Instead of looking forward to watching their team take on Everton on Saturday, many Aston Villa fans will be wondering whether the toilets are working properly or if they will be let into the ground in time for kick-off.

Instead of anticipating a home victory, a group of Villa fans plan to hand out red cards before kick-off which they hope their fellow supporters will brandish at the directors’ box during the game. Chris Heck, the club’s grandly titled ‘president of business operations’, has a huge job to convince Villa Park regulars he has their best interests at heart.

Because even though Unai Emery has produced one of Villa’s best teams for many years, fans are becoming ever more restless about the situation off the pitch.

Before the first home game of the campaign, a 2-0 defeat by Arsenal on August 24, queues snaked around Villa Park due to problems with the digital ticketing system introduced for this season, meaning several fans reached their seats only when the match was underway.

At full time, fan accounts were flooded with tales of overflowing urinals and supporters who had found they were no longer seated in their usual spots.

A brief club statement said Villa had made it ‘top priority to resolve the problems involving public toilets and queuing within concourses’.

Then came the sledgehammer. On September 4, Villa announced that general admission prices for adults for their four home fixtures in the Champions League —against Bayern Munich, Celtic, Juventus and Bologna — would peak at an eye-watering £97. Tickets for the home game with Bayern on October 2 are thought to have sold out, but at what cost to supporter goodwill?

Among the other English Champions League clubs this term, Liverpool’s adult home ticket prices range from £30 to £61, Manchester City’s from £37.50 to £62.50 and Arsenal’s from £74.30 to £106.80, though the Gunners include Champions League home games in their season-ticket price. Villa’s equivalent range is £70 to £97.

Villa supporter representatives had urged the club to offer Premier League ‘Category A’ prices, which range from £55-92, for Champions League fixtures. Those suggestions apparently fell on deaf ears. Villa have built a good reputation for effective engagement with supporter groups, but the current management risk squandering that.

A more detailed statement from the club is expected on Friday and its content will be fascinating. The dream for Villa fans is a climbdown on Champions League prices, though they are not holding their breath. It is believed work has been done to solve the problems that affected the fixture with Arsenal and matters are expected to run more smoothly against Everton.

Context is important. Billionaire owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens saved the club from oblivion when they took control in 2018. In six years, they have taken a club drifting in the Championship to their first campaign among Europe’s elite since 1982-83. 

By any measure, their tenure has been a success. In the last 12 months Villa have adopted the motto ‘The Giant Is Awake’ and Sawiris and Edens deserve as much credit as Emery. Yet a successful team does not give executives a free pass.

‘I feel exploited,’ said lifelong supporter David Michael on his popular Villa podcast My Old Man Said. ‘The games against Bayern, Juventus and Celtic are games of sentimental, historical significance. They’ve got a captive market and they’re playing on fans’ fear of missing out.

‘You don’t celebrate the club’s 150th anniversary by treating fans like this. You will see fans make their feelings heard now.

‘I was looking forward to the season and the Champions League draw is perfect. You don’t expect to be treated like this and there is a nasty feeling. There are fans who want more than ever to see these games with their families but they’re being priced out.’

Six days after those ticket prices had been announced, Heck set out his case — and the American blamed spending rules.

‘We recognise and understand the depth of passion felt among fans and their recent frustration around ticket pricing,’ he said. ‘Achieving our sporting ambitions while complying with financial stability regulations requires difficult decisions.

‘Financial fair play rules prohibit owners from covering shortfalls to finance this ambition, so we need to generate as much revenue as possible through sponsorships, merchandise and ticket sales to ensure we keep the club where it rightfully belongs — competing and winning at the top of English and European football.’

On the face of it, Heck’s role is similar to that of former chief executive Christian Purslow, who left Villa in summer 2023. Yet where Purslow oversaw all aspects of the club, Heck’s brief is little narrower.

The old CEO job was split in two, with Heck in charge of ‘business operations’ and Spanish transfer chief Monchi of ‘football operations’.

Emery, Monchi and key director Damian Vidagany have football matters sewn up and Emery’s power at Villa Park is comparable to that of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

Given that Premier League managers average about two years in the job, why would Emery prioritise medium-term stadium plans? This stance goes, however, to the heart of the problems with Villa Park and why short-term gain might lead to longer-term pain.

In December 2022, Villa were granted planning permission for a £130million scheme to rebuild the North Stand. It would have taken capacity above 50,000 and ensured the ground would host matches at Euro 2028. 

That scheme has been shelved, possibly never to be revived. Emery and his advisers did not like the idea of playing European football in a three-sided ground.

In football, events on the pitch are king. If Villa continue to rise under Emery, that will always be the headline. Yet as they prepare to face Bayern — the club Villa defeated to win the 1982 European Cup — it is worth revisiting a remark from the German giants’ honorary president Uli Hoeness, in 2014. 

‘We don’t think fans are like cows who you milk,’ he said, when explaining Bayern’s decision to offer £104 season tickets for the 2014-15 campaign. ‘Football has got to be for everybody and that is the biggest difference between us and England.’

In the context of those comments, and the events of the last month, Villa fans could be forgiven for feeling some at their club are guilty of taking the pee.