I know.
It’s dead easy, this one.
Basically Christian Benteke has been linked to Spurs again, on the back of his stunning overhead kick and typical bruising type header, all within 2 minutes against Norwich;
Apparently, Levy has admitted he got it wrong, in not busting his balls to make sure he signed the “Beast” and views his signing of Soldado as a mistake. So now, he’s going to make a concerted effort.
What do you think about this one?
I personally don’t see Spurs being his destination, as although he hasn’t set the world on fire this season, I believe he’s destined for a better stage.
He’s just that good, when you consider he’s only 23 and I actually think Lambert calls it right for once, when he says the player could be world class.
Knowing the Villa though, we’ll probably flog him cheap (and yes, Spurs makes sense at £20+ mill) and then watch as he’s then sold on for a massive profit.
I really don’t trust the club to get the best deal, in other words.
And although Benteke is supposed to have said he doesn’t know anything about any deal, I very much suspect he does, in reality.
We pay piss-poor wages, after all, in the scheme of things re the Premier League.
And why would he want to stay, when you consider that we don’t give him the service he would get at a top club?
I’ll be absolutely gutted if he goes.
And dead worried for our future.
As I said last season (as an opinion). If Benteke leaves, he’ll make a much bigger step up than Spurs, unless they somehow catch Liverpool/Arsenal for a CL spot. Especially as he’s an Arsenal fan, and better clubs than Spurs will be after him if he even leaves.
But we’ll still get at least 25m, despite not playing nearly as well as last season, which injury and terrible tactics ruined him, Lerner’s not gonna randomly drop his price tag when he has 3 years left of an amazing striker.
Disagree he wanted to go to spurs last yr and they wernt in CL. Not a ques of if but when he leaves. Wtf would he want to play for this shower of shit
Did he, did he really wanna go to Spurs? If he wanted to go to Spurs, he would have agreed terms, had his agent talking to them, coming out in the media claiming he was in talks, etc. Nothing, despite handing in a transfer request, claims that he actually wanted a move to Spurs. A move to a different club, definitely, Spurs? No. Especially as an Arsenal fan.
You’re forgetting one thing Andrew, Oohah knows Benteke personally and he told him he wanted to go to Spurs over dinner one night.
IMO he will be off to play CL footy next season. Fair play to the lad too. That is unless Villa go against everything they have done in recent years and start spending……Which I doubt (but hope).
Yeah I know. He also seemingly knows Lerner and how much Villa are gonna spend. Which even despite there being no more debt at Villa, it’s gonna be half what Lambert has always gotten.
I do think Lambert will be given more money, and a better variety. It’s not gonna be the 50-60-70m Villa fans dream of, but 30-40m in my opinion I can see happening. Unless of course Lambert himself doesn’t wanna spend that much and would rather continue his cheap way.
Been down this route before, if it happens nothing we can do, as you’re saying bigger clubs than Spurs would go for him, Yes he will go in the summer convinced of it all we have to do is get in the right midfield players and a defender.
I hope he continues banging them in for the remainder of the season for us.im prepared now to see the inevitable happen one thing i will be releived for is this ‘will he wont he move?’ every transfer to end it does my fucking head in.will lerner make these funds of the sale available?im not holding out.
I’d take it all with a pinch of salt. ON SSN he was interviewed and he said he did not know if he will be at Villa next season and if the club will be spending in the summer. The media are like vultures because we have 24hour news everywhere we go so the hunger from the public needs satisfying.
Me personally considering he only turns up post February in a season i would not see it as such a massive loss, if we used the money to sign an attacking midfielder a DM a decent LB a decent CB and some decent wingers. Signing up these players would then mean we are not so expectant on one player who seems a little up his own arse and we could rely on a team. Two of these need to be players who are experienced and can hit the ground running.
We need to make signing Bertrand our number one priority in the summer and send Luna packing, i would take hoolahan his one touch passing and movement causes defenders so many problems. So after these two who will cost no more than 5m we need a CB LW, RW and a DM
everytime he scores he’s linked with someone and I would expect hi to go in the summer tbf, I expect him to wait until after the world cup in case he has a blinder and i’d expect him to go for a CL team if a CL team comes in for him, based on his form so far this season that’s currently unlikely.
personally I believe he’d be awesome in a better squad unfortunately, his form this season is partly down to his injury(he scored 4 in 5 prior to getting injured)and partly down to the fact that 90% of our balls forward go straight to him while he’s being double teamed by the CB’s(we need to do more of what we did on Saturday, gabbys little ball to wiemann for baccunas goal was brilliant, Norwich were watching tekkers going left, totally exposed them on the right instead).
also if spurs fail to make CL this season and next(and im seeing little to suggest they’ve got what it takes to make it)they will be bang in trouble much as we were under MON after our CL push.
can they afford another 25mil? and if tekkers has a good world cup it may be more, he is still on the remainder of a four year contract I believe.
Morgan if tekkers goes then lambo’s emphasis will be on replacing him so every other position will take a back seat.we all know he loves his attackers,i agree bertrand should be a priority mate.
Eh, replacing Benteke should be the emphasis. It’d simply be the same thing and the reason why Kozak was bought. Imagine Kozak being our only senior striker and going down. Bam… Bowery comes back and starts up front. Bam… Villa are pretty much screwed.
benteke will leave for certain. he has it written all over his face. but iam happy for this to happen, like giddy said. hope he continues knocking um in until hes gone.
remember david platt went of to italian world cup,as a nobody, scored a few goals and upped his transfer 5mill plus. taylor paid little as 200k for him ~ if beneke does it on the world cup finals stage (which is possible ) we could find the 25mil easily upped
means more dosh to rebuild nxt season
Your living in cloud cuckoo land if u seriously think lamberk will get 25m plus to end whether ch goes or not. He will get 10-15m tops
Even though he’s gotten 20m a summer,. he’s only gonna get 10-15m tops? Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Yep do u seriously think lamberk will be given all of the Benteke money to spend? He will get half if he’s lucky.
So now you’re making up figures even though facts prove that Lambert has been given 20m each year, even though Villa haven’t sold anyone for big money since he’s been here? This just gets funnier and funnier with you. Forgot you were close to Lerner and know how much Lambert will get. Despite your claims being factually incorrect.
The treason why we Havnt sold anyone for big money is that we don’t have any players worth big money except benteke and he will he sold in summer
Right right, Dortmund didn’t want Weimann, Gabby’s worth nothing. I absolutely forgot. My bad.
He will be off come the summer no doubt about that what so ever but to the Spuds? Ermm, I think not. No Champions league football and any trophies in how long?
Mr Benteke will have sights set slightly higher than that me thinks – Chelsea – Arsenal – or maybe abroad.
And as for selling cheap? For one thing I don’t think Lambert will have much to do with it, it’ll be the Lerner & Faulkner show and lets be honest they always drive a very hard bargain -(Young, Barry, Downing, Milner) so the chances of someone getting Mr Benteke on the cheap are pretty remote imo.
Agreed.
Much criticism is rightly deserved for the last few years, but selling our better players on the cheap isn’t justified.
We won’t sell him cheaply but we will sell him and we will not replace him
Replaced Bent with Kozak, replaced Kozak with Holt… Replaced Bennett/Luna with Bertrand. Replaced Given, replaced Hutton… Benteke will get replaced.
Of course he will get replaced bit by whom that’s the question. It won’t be anyone half as good as him that’s for sure
Oh… Right right. Because now you’re scouting players? Benteke wasn’t good enough, now he’s absolute class and we’re gonna be screwed without him. Kozak wasn’t good enough, fans finally realized he was good and we miss him right now. Holt was a desperation signing, but other than that, two out of three strikers (one not being the type Lambert likes, even said so himself), have been very good strikers, so I’m gonna take a guess he’ll find someone worthy enough,a fair few out there who can.
Benteke signing was a fluke to replace him with quality we will need to spend at least 15-20m on one player and that won’t happen plus no decent player will come to vp benteke only signed for us as a stepping stone
Benteke’s signing was a fluke. So him staying was what? A bigger fluke? Lol my word dude…
He stayed because we offered him more money and no one put a bid in. Chelsea was a possibility but he didn’t want to be on the bench in wc year
Were Chelsea a possibility? Were they willing to offer the amount Villa actually wanted compared to the amount the media believe Spurs could’ve gotten him for? He also wouldn’t be sitting the bench at Chelsea, he’d be starting just about every game.
A mate of mine who is a st holder at the bridge and knows a couple of fringe players was told that lukaku would hve gone on loan to us and cb was looked at by Chelsea as a potential long term replacement for drogba but he would have had to play from the bench as mourinho will only play the finished product unless there are injuries and suspensions. This was no good for cb as it was wc year. I spoke to them a couple of weeks ago and they said cb was still a possibility but there are a couple of other players JM may go for instead but CB is still a possibility but not a priority at the moment. That’s what they told me I’m not saying it’s gospel but they were told this by a fringe player at the bridge.
I mean I know Mourinho’s not known for using youth, but he’s also known for using the type of players he likes. Eto’o, eh. Torres, meh. Schurrle, meh. Benteke’s that type of striker he likes. He’d have started most games over Eto’o or Torres, much like Oscar replaced Mata due to the style of play.
Spurs are the medias love child, everyone is linked to spurs apart from Messi. Literally the media cream over spurs, it’s a joke.
You didn’t know everyone wants to join…. Tottenham? Its getting worse with Moyes. All of these top players leaving far better clubs and managers to work for Moyes…
I don’t get it Andrew, it’s a lugh watching them spend so much though to go nowhere under Moyes! Hope he stays for the next 25 years mate.
The thing with a sky 4 team like utd is they can spend their out of the shit a luxury we could never afford. Moyes will have anything from £150-200m to so end I the summer. It wouldn’t surprise me if they flucked the CL like Chelsea did and qualify anyway. Just the sort of luck they get
No chance mate, this is the worst united side for years no way on earth they going to win the CL.
Why not the worse Chelsea team for ages won it. Utd will easily turn leg around. They still have match winners like Rooney and Rvp who coukd be world class on their day.
United can possibly turn it around, but RVP hasn’t had a game yet that he’s proven to be world class this season. Rooney’s their only real hope, but then their midfield and defense got dominated so they’ll get scored on again.
Thing Moyes hasn’t learned is he’s tracking players out of his league. Vidal’s turning Barcelona and Madrid down, Pogba’s in talks to sign a new contract, Pjanic’s in talks to sign a new contract, Hamsik has turned everyone down to end his career at Napoli. Bayern have told Kroos he’s not leaving and he seems okay with that, and Bayern are the healthiest club in the world today, so they don’t need to sell. He needs to drop his targets down a bit to get players more his standard and build United that way, he’s never tempting players without CL football (and possibly Europa League football).
Agree but utd as a club can attract the best and pay high wages. If moyes dosnt turn it round they will sack him and get a big name manager like mourinho. Remember moyes was taken on as a patsy to lower the clubs expectations after fergie so they coukd attract a top manager with less pressure to build them up again
I read something that Benteke was near enough a done deal but AVB called it off for Soldado.Tekkers app was at the Spurs training ground myth or truth we will never know.I don’t see how Benteke can stay if he has a great World Cup and Villa will cash in.I don’t really care anymore anyway I’ve lost all faith in Lerner to support our club properly so we don’t have to worry.Its getting boring to be honest even the 4-1 win I was only happy because I don’t want to see us go down.Love the club but ATM dislike the lack of investment…UTV
Agree mate I just dint give a fuck anymore sick to death of this regime and decided next season I won’t set foot in vp while this hierarchy is still here. Though I will go away.
Well said JD mate. Bang on
No chance will he be going to spurs – Villa will back in their rightful place above them next season for starters. I don’t think the lad will be sold next season – he has another three years on his contract!
I look forward to Villa taking three points off Mike Ashley’s boyhood club late this season.
Ha ha I love an optimist. No way in a million years will we be above spurs next season unless we had city style takeover which is the dream
Although Spurs sold Bale to Madrid for that large amount, Madrid are known to pay for players over a set period of time. I feel Spurs are going to do a Villa and have massive cut backs, its why i feel Sherwood has been put in as manager. They spent an astronimical sum of money last summer in the hope of CL football and i feel it was expected to happen this year or AVB would still be in a job.
Spurs spending last summer is not sustainable on top of wages for the likes of Adebayor and other players in the squad there accounts in the next few years will make very interesting reading.
Morgan.. disagree with that.. Sherwood was appointed because the right man wasn’t available.. and they will sack him in the summer knowing they won’t have to fork out a fortune for compo..
thanks for your input Mr Faulkner……!!
Hahaha – In the know is Oohah
I’m not an itk but iv not been wrong about out budget the past 3 Yeats
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
(You can’t beat a bit of Yeats)
Isn’t that the prophecy of the second coming, is Oohah our disciple of football? The lord be praised.
My honest opinion is Benteke has to go. If he goes on a another run now till the end of the season he will have proven he’s got it for the premier league. If not, the spanish and geman teams will be sniffing, either way, he’s top quality and unless by some miracle we invest heavily and build a top quality team around him, he’s the ugly duckling of sorts in our current team.
He’s a superb player on form, world class actually, after the no shows of late to go and pull a goal out of the blue like the first against Norwich is rare for a player. I hope that kick starts his form for the run in for our immediate sake.
There aren’t many CL clubs that would take him IMO.
Liverpool or Chelsea would not have a problem with his origin but only Chelsea might have a need. The stand out EU side for him would be PSG, then Juventus, but a moneybags Russian outfit might also bid. The rest don’t find their fans accept African origin main strikers too readily.
What happens all depends how good or bad a World Cup he has, and what hot new stars emerge. it only takes about 3 to appear – that are off the CL scouting radar now – to send the whole mob into a transfer merry-go-round.
Atletico or Leverkusen bound. OR, I could see him in an Arsenal side. With the chances Giroud gets, he’d be quality
we made over £50m losses last year….Lerner wants the club to be self sufficient…. Benteke will be sold and so will anyone else who is a profit on their purchase fee….. SIMPLES..
Saddened so true, Benteke came to us on the words, I want to play for Arsenal one day that day could very well be Summer, Villa have no ambition this year or next year for winning things for the fans, We have the wrong owner in sports, he’s a businessman and out for money and power of owning an English football club. I feel sorry for fans that will not see what I’ve seen over the years, did anyone see Doug Ellis last night on when he put the club up for sale, he turned down 5 applicants one thank god was Carton Young, he wanted a owner that didn’t borrow money but had money,wrong choice for us he got a owner that makes money and more money, not honours. IMO.
Agree bill people on here just don’t get it
I dont see Benteke as a Wenger type player, if he goes it will be too Chelsea or someone abroad imo
Even Vlaar. He’s had a great season and If he get in the Dutch side and has a decent WC. KACHIIIIIIING ££££££££££
We have the wrong owner, someone who is out for the money and power of owning an English football team ?!?
If I’d lost £52m after having written off £90m I doubt I’d be licking my lips and celebrating my magnificent money making machine.
Lerner put the funds up, and MON missed out. Fact.
We know that it will take up to £300m+ to become a consistent challenger for a top five spot, and our club cannot afford that.
To whinge like women that Lerner needs to go and someone needs to take over the Villa and treat it like a special needs case so that the ‘wonderfully supportive’ fans can have success is childish.
Our fantastic support was practically fighting amongst themselves when Norwich scored Sunday.
And they’re just the ones that can be arsed to go. That rules out 80% of this site.
Did half of you lot moan that your Dad was crap and you wanted a new one because you didn’t live a millionaire lifestyle as a kid ? I do wonder.
I do find it hilarious and frustrating in equal amounts how so many on here think Lerner has got rich(er) out of Villa. Lerner has made mistakes but not being the wealthiest owner in the Premiership isn’t one of them.
So, in a real world where Man C, Man U, Chelsea, Man City particularly, but also Liverpool and Spurs I guess can outspend us and attract better players/pay them higher wages, what would be competing for? 6th or 7th and maybe a decent cup run. What’s the point?
The problem is not Lerner, it’s the Premiership and Champs League. That is about the only point I agree with Ianrobo.
As for a new owner. That is just as likely to lead to disaster as put us in a position to challenge for top honours.
Correct. We cannot compete financially, simple.
But it’s easy to implore someone else to spunk their money up the wall rather than actually spend any of your own.
For every Sheikh Mansour, there are Shinawatras, Yeungs, Venkys, Tans and Allams out there.
Too many dreamers on here.
Nah i love my old man,wouldn’t replace him in the world.what a fucking ridiculous statement.
It was an analogy.
Probably need to drop the ‘ogy’ for this site lol !
Giddy no matter what we say Vaze will comment to the contrary he’s right , and we are dreamers,
Vaze as you yourself said they are opinions, don’t try and ridiculous all the time, your getting up my nose just lately I’m a prat one day, a dreamer the next, what’s up boyfriend problems.
Ridicule Bill, but you need no help on that score.
I get up your nose, well blokes who crow about not going to support the team as they’ve seen the glory and today’s serving is beneath their mighty standard or preferring to travel hundreds of miles to watch someone else get on my tits, that’s life.
I hold a very different opinion to you. That probably won’t change but I’m not contrary fella. I’m firmly in the ‘we’ll have to make the best of what we have’ camp, rather than the ‘sack everyone and get anyone in, they’ll be better’ camp.
In my experience, the latter is rarely true. People who live in that world are bloody dreamers.
People who slag the Villa at most every opportunity wind me up, carry on though, feel free.
He has not wriiten off 90m, the Lerner trust has written off the interest on the 90m owed to them and turned the 90m into equity within the club. the rest i do not understand but i believe the 50m debt to be the wage issue carrying over. This is why next season we should be in a position to finance a decent strengthening of the squad.
We were in that position in January and a 10m player as well as Hoolahan was expected to arrive but the 10m fell through at the last second. This was told to me by someone who sits nears me at VP and he is a long term fan who is ITK but when he says stuff its generally right
We will be spending in the summer, i dont think anyone is expecting us to compete with the likes of Man City but we should be competing with Cardiff and Palace which in fairness we are not.
I dont understand why we have one set of fans who think we have the budget of a conference premier team and then on the other hand we have fans expecting us to buy Rooney, i feel most are somewhere in the middle. I hope if Cardiff get relegated we sign there CB looks a real prospect to me even though i cant remember his name
sorry should say who is not ITK
Morgan, a debt for equity swap is a write off which offers some tax breaks.
It’s only worth anything if the club is sold, and then obviously depends upon the price.
I would expect to see us spending £30-£40m a season, which is pretty decent investment. Some clubs throw money at it occasionally, as we did very unsuccessfully under MON.
Clubs that do that without success or a return on their investment, take time to recover and go again (Villa) or end up in the wastelands of the football league (too many to mention, Leeds probably the biggest example).
We could well finish tenth this season, how much more do we need to spend to get to fifth ?
I think 30-40m is a fair investment, i said in a previous post i feel Bertrand should be number one priority. Someone like Caulker or his team mate at the back. Maybe Nzonzi and Hoolahan would probably turn our squad into top 6-7 contenders. Add in Carruthers from his loan and maybe another winger and our team would look quite good with enough cover if there are any injuries.
I see us finishing 12-14th this season
i also agree, for once i enjoyed my read 🙂 bless morganvilla and vaze and helenius 🙂
life is depressing enough, without my footy i wouldn’t av anything 2 relax and enjoy ~ balancing books has been done ~ summer we will be strengthening the squad, plus youth team players integrated. we look hell of a lot better than before. this season while we have been dire, facts stats and wot have you suggest we have improved immensely. only need to look at the goals conceded column
You forgot me Nath,
Doubt it WH was good v a piss poor midfield for 25 mins then dies a death and Bertrand has been woeful at times he’s better than Luna but that’s not saying much
did i over look u bill ~ i will bless u as well then
VTID
i really did enjoy my read 2day guys ltrs
I second that. Well put.
I agree with you there the comment definatetly came from that bodily region.
We need a RB.. Bertrand signed up.. a winger.. attacking mid and a DM in my opinion..
Lads is there ANYONE who has even the slightest clue who this mystery 8M bid was for in the Jan window..
I am very surprised no name at all has surfaced..
It’s the invisible bulkshit appease the fans player that pops up at the end of every window!!