outside of the top six), Villa have budgeted to come in the top half of the table for the past couple of seasons. So, there will be disappointment for Villa’s owners, if the club remain in the bottom half at the end of this season.

Euros Trojan Horse

I previously gave you a heads-up to the time scale and plans for the redevelopment of the North Stand, most of which was reiterated in the FCG meeting with the Villa CEO and in an interview he subsequently did on the Villa site.

A key to the smooth passage of the Villa Park expansion and revamp is very much England and Ireland’s Euro 2028 bid. A successful Euros bid will give plans for Villa Park huge leverage with the local authorities and potential partners, in terms of planning permission and forcing the likes of Network Rail to be more dynamic.

The plans are big and bold. Witton train station and the surrounding area leading up to Villa Park, will be completely transformed.

Purslow suggested that local MP’s across party lines are backing the initiative since Birmingham would benefit from a stand out modern stadium venue and the local community of Aston would also benefit from a necessary regeneration of the area.

The stadium and its enhanced facilities would bring a 365-day value to the area, rather than just being used for Villa match days.

Liquid Fan Engagement

As part of the work leading into the redevelopment of the North Stand, the club has sought the services of Liquid PR to work on fan consultation and engagement on the project.

Liquid PR, who also attended the recent FCG meeting with Purslow, will work on the community engagement and consultation activity over the three-year development period.

Paul Tyrrell, chief corporate affairs officer at Aston Villa Football Club and regular attendee of the Villa Fan Consultation group meetings was quoted in PR Week, saying:

“It’s a hugely important and exciting project for the club and we needed specialist expertise to deliver a comprehensive consultation and community engagement campaign.

“Liquid have exceptional understanding, experience and a passion for the Midlands. They appreciate the region’s sporting heritage and have an in-depth knowledge of the public sector landscape – key requisites to run a project of this nature and scale.”

The Birmingham-based PR agency was previously appointed to handle comms and community engagement for Birmingham City Council ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the region.

I’ll be providing further details on all the above matters in upcoming My Old Man Said podcasts, so please do check them out. They’ll also be more on the Villa Park plans and Villa’s expectations on the pitch in the next edition of .wtf, so make sure you’re subscribed!

UTV

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Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Greetings,

Firstly, before we get started, you have received this email/newsletter because in some shape or form you have been a friend or supportive of My Old Man Said in recent years.

Since this season marks the 10th anniversary of My Old Man Said, I thought it was time for something a little extra and slightly separate from My Old Man Said.

A few weeks ago, I happened upon the domain ‘astonvilla.wtf’, it raised a chuckle, as it’s a sentiment that I’m sure many a Villa supporter has thought at least on half-a-dozen of occasions over the past decade. I’d been meaning to do a Substack for the past couple of years and finally thought this would be a fun title (but far from frivolous) to do a personal style newsletter under.

The goal of astonvilla.wtf is simple…

Initially, it aims to give you a once-a-week shot into your inbox of real Villa supporter news, insight and opinion (my personal column, if you will), something that cuts out the clickbait crap and constant social media Villa farts.

A lean and mean read that’ll keep you in the know and won’t waste your precious time.

So, let’s begin…

It’s finally happening…

Going back a few years to the days of Randy Lerner’s ownership of Aston Villa, the then Villa CEO, Paul Faulkner, once summed up to me the process of rebuilding the North Stand at Villa Park, by summarising that, “it needs a wrecking ball through it”.

Well, finally, it seems we have a date for when the wrecking ball will swing into B6 (Miley Cyrus tbc).

A couple of weeks ago, I was given further insight into the rebuilding of the North Stand by someone that has been actively involved in the consultation mix on the project.

Aston Villa will have one more full season with the existing stadium set-up before the North Stand is expected to be completely demolished in the summer of 2023.

Until now, the only real information in the public domain, after years of speculation and false promises (due to ownership changes), has been the statement in the recent publication of the club’s accounts:

‘Preliminary designs have been created to transform our iconic home at Villa Park.

It includes building a new North Stand, upgrading and expanding our hospitality facilities and creating an entirely new venue to bring our retail and merchandising activities, as well as other entertainment activities, into the 21st century.

Capacity of the stadium would increase to over 50,000 upon completion of the first phase.’

It was confirmed to me that indeed the whole North Stand will be levelled, along with the buildings that surround the carpark on that side of the ground - from the Villa Village to the Academy building.

As well as revamping that commercial infrastructure, there will be an increased corporate offering, including a hotel.

The new North Stand will potentially house in the region of 16,000 seats.

In terms of the ‘over 50,000’ estimate of Villa Park’s overall capacity after the North Stand redevelopment is completed, I’m told it will be comfortably over 50,000 and potentially anywhere up to 58,000.

Of course, recently much has been rightly made of the poor travel infrastructure to and from Villa Park, but it’s a part of the process that a traffic management plan will need to be satisfied before planning permission is granted. That’s a given.

On top of the possibility of more train carriages and additional ‘specials’, there maybe additional initiatives ala the redeveloped Alexander Stadium, where they’ll be a shuttle bus service to ferry people to and from the main stadium for the Commonwealth Games.

Villa have already purposely appointed Julian Bowran as the Head of Security and Match Day Safety for Villa Park, with the remit of overseeing the North Stand development.

Bowran has previously worked at both Burnley and Sunderland, but before that, he gained a wealth of experience during almost three decades with the Northumbria Police force, where he had experience of big event management of both NATO and Olympics events.

There is a Villa Fan Consultation Group meeting with Villa CEO Christian Purslow on April 7th, that I’ll be attending, where Purslow will outlay the development plans in more detail.

In a previous FCG meeting, the Villa CEO floated the idea of naming a stand at Villa Park ‘The Ron Saunders Stand’. He, like the fans present at the meeting, felt the current North Stand wouldn’t be do the ex-Villa manager’s legacy justice, so it’ll be interesting to see if the idea is still on the table for the new North Stand?

If it’s something that supporters would endorse, it should be. After all, Purslow did state at that meeting, that if Villa fans wanted it, he could rename the Trinity Road stand, ‘The Ron Saunders Stand’ tomorrow.

The Trinity Road stand has an identity of its own, but the new North Stand surely would be a great fit for honouring Villa’s former manager, who built Villa’s most decorated team.

Price Hike & Secondary Ticket Market

At the forthcoming FCG meeting with Purslow, season ticket pricing options will also be discussed. A rise is expected and the extent of which will no doubt be confirmed.

While social media is awash with rumours of a substantial price hike, let’s wait until we hear confirmation from the Villa CEO.

In the last FCG meeting, it was announced that Aston Villa are likely to take up the sponsorship offer of an outside company Seat Unique to deal with the secondary ticket market for Villa Park tickets and season ticket resells.

Judging by Seat Unique’s website (linked above), they already have a deal in place when it comes to hospitality packages.

You will no doubt remember Villa’s recent previous secondary ticket partners like Seatwave and Viagogo. Back then, they were useful for fans to snag a cheap ticket, sometimes around £10. Demand and supply has dramatically transformed since those days though, when a season ticket waiting list would have been regarded as a pipe dream.

While the club will benefit from a circa million pound deal with Seat Unique, it does throw up the ethical question of fans profiteering off other fans. There’s also the irony that the club brought in harsh warnings and measures to prevent the resale of tickets this season by fans, yet seem ok with it, if they’re getting an upfront financial sweetener.

Will a secondary ticket agent be any more unfair than the current in-house model?

For example, a face value adult ticket in K4 of the Upper Holte for the upcoming Spurs game is £49.50. However, if a £615 season ticket holder (in Zone 2) couldn’t attend the game and then sold on their ticket via the in-house seat sale method, they would only get £25.89 back.

£600/19 games = £31.58, then the season ticket holder only gets 80% of that amount.

So, as a result, the club overall makes a healthy profit on the resell of the ticket, while the ticket holder takes a loss.

If that’s how such a system is going to work in-house, then you’re better off with the devil that allows you to set the price and at least claim the match day ticket value back.

On the Pitch

We’ll talk more about what’s happening on the pitch for Villa in future wtf’s. I’ve pretty much mapped out my feelings and insights in the latest batch of My Old Man Said podcasts (latest one below).

I think eyes have already turned to next season and to make the jump into a European places challenging side, it’ll take more than Villa just getting in ‘the missing link’ defensive midfielder they’ve been chasing.

I’m thinking the transformative key is two decent central midfielders that will bring both discipline and character to Villa’s midfield. Giving it a new identity and enabling the team to control certain games more and be less open to the counter.

I’m also thinking that Steven Gerrard may have to revaluate his reliance on his full-backs for width, if he doesn’t get the above two midfielders in to give the team a foundation to execute his current plan.

Anyway, we’ll get into the nitty gritty of that later.

In the meantime, expect the next newsletter to give you an insight into the Christian Purslow meeting and hopefully the answers to all the questions posed above.

UTV

DM

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