Aston Villa Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14

COYVB

Doodee wrote: »

With the exclusion of Bent, will our striking options be that bad?

There is no inclusion of bent though. He's been put in the reserves and told he's not part of the first team, he won't be back in

Paulegend

Doodee wrote: »

Of course the funds are there. The club isn't going to splash out 20mill on a replacement but the 8.5 that's been touted for Kiyotake could be used.
And the club can afford to not play Benteke if he wasn't shipped out. He is on 20k p/w. the club has carried Ireland, Given, Bent, Hutton and Warnock for longer on higher wages.

And I would think it is easy for PL to replace Benteke, cause if he wasn't prepared for his departure with all the nonsense since the end of last season then he shouldn't be in charge of the team.

Villa hold all the aces here. The only question is if Randy will sanction those actions or not.

i agree that the funds that was touted for other positions could be used but then your not filling other positions.

also do you really think villa can afford to not play benteke for a whole year?? that 20 million price will drop to less than 5 if he spends a season on the bench. just look at david villa. he was offered 100k a week on a 12 million bid from arsenal back in january and now he made a move for 4 million. thats just 5 months. picture a year.

my worry would be that its not villa that holds the aces but randy..

all i was saying is that a 20 million sale now could be the same value as a 30 million sale on september 1st.

if torres went to liverpool at the start of the transfer window he might have gone for 30 million instead of 50 and andy might have gone to liverpool for 15 instead of 35. that would have been the exact same value to liverpool even though it would have looked worse that he "only went for 30"

jimmy the car wrote: »

Maybe I misread it but did Lambert not say if anyone wants Benteke they have a specific timeframe in order to do it otherwise it's no go, presumably to avoid the whole last day madness....

yea it was in the club statement i think but to be fair they would always say that. its not to say that a 30 million bid with mins to go in the window wouldnt change randys mind

Paulegend

COYVB wrote: »

There is no inclusion of bent though. He's been put in the reserves and told he's not part of the first team, he won't be back in

i dont understand this one though. how come bent has been thrown out?? im a liverpool fan so havent spent much time in villa forums to know the story. i use to think bent was a fantastic player. hell if suarez goes i wouldnt mind bent us signing bent and a direct replacement for suarez

COYVB

Paulegend wrote: »

i dont understand this one though. how come bent has been thrown out?? im a liverpool fan so havent spent much time in villa forums to know the story. i use to think bent was a fantastic player. hell if suarez goes i wouldnt mind bent us signing bent and a direct replacement for suarez

He doesn't fit into the system, so he's not part of the first team squad. If anything, it shows that Villa would, theoretically, have no problem letting a big name, big money player rot in the reserves. Take note Mr. Benteke

COYVB

Paulegend wrote: »

also do you really think villa can afford to not play benteke for a whole year?

Did it with Darren Bent, and he earns 4 times what Benteke does, and cost 24m. So yeah, they can

COYVB

GavRedKing wrote: »

How much money do ya reckonye have to spend on his replacement

I suspect we might already have signed him in Helenius TBH

CSF

COYVB wrote: »

I suspect we might already have signed him in Helenius TBH

I know a big fee doesn't guarantee a great player, but id still be very nervous if Benteke's replacement was a 2 million player

Paulegend

COYVB wrote: »

Did it with Darren Bent, and he earns 4 times what Benteke does, and cost 24m. So yeah, they can

but was bent going to fetch 20 million last season?? because im sure he would have went and randy would have packed his bag for him. all im saying is that ye cant afford to leave 15 million rot on the bench because ye didnt get 20 million.

CSF

Paulegend wrote: »

but was bent going to fetch 20 million last season?? because im sure he would have went and randy would have packed his bag for him. all im saying is that ye cant afford to leave 15 million rot on the bench because ye didnt get 20 million.

Could alternatively play him because the club didn't get 20 million for him

COYVB

Paulegend wrote: »

but was bent going to fetch 20 million last season?? because im sure he would have went and randy would have packed his bag for him. all im saying is that ye cant afford to leave 15 million rot on the bench because ye didnt get 20 million.

We can though. Benteke isn't making much, 20k a week or so, and he NEEDS to play next season with the WC coming up. If we want to play hardball, we can

Paulegend

CSF wrote: »

Could alternatively play him because the club didn't get 20 million for him

of course thats an option but a player who wants out, a player who acted liek this at his last club and even went on strike at his last club to force a move might not be the best person to thrust to score the goals. no way an unhappy player is going to score 19 goals again next season so his price will fall anyway. wouldnt it be better to get 15 and replace him than risk the season

CSF

Paulegend wrote: »

of course thats an option but a player who wants out, a player who acted liek this at his last club and even went on strike at his last club to force a move might not be the best person to thrust to score the goals. no way an unhappy player is going to score 19 goals again next season so his price will fall anyway. wouldnt it be better to get 15 and replace him than risk the season

No because it sends out all the wrong messages. If his transfer valuation isn't met, he will have to knuckle down

COYVB

Paulegend wrote: »

of course thats an option but a player who wants out, a player who acted liek this at his last club and even went on strike at his last club to force a move might not be the best person to thrust to score the goals. no way an unhappy player is going to score 19 goals again next season so his price will fall anyway. wouldnt it be better to get 15 and replace him than risk the season

If we don't get what we want, and tell him he's staying he has to perform this coming season or he's not going to be playing at the world cup. There's more than Benteke this is relevant to, what happens if Okore has a blinder this season and the same thing happens? If we sell Benteke for less than we want, he'll know all he needs to do is ask for a transfer and strop to leave. If we take a stand with Benteke, the other players at the club will know it's not an option

JPA

Paulegend wrote: »

of course thats an option but a player who wants out, a player who acted liek this at his last club and even went on strike at his last club to force a move might not be the best person to thrust to score the goals. no way an unhappy player is going to score 19 goals again next season so his price will fall anyway. wouldnt it be better to get 15 and replace him than risk the season

If Villa don't get the money they want or quite close, he won't be sold.
It's actually up to Benteke's agent to convince a club to spend the sums Villa are looking for.

Bounty Hunter

COYVB wrote: »

I suspect we might already have signed him in Helenius TBH

I suspect he was signed to be Bents replacement and any money we got for Bent was going to re-invested for a non forward who wouldnt be on anywhere near Bents wages. However now that Benteke looks to be leaving a new signing would def be needed.

Benteke is in an odd situation though as im not sure if any of the big clubs would be willing to pay what Villa would need to be willing to part with Benteke. He is quality but if the clubs Benteke wants to join are happy to spend 20+ million on a player they are probably going to look at a player who is a little more established (multiple seasons in top leagues etc) like Higuain or Jovetic. If however he is happy to go to a club like Spurs (despite supposedly being a Arsenal fan) perhaps he will get the move he wants as they are desperate for a top striker and have been linked with big money moves for other not fully established but big potential prospects like Damiao.

Dortmund have signed a CF and have Lewandowski for the next year. Athletico just signed David Villa.
I dont think Benteke has been linked to any other big foreign clubs... maybe Napoli but i dont remember reading that.

The Chelsea link doesen't make sense simply as they have a very similar CF already and not only that but both Chelsea and Belgium only play one CF so him and Lukaku having to battle it out with not only each other but also perhaps Ba & Torres for gametime in a world cup year wouldnt make sense.

A liverpool fan I work with suggested to me today some sort of dodgy dealings with his agent may have set up a move to Spurs or Liverpool which lead to the transfer request and I do think he would work well at Pool even if as a Suarez replacement but tbh Liverpool are even further away from CL etc than Spurs atm and we would be inclined to believe that Benteke wants to play at one of the biggest teams.

I'm a little surprised (as well of course as disappointed) he has handed in a transfer request. It is also the reason im now saying 20+m as apposed to 25m which I think I said in another thread a while back. Its now known he wants out and he wont get a cut of the transfer (loyalty bonus). The surprise isnt really a loyalty thing though it's just that I thought Benteke would think that in a World cup year he would be best served to accept a new contract (probably with a buy out clause) and earn more while getting his game week in week out and hopefully continuing his development where he has done so well so far. Then next summer he would leave for around 20m (thanks to his clause).

Not that deals like this ever really happen but I would not be surprised to read rumours of a Defoe plus 10m deal with spurs in the rumours thread in the next day or two... have we had the annual link to Jermaine yet?

Saab Ed

Belgian reporter Kristof Ternur quoted as saying Benteke spent the other day with Verts and Dembele. The bookies are loving it. Guess where the money is going. Still don't see it myself.

Esse85

Bad news for the club to lose Bent and Benteke in the same summer.

CSF

Esse85 wrote: »

Bad news for the club to lose Bent and Benteke in the same summer.

Is Bent really a loss to a Lambert team?

Esse85

CSF wrote: »

Is Bent really a loss to a Lambert team?

bent has more league goals than the rest of the squad added together I would imagine.

Benteke single handedly kept us up last season, Bent did a similar thing in recent years.

Bent is a proven goal scorer in the EPL. Benteke has proved he can do it in the one season he's had with the club.

To lose both in one summer would be a huge blow.

If both leave, we're left with a squad with very few PL goals between them, that will be worrying, finding a success like Benteke for £7m is an exception, not the norm.

CSF

Esse85 wrote: »

bent has more league goals than the rest of the squad added together I would imagine.

Benteke single handedly kept us up last season, Bent did a similar thing in recent years.

Bent is a proven goal scorer in the EPL. Benteke has proved he can do it in the one season he's had with the club.

To lose both in one summer would be a huge blow.

If both leave, we're left with a squad with very few PL goals between them, that will be worrying, finding a success like Benteke for £7m is an exception, not the norm.

I'm not questioning Bents ability, I'm just questioning whether he'd have been a key member of Lamberts team even if someone else had been signed by Lambert instead of Benteke.

Esse85

CSF wrote: »

I'm not questioning Bents ability, I'm just questioning whether he'd have been a key member of Lamberts team even if someone else had been signed by Lambert instead of Benteke.

I dunno, but last season while battling the drop, had Benteke gotten injured, there would of been Darren Bent to call apon, a proven goal scorer, as opposed to some randomer with no EPL experience.

CSF

Esse85 wrote: »

I dunno, but last season while battling the drop, had Benteke gotten injured, there would of been Darren Bent to call apon, a proven goal scorer, as opposed to some randomer with no EPL experience.

I reckon you'd just have seen Weimann played centrally. Even Bowery seemed above Bent in the pecking order.

Doodee

COYVB wrote: »

There is no inclusion of bent though. He's been put in the reserves and told he's not part of the first team, he won't be back in

That's why I said excluding Bent since he is not an option.
Ugg, if he goes to Spurs then I will....
We have to do to him what they did to Modric.

pavb2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRaiE3ZrzrQ

Hitler reacts to Christian Benteke's transfer request.


Don't usually watch these but found this quite entertaining.

LeBash

Is anyone really surprised. The speculation has been around for a long time and i reckon Helinious was bought early in antisipation.

Hopefully we set the term out for everyone something along the lines of 25-30 million by august or the there is always next year.

I imagine we have a replacment for bent in mind and we need to sort that out before the cash arrives.

If there are no takers then put Benteke in with the reserves for 5-6 weeks to teach him a lesson and introduce him back yo the first team only on merit.

For a little extra encouragement take him off at half time once or twice and cite his transfer request as tge reason and the fact there are more loyal players around. The fact is he will be gone this season or next and there is no harm in hurting him or his presiois wc dreams. Villa as a club now only have to think about themselves and the future/current squad that want to be there.

jimmy the car

Going by SSN the buy out clause is quoted as £25m, would be happy enough if that was met sooner rather than later if it did happen

JPA

Aston Villa have made it clear that Tottenham Hotspur will have to break their transfer record for the second time this summer if they want to sign Christian Benteke. The Midlands club are determined to dig their heels in over Benteke's future, after the Belgian international submitted a transfer request on Monday, and they have no intention of settling for anything less than £25m.

Tottenham have tracked Benteke for months, and the player is understood to favour a move to White Hart Lane, where he would be guaranteed regular football, yet there are doubts about whether they will be able to meet Villa's valuation, especially after they spent £17m on the Brazilian Paulinho this month. One way to finance the transfer would be to include a player, possibly Jermain Defoe, but that sort of deal is of no interest to Villa, who will demand that Spurs pay the fee in full.

Randy Lerner, Villa's owner, is determined to adopt the same hardline stance that frustrated Liverpool in 2008, when Gareth Barry ended up missing out on a move to Anfield. Villa demanded £18m for Barry and refused to budge on that figure, forcing Liverpool to eventually concede defeat in their attempts to sign the England international, who went on to join Manchester City for £12m a year later.

Villa's position on Benteke, who has three years left on his contract, poses a major challenge for Tottenham. André Villas-Boas is desperate to recruit a top-class centre-forward, and the Spurs manager believes Benteke has all the attributes to succeed at White Hart Lane. Perhaps crucially, Benteke has also emerged as the most viable option for Spurs at a time when they have missed out on David Villa and, for a variety of reasons, are no closer to signing Leandro Damião, Roberto Soldado or Loïc Rémy.

Tottenham could yet face competition from Chelsea and Arsenal, who watched Benteke before he joined Villa from Genk in a £7m deal last August. In the case of Chelsea it is possible that Villa would feel differently about a makeweight if Romelu Lukaku, who spent last season on loan at West Bromwich Albion, was included as part of the package.

Should Benteke leave Villa, his departure will have no bearing on Darren Bent's future. Villa remain keen to offload Bent whom Alan Pardew, the Newcastle manager, admitted is on a list of five strikers – which also includes Rémy – that the club are interested in signing. Wolfsburg are also monitoring Bent's situation.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jul/09/christian-benteke-tottenham-spurs-villa


That's the latest, happy to see it.

Can only see Chelsea paying the asking price if they are even interested.
They won't include Lukaku, no chance, and he wouldn't be interested anyway.
I don't want him on loan, it stifles the teams development.

Corholio

Team for Villa's first pre season game against SV Rodinghausen :

First Half: Guzan; Herd, Vlaar, Baker, Bennett; Sylla, Delph, Bacuna; Albrighton, Bowery, Tonev

Second Half: Steer, Lowton, Okore, Clark, El Ahmadi, Helenius, Agbonlahor, Luna, Westwood, Weimann, Gardner

Frankie Lee

Corholio wrote: »

Team for Villa's first pre season game against SV Rodinghausen :

First Half: Guzan; Herd, Vlaar, Baker, Bennett; Sylla, Delph, Bacuna; Albrighton, Bowery, Tonev

Second Half: Steer, Lowton, Okore, Clark, El Ahmadi, Helenius, Agbonlahor, Luna, Westwood, Weimann, Gardner

Good to see plenty of depth in the squad. I rather the look of the second half team.

COYVB

Both decent enough teams there. Been a long time since we had that!

Looks like we'll be keeping the same system anyway

1st half

---

Guzan

---

Herd----Vlaar

---

Baker--Bennett

---

Sylla

---

Delph

---

Albrighton---Bacuna

---

Tonev

---

Bowery

---

2nd half

---

Steer

---

Lowton---Okore---Clark

---

Luna
---El Ahmedi

---

Westwood

---

Agbonlahor--Gardner

---

Weimann

---

Helenius

---

Definitely a mix of first team and reserves in each, I think we'll line up at the start of the season (all things staying as they are in terms of squad, with Benteke going) as

---

Guzan

---

Lowton--Okore--Vlaar---Bennett
----Westwood---Delph

---

Agbonlahor--Bacuna

---

Tonev

---

Weimann

---

Though with a new AM in there, Bacuna would likely be first out

CSF

New striker or a prodigal Benteke will defo be required.

Frankie Lee

COYVB wrote: »

---

Guzan

---

Lowton--Okore--Vlaar---Bennett
----Westwood---Delph

---

Agbonlahor--Bacuna

---

Tonev

---

Weimann

---

Though with a new AM in there, Bacuna would likely be first out

I hope Luna will be good enough to be ahead of Bennett at lb while I'd expect Sylla to play ahead of Bacuna against decent opposition. Bacuna may only be a utility squad player. Helenius might be a gem of player, possibly even a poor man's Zlatan but he could just as well be shíte. Gary Gardner with a good pre season behind him is a possible starter too.

Plenty to look forward too.

Corholio

HT: 0-0.

Corholio

1-0 Villa. Helenius header from Lowton cross.

COYVB

Frankie Lee wrote: »

I hope Luna will be good enough to be ahead of Bennett at lb while I'd expect Sylla to play ahead of Bacuna against decent opposition. Bacuna may only be a utility squad player. Helenius might be a gem of player, possibly even a poor man's Zlatan but he could just as well be shíte. Gary Gardner with a good pre season behind him is a possible starter too.

Plenty to look forward too.

I think the starting spot is Bennett's to lose at the start of the season. A couple of bad games and Tony Moon will be right in though. A goal from Helenius (who's wearing number 9) is a good start for his career tonight anyway. It's only a friendly, but if he can get a few more over the course of the pre-season he'll likely slot in as the starting striker. He might turn out good, he might turn out crap, but if he earns the spot this summer he'll definitely keep it at the start

Corholio

1-1. Free kick just out of Steer's reach,

Corholio

FT: 1-1. Okore picked up an injury near the end.

Frankie Lee

Corholio wrote: »

FT: 1-1. Okore picked up an injury near the end.

Serious injury do you know?

jimmy the car

Anyone know what time if today the Sky fixtures are released?

V1llianous

jimmy the car wrote: »

Anyone know what time if today the Sky fixtures are released?

Televised Villa Games up to the end of November:




Aston Villa v Liverpool

Saturday 24th August

Kick-off 5.30 pm

Sky



Norwich City v Aston Villa

Saturday 21st September

Kick-off 12.45 pm

BT



Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur

Sunday 20th October

Kick-off 4.00 pm

Sky



West Bromwich Albion v Aston Villa

Monday 25th November

Kick-off 8.00pm

Sky



In addition our match away to Chelsea will be listed as postponed with TBC regarding a new date due to their involvement in the UEFA Super Cup on the preceding Friday.

Corholio

Frankie Lee wrote: »

Serious injury do you know?

Hamstring, but apparently not serious, just a precaution.

BUNK1982

I'm surprised that there's been little speculation as to who Villa might line up with the cash from Benteke? It's the only positive thing out of this

I've no real ill feeling towards Benteke - to me it all seems like it's just business. He handed in the transfer request, hasn't been talking in the media, Villa have made their position clear and i think he was never supposed to go on the tour to Germany anyway.

I believe that Helenius had a good debut yesterday but you really can't read anything into it at this stage.

astonaidan

Great goal scored against Villa in the friendly, good to see the big man get a goal

Doodee

BUNK1982 wrote: »

I'm surprised that there's been little speculation as to who Villa might line up with the cash from Benteke? It's the only positive thing out of this

I've no real ill feeling towards Benteke - to me it all seems like it's just business. He handed in the transfer request, hasn't been talking in the media, Villa have made their position clear and i think he was never supposed to go on the tour to Germany anyway.

I believe that Helenius had a good debut yesterday but you really can't read anything into it at this stage.

Well it wont be Bony!

Frankie Lee

BUNK1982 wrote: »

I've no real ill feeling towards Benteke - to me it all seems like it's just business. He handed in the transfer request, hasn't been talking in the media, Villa have made their position clear and i think he was never supposed to go on the tour to Germany anyway.

In fairness Villa are not in a position to pay him anymore than 50 or 60k a week while he could easily make 100k+ a week elsewhere.

CSF

Frankie Lee wrote: »

In fairness Villa are not in a position to pay him anymore than 50 or 60k a week while he could easily make 100k+ a week elsewhere.

Could he? Not sure man.

Frankie Lee

If Andy Carroll is on £80k a week then he should be looking for more than that. If replacing Adebayor at Spurs I'm sure he would be looking for £100k. Probably not easy for him to make £100k a week come to think of it but not impossible either.

CSF

Frankie Lee wrote: »

If Andy Carroll is on £80k a week then he should be looking for more than that. If replacing Adebayor at Spurs I'm sure he would be looking for £100k. Probably not easy for him to make £100k a week come to think of it but not impossible either.

Andy Carroll is a special case because at some ridiculous point in time someone (Dalglish mostly) decided he was the real deal. He went on a transfer fee nearly double what the Benteke fee can realistically reach and everything got warped from there

Saab Ed

Frankie Lee wrote: »

If Andy Carroll is on £80k a week then he should be looking for more than that. If replacing Adebayor at Spurs I'm sure he would be looking for £100k. Probably not easy for him to make £100k a week come to think of it but not impossible either.

I just don't see him at Spurs. We're not gonna spend the money on him, either transfer fee or wages. Interestingly Lambert has said this evening that Benteke has a week to sort himself or he's out anyway. That's certainly shaking the tree that nothing has fallen out of so far. I don't think anybody is gonna pay the money Villa want for him and that really is a delema for both club and player.

JPA

Saab Ed wrote: »

I just don't see him at Spurs. We're not gonna spend the money on him, either transfer fee or wages. Interestingly Lambert has said this evening that Benteke has a week to sort himself or he's out anyway. That's certainly shaking the tree that nothing has fallen out of so far. I don't think anybody is gonna pay the money Villa want for him and that really is a delema for both club and player.

I think he's been badly advised by his agent. In fact I think his agent has ****ed up. Benteke could have stayed another season with a pay rise, gone to the WC, hopefully performed and got a move with the clubs blessing.
But instead he has created a situation where the club will dig their heels in.

The agent may have already had contact with Spurs and they have said what they will pay and believes Villa will negotiate the fee. Even if they do , Villa will still want 20 million+ so I don't know where they can go from here.

The Chelsea link seems to be a media invention, the Arsenal link based on past quotes, Man City link just laziness. Dortmund and Athletico Madrid have filled their striker positions.
Don't know where things can go from here.