brummie

oh I wouldn't be so sure........ http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11698/8783529/Transfer-news-Carlton-Cole-considering-offer-from-top-flight-club probably JFK on the phone to him Kill me now.. at the first comment "Newcastle are the un-named club" It's absolutely us. Not enough groan gifs in the world. How fucking predictably depressing. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4976341/Carlton-Cole-in-talks-with-Hull-after-West-Ham-release-him.html Can't Control was one of the worst strikers I've ever seen play for us. And I remember Simon Stainrod, Gary Penrice and Guy "Twelve Million Goals in the Second Division" Whittingham.

The Bent argument is pretty straight forward. He's an excellent finisher, and that doesn't really change no matter how shit the team he is playing in. The problem is that that is ALL he does. If you are going to play Bent, you have to shape your whole front six around him, because otherwise, he might as well not bother turning up He won't do anything else, he won't drop back and fetch the ball, he won't hold it up, he won't lead the line, he won't do any of that, but if you want a striker who will play off the last defender, and apply the finishing touch, he's your man. The problem is that football has changed an awful lot the last few years, and players like Bent are very much out of fashion. That's why Lambert didn't use him. He's not an idiot. When we were struggling for points, he dropped a player we'd paid 18m for and replaced him with a kid we'd bought from Belgium for far less. There was lots of piss take from the likes of that brainless turd Lawrenson about what the fuck are we doing yada yada yada, but it was quite clearly the right decision, and the sign of a manager who was progressive rather than regressive. Darren Bent's problem now is that most, if not all, of the top flight sides have moved on, and will not play a brand of football which will suit him. He hasn't become shit at what he does. The problem is that hardly anyone wants a player who does what he does any more.

Of course he does. I honestly can not believe anyone who has watched any football, let alone writes about it for a national newspaper, could seriously think that Darren Bent is a player who will "link play" in any possible connotation of the word. What utter, utter bollocks. How can anyone say something like that and keep a straight face?

Rumours Shay Given is going to Doncaster on loan. Crikey. Surely he can do better than that?

We don't know that they actually have been quoted a straight 25m for Benteke.

Rumours re Chelsea offering us 25m plus Lukaku on loan for a year. Given that, were we to keep Benteke a year, and he did well, he'd be off next season anyway, if they were stupid enough to offer us that, I think I'd be tempted to take it.

That's it. They are when you compare them against the wider market - ie players outside the UK.

8m for Ince is fucking nuts.

How highly to do you rate Benteke btw? I think, based on the second half of last season, he's got the potential to be amongst the best players around. He's still rough around the edges, though. I've never seen a player get offside so often, for example, and sometimes his first touch is abysmal. I think this coming season is crucial for him, it really is. If he goes somewhere he's not going to get a run of starts, like Chelsea, I think there's every chance he'll go backwards, quickly. He also needs the team set up to play around him, which is what we did last year. He's a twat, really. He needed to stay, have a decent season and build on what he achieved last year, go to the world cup, do ok there, and he could basically move anywhere he wants. Instead, he's got involved in all this unseemliness instead.

Good article about Benteke here. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2360073/Aston-Villa-wont-sell-Christian-Benteke-25m.html#ixzz2YjV9saHY

Well, no, because if he has another decent season, his value will go up, not down. If he has a decent world cup at the end of the season, his value will go up even more. And you're right, that isn't the most credible of sources. If we should do something on the basis of him having angled for a move since the season ended, then I think it's fair to assume that actually needs to be the case. Rejecting a transfer request and holding on to a player another year is hardly something that never happens. Clubs can't just roll over and play dead every time a player fancies a move. It has to stop at some point, and some times, the club really does hold most of the cards. At the very least, I would expect the club to be really, really fucking awkward in defending our asset, too. I dont doubt for a nanosecond that Lambert will be doing exactly that.

That's the point, we don't want to achieve that, we want to keep the player. It is a discouraging price tag, not an attempt to get more money in. There's also a limit to player power in these circumstances. There's a world cup at the end of the season, what's he going to do? Refuse to play? It wouldn't be the first time a player has submitted a transfer request and not got a move. True but he's been angling for a move pretty much since the end of the season and is obviously another Ba in that he'll be touted around Europe/Russia for the rest of his career. Do you want this kind of bullshit every window? He's shown his colours, cash in and move on. It's inevitable. How do you know he's been angling for a move since the end of the season? We wont be expecting this every transfer window, the plan will doubtless be to hold on to him till the end of this season.

That's the point, we don't want to achieve that, we want to keep the player. It is a discouraging price tag, not an attempt to get more money in. There's also a limit to player power in these circumstances. There's a world cup at the end of the season, what's he going to do? Refuse to play? It wouldn't be the first time a player has submitted a transfer request and not got a move.

I would pretty much guarantee you that Lambert has told them he wants far more than that. I'd bet money on it.

Far too much the same player.

Derisory in the terms of what we want, not what he's worth. It's not about his actual value - which, for a player with half a season doing well in the PL wouldn't be massive - it's about what he is worth to us, as you said, and that is key. Ultimately, anyone who wants him is going to have to pay well over the odds, and the last club I can imagine doing that is Spurs - not because you don't have the money (surely you're spending the Bale money before you get it and everyone doubles the prices, btw ) but because Levy doesn't get raped in the transfer market. I can't see Lambert taking players, either. He's apparently had his scouting team (who he brought from Norwich) doing massive amounts of work identifying targets, so he'd be way less likely to take players in the way, say, McLeish would have. Definitely not Defoe, totally not a Lambert style player. Going back to Benteke, I think his agent has advised him badly on this, but hey ho, we'll see how it pans out.

Love how they make signing players look so easy. You'd think it was impossible the way our lot go on. I'd think that part of it, a big part, is that they're signing players in competition largely with other teams of Norwich's level, which makes it easier for them.

Apparently the only offers for Benteke are from Spurs and they have all been derisorily low. This from the mouth of the son of a member of the board., Benteke's agent - who apparently is an absolute nightmare to deal with, even by football agent standards - has told him to out in the transfer request. Benteke is his only client, he's known him since he was a kid, he's basically his meal ticket. I think his agent has advised him badly. There's no way Spurs are going to pay our valuation of him, if they're the only option. Basically, he wants to be with his mates Lukaku, Hazard and De Bruyne in London. If his agent reckons Levy is going to offer enough to get him, he's not really advising his client very well. I am increasingly starting to think he'll be here this season after all. He can't play the cunt and go on strike or mope around all year as he wants to go to the World Cup and start games.

Bent will still be going. Could stop any deal until a replacement for Benteke is sorted though. Which might just be long enough for us to escape a fate worse than death. Honestly, there's more chance of me playing for Villa next season than Bent. And I am 45. And not a keeper. Or indeed a footballer. I don't think he'll stay, I'm saying that the club may take the view that selling two strikers before bringing in any replacements is the wrong way to go. Which might delay any sale of Bent while they focus on the Benteke sale and his replacement, I have to have some hope here.. Seriously, not a prayer. Too much water under the bridge. Last summer we sent Warnock and Hutton to train with the kids, despite it meaning us playing the whole season with two full backs with a combined age of about Shay Given. There's zero chance of Bent staying. And to be honest, I wouldn't be too concerned if he did. He won't, though. No matter what you say I have to believe this has given us a chance, even a small delay could be enough, you can't take away my hope! :'( I don't know why you're all so bothered. He's a very good goalscorer. it's not like we're talking about Danny Graham, is it?

Not strikers, no. Genuinely, if we sold him for nuts money, 30m, say, and spent the money wisely, I'd be ok with it. I would rather he stayed another year, and am disappointed his loyalty has lasted all of 11 months, but really, that's just footballers today, isn't it? It's Andy Carroll, it's Modric, it's Van Persie, it's Nasri, it's any one of lots and lots of footballers in recent years. It really comes down to how we reinvest the money. Pocket it and show no ambition, and you start to wonder what the point of it all is. Be imaginative - and I don't think for a second Lambert would be anything other than that - and you can do good work with it. Look at how Spurs have done that in recent years when their best players have wanted out. When Ashley Young was with us, every season we were told he was off to Spurs (he didn't), he wanted to go "back to London" (despite not being from london), he wanted out yada yada yada, but he left after four years, and then to go to Man United, who are always going to take your best players. These last two or three seasons we are operating from a considerably reduced position of bargaining, as we've been struggling. It's going to make it harder to hold on to the likes of Benteke. What concerns me is that he so clearly has been speaking to someone he really wants to go to, and doesn't really give too much of a shit about anything other than getting what he wants. Fair play to the bloke if that's the way it is. I don't like it, I think less of him for it, but really, what can you do other than ensure that you get enough money for him and spend it wisely. Clearly, the fact we have referred in our statement to it needing to be "in the right timeframe", we're not going to be flogging him in August. Unlike the weaselly McLeish or the untrustworthy Houllier, I actually would trust Lambert to refuse to sell him and leave him to stew until he realised he needed to get his shit together for the world cup. I trust Lambert far more than any Villa manager of recent years.

In a way, I can see this being good timing for us. World Cup at the end of the season. Loads left on his contract. We are going to ask for huge money. What happens if nobody offers it? And let's be honest, he's had two thirds of one really good season in the Premier League.

Bent will still be going. Could stop any deal until a replacement for Benteke is sorted though. Which might just be long enough for us to escape a fate worse than death. Honestly, there's more chance of me playing for Villa next season than Bent. And I am 45. And not a keeper. Or indeed a footballer. I don't think he'll stay, I'm saying that the club may take the view that selling two strikers before bringing in any replacements is the wrong way to go. Which might delay any sale of Bent while they focus on the Benteke sale and his replacement, I have to have some hope here.. Seriously, not a prayer. Too much water under the bridge. Last summer we sent Warnock and Hutton to train with the kids, despite it meaning us playing the whole season with two full backs with a combined age of about Shay Given. There's zero chance of Bent staying. And to be honest, I wouldn't be too concerned if he did. He won't, though.

Marcus Bent.

I don't get it, either, to be honest. There's no need for it. I suspect it's because all parties know there are enough irons in the fire for him to be off. We've gone to Germany today on a pre-season trip, though. Would there have been any point involving him in that?

It's not even money, I don't think. He is on 20k a week with us because when he came, he was a massive punt for us. It was, what, 10 months or less ago when people were laughing at that deal. He'll have been offered a deal - by us - on much more money, but I suspect his agent - who is apparently a childhood friend and only has him as a client - will have had a lot to do with it. He's daft, really. All he needs is another good season, then he goes to the World Cup with a highly rated young side, and if he does well there, he can have his move anywhere he wants.