brummie

Quick! Cut the water supply!

We already do get the players involved with the local community, provide football pitches in the area, etc etc. This just seemed to be a bold move going that bit further. Incidentally, I too hate that whole sectarian thing in football, but that is about division, this isn't.

I agree except I don't mind the idea of cheap tickets as an introductory offer type of thing, so long as it isn't a long-term policy. I'd rather do it for school children who are black, white, muslim, Christian, Jewish or any other religious background etc... but certainly not this. Muslims pay less for their tickets. Fuking hell, things in the UK are going to pot. You're getting it wrong (or maybe i described it badly). The offer was for people living within a certain radius of the ground, regardless of race. It just happens that a sizeable majority of people living within a few streets of Villa Park are going to be muslim. They had the choice to sit elsewhere in the ground, or to use that section of the ground, where booze wouldn't be served, and Halal food would be available. Right, it was the bit where you said for muslim residents around VP and titled the thread 'muslim football fans' that has thrown me that its was about muslims only. If you are going to encourage EVERYONE around the ground to attend matches than fair enough, but it sounds that is not the case putting on special food and catering to Mulsims religious requirements. Have you been to Villa Park? I reckon if you walked down Witton Lane and knocked on every door, 90 percent plus would be Muslim, so mailing local households is obviously going to be reaching mainly muslims. That's obviously what the idea was about. To be honest, I'd be most pissed off if I found out they were tucking into nice bowls of Balti whilst I was eating my tepid chips and watery curry sauce

That's pretty much my take on it. This match was a stick-on to be the lowest crowd of the season (although it wasnt in the end), the club aren't that blind to money. But if it makes the locals bond more with the club, and if it gets a few more of their kids wearing Villa shirts when they play football rather than Man United shirts, and if it gets a few of the ones who already do wear Villa shirts to actually go to the games, then it can only be a good thing. As I said, we've got loads of Sikh and Hindu supporters, but there is a cultural divide between the club and the Muslim community. Surely it has to be worth making a small concession to close that divide? The most encouraging thing is that so many of them turned up.

I agree except I don't mind the idea of cheap tickets as an introductory offer type of thing, so long as it isn't a long-term policy. I'd rather do it for school children who are black, white, muslim, Christian, Jewish or any other religious background etc... but certainly not this. Muslims pay less for their tickets. Fuking hell, things in the UK are going to pot. You're getting it wrong (or maybe i described it badly). The offer was for people living within a certain radius of the ground, regardless of race. It just happens that a sizeable majority of people living within a few streets of Villa Park are going to be muslim. They had the choice to sit elsewhere in the ground, or to use that section of the ground, where booze wouldn't be served, and Halal food would be available.

Against Bolton? Yes. Usually when an away team brings a small allocation (Boro 371, Bolton just over 500) they only get the one tier of the away end, meaning those seats go empty unless the club puts on other arrangements to use them. This was done in the lower empty tier. They get much abuse from the Bolton fans? Nope. When the allocation is so small, they don't let them near the front rows of the tier, they're in one of the middle sections.

A lot of Muslims won't go anywhere where people are drinking. A lot will, but a lot won't. Doesn't seem to me a big deal to offer them this opportunity (it isn't going to be a regular thing with some kind of 'Muslim section' - it is about getting people in to actually see the match, and realising that it isn't the hell they might imagine it to have been. Although, had it been the 1-1 at home to Boro, or the defeat to the Mackems rather than a 4-0 win, they'd never be back. I had doubts whether I was going to bother, tbh

Against Bolton? Yes. Usually when an away team brings a small allocation (Boro 371, Bolton just over 500) they only get the one tier of the away end, meaning those seats go empty unless the club puts on other arrangements to use them. This was done in the lower empty tier.

It is the society bit that really interests me. Obviously, 900 more fans with 900 more open wallets can't hurt, but it struck me as a bit of a bold move. Although, predictably, a minority of our lot will doubtless whinge they can't get a beer if they sit in that area.

I was going to post this in General Chat but then opted for here, as it is non NUFC, but raises an interesting point in general, i think. Mods - please feel free to shift to Chat if it should have gone there. As you'll have noticed if you've been there, Villa Park is in an area with a very large Muslim population (which was previously an area with a large Afro Caribbean population, and before that an area with a large Irish population, in the way that cities change). The Afro Caribbeans and Irish played a role in the history of the club over decades, providing both fans and players, but the Asian (and Muslim in particular) community hasn't The club have finally cottoned on to the idea that it might be an idea to try and encourage more muslims to the ground (we do have a lot of Asian match attending fans, but not so many Muslims I expect). So, for the last game, they mailed a number of households in the Aston and Witton areas, offering them cheap tickets for the game, limited to 1000 seats. The seats were available anywhere, but one part of the ground (the usual lower tier of the away section) was made alcohol free and Halal snacks were made available. The result was interesting, 900 people took the club up on the offer and came to the match. That's probably 900 people who'd never have thought about going to watch PL football before. I was interested to hear what you think of that as an idea, as there are a lot of other football clubs with grounds in Asian communities, and football is still a sport which they don't largely get involved with. It struck me as an excellent idea (I'm thinking in terms other than the usual football reference point of money, but in terms of including other sectors of society in the game), and something other clubs might want to look at.

He looks a twat, doesn't he? He reminds me of that bloke out of Tony Soprano's crew. Name escapes me. Bloke with the glasses. No cap, mind.

We will take him off your hands. You can have him for silly money, like £12-15m. He's been shit bar a few games this season, ironic really because he's now suddenly been latched onto by the media as a quality player. He was far, far better than this for the previous two seasons. His attitude has become terrible all of a sudden, probably believing his own hype or agent talk. Do you think you'll continue to be shit or snap out of it at some point soon? How's your run-in looking?

Incidentally, observe Agbonlahor's goal on MOTD2 tonight, the culmination of a fantastic 8 or 9 pass move, with most passes being one touch. If Man United had scored that, they'd be salivating over it. We'll lose at Pride Park next week now.

Modern football. We won 4-0 today, and the atmosphere was flat as fuck. Too many once-a-season types and people taking pictures. I think i preferred the 1980s when there were 15-20,000 of us, but we all really cared.

Sealed Bolton's fate there I think Brummie. Villa performance was a bit overdue I think ? As I said, Bolton are awful. Gavin McCann was their best player, which says quite a lot. For our part, the weird formation MON tried worked, and Barry, Young and Petrov (of all people) were excellent. Looking at our remaining games, we could win them all, only Everton looks tricky. Which is an empty statement as I said almost the same thing before we took 1 point from 6 against the Mackems and Boro. Football. Infuriating.

Bolton are wretched, but we were great today. MON tried a new shape with Young in a free roaming role, and it worked brilliantly. 4 nil in second gear. Now, why the fuck weren't we playing like that the last 4 games? Barry's first decent (very, very decent) game for a few months now.

There's really no point thinking of sharing a city with Liverpool or Man United as anything like sharing a city with "another premier league club" - both clubs are beloved of jester hat toting Scandos, Irish coach parties and perma grinning Koreans, and always will be. They've transcended mere bitchslapfests as local rivalries (with the exception of 2 games a season). Everton are a massive club, they're one of the corner stones of the English game. To suggest they're limited because of the Johny Come Latelies over the park seems to me to be missing the point. They've got the traditional fanbase, they've got the history, they've got the "name", and they're quite obviously moving in the right direction. I can also think of several of their players I'd swap for the equivalents in our time in a heartbeat. The fact that Liverpool are filling their ground (well, most weeks, anyway) with out-of-towners doesn't mean Everton don't have their share of the support in the city. Not at all.

Sorry. Nah, fuck it, I'm not sorry about the point, just the somewhat forceful wording. You know what I mean

No offence, but that's such a load of patronising fucking rubbish. "General apathy" - get a fucking clue, mate. Have a look at the recent history of the club, and you might have an idea. I used to watch your club an awful lot in the McKeag era (I suspect that name means nothing to you), and saw how shitly you were run back then (something I agree with NE5 on). Well, that's the way we've been run for the best part of 40 years, with the exception of the last 2 years, and 3 years betwen 1979 and 1982. In the years 79-82, we won the league and the european cup. In the last two years, we've been looking a lot more positive. When you were signing players like Shearer and Owen, we were sending Erik Bakke back to Leeds because we couldn't afford his wages. We were run like a fucking corner shop. File that under "apathy". I could pick more holes in your patronising rubbish, but I won't, lest I fall out with some of the friends I've made on here, but I'll just say that in a few posts you've epitomised what people mean when they get a negative idea of Newcastle fans.

Mate, the last thing I want to do is get into a slanging match, but have you watched much football this year? Everton are currently in fifth and looking closer than anyone to breaking the big four dominance. Spurs might want to concentrate on cracking the top half of the table before they look at the big four, and until last Sunday, a lot of people here were worried about relegation. Bentley wants CL football, he's only going to get it in three places.

I know everyone thinks their club is the best but come on, get real please. It's not 1996, there is nothing special to an outsider about Newcastle United these days. I have to agree. What glamour? What mystique? This is not the mid 90s any more. Bentley would have been, what, 10 years old then? Footballers these days just want to play at the highest level. If you're not in the CL, there's a f****** huge gap to bridge. The only club outside the top four with a chance of signing him, imho, is Spurs, and that is because they are in London, which is more of a factor To be fair i think Villa have an outside chance of getting him as well, they seem to be a club definitively on the up with a good manager a good squad recognized for its english talent and a good owner also Euro qualification definitively isnt out thequestion next year as wel. Villa would be my wild card, Spurs are definitively a viable option as well, but Nufc have no chance whatsoever. Villa have no chance of getting him. From what he said earlier, he wants CL football. This is what I think will happen. Villa need a right sided midfielder. Bentley will join Liverpool. Pennant will join Villa. Or, as an outside bet, Pennant will join Newcastle and Milner will join Villa (although this latter option is thrown in only out of 'wouldnt it be funny')

I know everyone thinks their club is the best but come on, get real please. It's not 1996, there is nothing special to an outsider about Newcastle United these days. I have to agree. What glamour? What mystique? This is not the mid 90s any more. Bentley would have been, what, 10 years old then? Footballers these days just want to play at the highest level. If you're not in the CL, there's a fucking huge gap to bridge. The only club outside the top four with a chance of signing him, imho, is Spurs, and that is because they are in London, which is more of a factor these days than it was before. And that's still asking him to put his faith in a club which is struggling to break the top half of the table, let alone the Champions League.

He obviously wants to play in the Champions League, and for the foreseeable, that means one of four (or, in his case, three) clubs. Anything else just won't happen. I reckon talk of KK talking him around is fanciful in the extreme, as is the thought of him joining any of the other chasing pack - Everton, Man City, Spurs (not that they're doing much chasing), Portsmouth etc etc. What would be the point? Observe: Take a look at what Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea are doing tonight. That's what he wants to be doing, and who can blame him?

Thought it was quite funny myself. So did I.

"Everton FC welcomes Liverpool fans to Merseyside", banner at Anfield. Ha.