Skysports released a story last night that Christian Benteke does not want to sign a new Villa contract and instead is interested in leaving the club to play in the Champions League. The Benteke-saga is again upon us, saga’s in general are what Villa fans have pretty much gotten used to past the last few years. The last saga being Milner to City.
At the same time Aston Villa have stated that they have not received any bids for Benteke yet and he will not leave for less than his £32.5 million buy-out clause. Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester United are all reported interested in the forward but none want to pay the transfer fee.
With little indication on who will and can bid on Benteke, I’m going to focus on what Villa are and can do. As things stand we have already sold Weimann, so it’s clear that we need to bring in a new striker regardless. Because if the season started, Agbonlahor and Kozak aren’t going to cut it. I think that Kozak could be a good short term replacement for Aston Villa, he will and can score goals. Might not be as good as Benteke, but it’s good to know that we still have a good striker among our ranks. It looks likely that Callum Robinson could take the role of Weimann but bringing in Charlie Austin would probably be enough. Ideally I’d like to see Villa bring in Austin or any replacement striker before selling Benteke. That way clubs can’t hold us hostage to a high transfer fee since they’ll know that we’d have more money to spend. Also, it’s unclear when Benteke will leave the club. Some fans believe it would be near deadline day as teams look for a last minute quality striker.
I personally think that the £32.5 million price is fair, you will hear Liverpool fans claiming that he isn’t worth more than £20 million. That just doesn’t make sense since Liverpool fans rate Sterling at £50 million, that is idiotic. With Benteke still very young, he will make an impact wherever he goes because his playing still is very adaptive and he is strong in the and with the ball in his feet. Whoever signs him won’t regret it.
For some reason though, the Richards transfer suggest some changes – i think Lerner would spend on decent quality as those wages proves,but like us (but more so as its his money) he probably got pissed off paying mutton/dunne/collins/warnock etc etc £40k plus p/w which was proving nothing league position wise and knowing there would be no ROI (return on investment). Invest in the right players and ROI is good which he understands.
Regarding the money side, if your sherwood you get guarantees on what is my spend…£10m or £15m plus sales – sell Benteke/Delph for £45-£50m – if dont get it resign and say why in public – if do go to town and sign us a bunch of quality players who’ll allow grealish and gardner to flourish. i genuinely don’t think he would dare that not being spent if they were sold.
1/2 out of 3 comes good when there not £2-3m players but are £8-12m players…we’ve done well historically on youngish players valued in this region,
£24m on bent was an amount! but take your point we havent but part of my assumption was due to the mental wages we had been paying average players which was drowning us – most have moved on and our wage to income now is fr reduced.
Bear in mind benteke is usually injured for long periods and goes missing for long periods. On that basis should we take the £32m and run as he dosnt want to play for us anyway. If we tighten up defence we won’t need to score as many goals anyway. Benteke is good but not as good as he and everyone else thinks. Bony is similar to benteke yet city paid £35m for him yet clubs are baulking at £32 for benteke. Something is not right there
“Something is not right there”
Yep.
Your thinking.
Bony was in a side doing well, whereas Benteke???
He’s gone missing because he’s probably been disillusioned with the shit around him.
13 in 12 when motivated, says it all.
Conversation over, I’m afraid, as I think Benteke will move onwards and upwards and prove you massively wrong, as per usual.
When motivated. There’s the rub. He should be motivated for us every game imo. So what ur saying is he picks and chooses when he wants to be good. No wonder no one will touch him. Don’t give me the disillusioned under Lamberk bollox as he played well under him and scored plenty in his first season with virtually the same team and tactics.
talksport transfer knob is saying its benteke injury record that is making clubs think twice about his price. they think he may be a crock in the long run. so do we keep him and let him run down his contract and next year be forced to sell him on the cheap . or play hardball and tell him and his dickhead agent we will not sell for a penny less than his buyout and risk having a grumpy sod for the next two years . its hard to say i would rather sell for less and reinvest the money on players that want to play for us .
His dickhead agent is another reason clubs won’t touch him
JB, the Richards wages really aren’t that big a deal for a free.
This is part of the problem, in that we’re constantly being told it’s top money.
It frankly isn’t and the club ceiling at the previous £56k was pennies, again in the scheme of things, imo.
Let’s not forget Richards is supposed to have given up £15-20k a week that the mighty Sunderland were supposed to have offered.
In fairness, this might have been replaced with an up front down-payment. We don’t know under the current regime, after all.
My point is yes, Richards is a decent signing, but it wasn’t a mega-bucks one.
As someone said previously, would we have paid X mill and paid him the dough?
“I genuinely don’t think he would dare that not being spent if they were sold.”
That’s why I don’t think either will be sold, fwiw.
£32.5M is a fair return for a club that does not want to sell Benteke. He and his agent can put a sock in it, if they want out they will have to lower their wages expected to persuade someone to buy. Otherwise it is stay with Villa and lump it. Whoever came up with the figure showed great foresight, it is just the level of price which causes a buyer to think twice.
More interesting is Terry’s comment that Cech on his Chelsea form could be worth as much as 15 points to the Gooners. I agree. If he had come to VP he could have earned us even more points. Any ambitious club needs the best goalkeeper it can afford. Money spent on strikers is ****ed away if cheap goals go in at the other end. That is where Villa are now, with a relegation quality keeper and nosing around the Burnley clown who was demonstrably worse.
A move for Callum Wilson is still not dead. You can be sure he will feature in the first EPL game at Goldsands, but in which shirt? Bournemouth have bought 2 physical strikers, and it is difficult to see why they bought 2 if they expect to keep Wilson.
They signed King, what 2nd striker did they sign?
Atsu
Atsu’s a winger.
And he is a loanee not a bought player. But only a winger? So is Ritchie, but if the style of play means that teammates give them the ball to finish moves with a goal attempt, then they are strikers. this is the key to Bournemouth’s successful style.
Doesn’t stop him from playing out wide though, which isn’t going to replace Wilson who does not. Simple as that.
No thanks useless player. No more Utd rejects please suck of them giving us their cast offs
Except he’s never played at United, Bournemouth striker.
However James Wilson is still a very talented young player from United who would be a great signing.
Maybe Badger but remember £65k p/w relative to £50k p/w is still an additional 3.1m over 4 year deal thus reducing a £10m down to effectively £7m!
maybe we should be ‘revoluntianory’ and pay like baseball where they front load some players contracts and backload other players so its equals out each year to set amounts. Older players you frontload contracts so maybe easier to move on later in their deals and ypunger players backload contracts o provide incentives of great rewards if they stay and perform.
Don’t see how benteke has a bad injury record, he had 1 bad injury with his heel but that’s an injury that doesn’t reoccur and actually akes the tendon stronger! As for ooh ah saying he goes missing I really don’t understand this train of thought, how can a player with a 1 in 2 goal record go missing exactly? He plays in a shot team with very little clear cut chances created and still has a scoring record of 1 in 2! Someone please explain?
I’m afraid I cannot explain. But it really is starting to look like potential buyers are seriously put of by something. I mean would it really hurt teams like united, city or Chelsea to wait 6 to 12 months when he contract starts to look a little shorter?
Yes we hold the cards but I think we may have to except a little less and I mean a little less than 32m in order for us to move on. We need this wrapping up quickly so we can go into preseason matches with pretty much complete squad. Players like gardener, Robinson and Gil need a real looking out to see if they fit in.
Who knows a partnering of Robinson and kozak could really work! Doubtful but Sherwood has a look of players to look at as so many players have been played either out of position or not at all.
Players which I believe to be dead certs for next season are Clark, delph, grealish and okore. Can you really say 110 percent anyone else will cut the cheese?
Probably his injury record putting them off. Also he went on strike and does go long periods without scoring. A top four team only have strikers that score virtually every game ad benteke won’t do that his goals come in purple patches
i don’t get it . but that’s what the guy on ts said . ts talk a load of shit. but it’s obvious no one except us thinks he is worth anywhere near the release clause . still a long time to go in the transfer window and until we know if we are being taken over or if randy is staying its all swings and roundabouts .
That 1 in 2 is misleading. Sky four teams like a striker to score in nearly every game he’s no use to them if he scores 10 goals in ten games then dosnt score for another 10 games. It’s also scoring when pressure is on in big games like the fa cup final for example. It’s no use if he gets his one in 2 against the rubbish teams. He went missing for a good dozen games when bk from injury if you reads people’s posts at that time we were all saying the same thing. It was only under Sherwood he pulled his finger out.
Don’t forget how many times he gets caught offside as well. Sky four teams won’t stand for him giving cheap possession away like that
They won’t care when he’s notching 25 goals a season. It’s easier to do that if you are in a team that actually creates more than 1 chance a game.
Not been on here a while, same old stories, same old tosh.
Benteke and his agent have fucked up big time by agreeing his ‘buy out clause’ at 32.5 mil. Noone will go that high for him IMO. So, IMO, he’s almost certain to be with us next season! Well done Fatty Faulkner, its just about the only thing he got right at VP.
Agreed. But can still see us climbing down on price. He will throw his toys out the pram at some point and will go for £20-25 m
Oohah….yes, but we will still be in the boxseat as he needs to play desperately to be in Belgium’s Euro 2016 squad. I dont see Villa dropping the price either, unless a player of equal/almost equal quality is signed first! Why would we drop the price?
Because we won’t an unhappy player and in the end we will cave in as always. Might go to last day of window imo
Yeah, because we tend to cave in on our players prices. If our history tells us anything, a team always matches what Villa want, we don’t cave.
Will be nice when he leaves, we’ll do just fine in any post-Benteke era and these stories are tiresome. The lad has done us good but has no loyalty to the club (whether down to him or his arse of an agent). Every tranfer window is the same. He wants to leave.
When someone puts up the 32.5milly I’ll be happy to see him go.
I have a sneaky felling one of the prerequisites of TS joining is that all funds from sales (especially Benteke be made available) so finding a decent replacement or two with that kitty will not be a problem, as long as TS knows what he is doing.
UTV
Agree I want him gone now he’s everything that is wrong with a modern day player. Decent player but not as good as he or his agent think he is. Just want him gone now sick of it dragging on
You only want him gone so you can say “look, after saying he’d leave for the last 2.5 years I’ve been proved right”