John

You can't make him sign a contract if he doesn't want to. Maybe he wants to move next season as a free agent. Or we could make him an offer he can't refuse given he is such a key part of our defence now. Looks like we might have already done so?

Beaten to the punch!

I thought Arsenal and Newcastle had cornered the market for the best young players in Ligue 1? It seems that is no longer the case. How about re-working an old chant from the terraces? "Ayew, Ayew, its up the Holte we go".

I guess Adebayor is currently 50/50 to take them.

Make it happen Villa! We need a boost and this would be a big one. We should have moved on this one before Newcastle did their deals which led to the increased price.

Speculate to accumulate ...weren't we saying that about Doug all those years ago The early start to the season I think is bad for us as some of the players we have to shift are the ones clubs take on deadline day when they desperate.I also think Levy will mess us around for Adebayor most of the window too. We sure were and it remains as appropriate today as it was back then.

With Benteke gone we should have the money to buy more players now although if we were waiting for the deal to be completed before being able to sign players rather than to cushion the blow of Benteke's departure it would seem our transfer budget is little better than it has been in recent years which would not be in any way acceptable. I hope that any delay in getting deals over the line is due to them taking a fair amount of time to be done rather than because our "custodian" is prepared to risk our top flight status yet again by not providing the sort of transfer budget that we need to stand still let alone to move upwards in the league. He really needs to back our new manager now in the way I would suspect Tim would have been told he would be when he was interviewed for the job before keeping us up and taking us to the FA Cup Final. I wonder if he will?

A sad day for us and I suspect for him. His goals kept us up and I thank him for that but they could now send us down so what he did for us is now history. He has been looking to leave us for a long time and has I think from the start considered us as only a stepping stone. He now has the move he and his agent wanted. I had hoped that we would grow as a club to the extent that he would see that he could win things with us but Wembley in May did for that. Thanks for the memories and I am sure that you will get a good reception at Villa Park in the future as long as you show the appropriate respect to the club and fans you have now chosen to leave from now onwards.

Still no news then. Anyone think Liverpool might be trying to get Dr Nick to find a reason (any reason) for them to lower their offer back down to around £25m?

In Tim signing quality players from Ligue 1 we trust! "I'd rather sign a player like Delph". Really Juju? I would rather we signed someone who was nothing at all like that liar, cad and bounder. I fart in his general direction!

Welcome Jordan! Positive news was what we needed this weekend. Well done to the club on persuading him that we were the club for him and to him for not changing his mind on the deal (or did he? ). You are our player now!

What an insult to snakes and cockroaches!

So "no longer Fab" jumps straight to number one in my chart of most hated ex-Villa players. 1 - Fibian Wealth. 2 - Hodge. 3 - Downing. 4 - Yorke.

If he has been signed a contract why has he not signed it? I cannot understand why we have let another player go into the last year on his contract. It does appear a bit like an "Everything Must Go Sale" at Villa Park at the moment. He should be our next captain but not until he signs a new contract. We need some good news his signing a contract that reflects his current status at the club would be that make it happen Villa!

Of the two players we have looked like losing recently Benteke was the one I would rather have kept at our club (the name of the other one escapes me now). If he wants to play every game he should stay where he is. Just because Liverpool might want you (although not enough to do a deal without trying to barter the price down and then seeking to do the deal on the never-never) it does not mean you have to sign for them because nobody else wants to meet your sell on clause either. Reject their offer and tell the world that you unlike another player whose name you do not recall are loyal to Aston Villa and their fans. Or risk sitting on a bench next season and at Euro 16 as has someone else whose name escapes me once again.

Loyalty in football hit a new low today. There are lies, damned lies and his repeated claims of loyalty. He has let us and himself down but has saved his new club the extra money they would have had to pay someone else to sit on their bench who might have had more concerns about losing his international place as a result. I do hope he does not pick up too many splinters on his backside through sitting on the bench next season. So happy he could find time to sign for Citeh and will be able to fly out to Australia to join up with the other mercenaries when he could not find the time to be with the club he was the captain of in Portugal. I look forward to giving him a warm reception at Villa Park and then shouting Judas, Judas what's the score? You Delph are a liar and a cad!

I see your point and had wondered whether we needed to sell to buy as well. But why would we want to sell our captain and an England international for just £8m when he is worth £20m minimum? I think the club were to blame for letting his contract run down to its last year and at least we did get something back that we would not have got had he left for nothing in this window as he could have. But this move was not of the club's making for me.

Is it April Fool's Day? If it is Delph he could be visiting a hospital rather than having a medical but I very much doubt that it is him in any case. To sign for them so soon after telling us he was staying with Villa would make him look too bad to be true. I do not think he would do this on us. The press however love to run stories no matter how far fetched they may be when they are negative for us.

If we do need to replace Benteke then why not spend £15m on Martial rather than Austin? http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Article/Martial-priorite-de-villa/53760?xtatc=INT-22-[Martial-priorite-de-villa] There is more on this in the Benteke replacement thread.

Talk Sport have said this morning that Liverpool are set to trigger his release clause. They do not seem to be in a rush to do it though do they? The tortoise with the bid on his back that left Anfield yesterday is reported to have spent last night in Stanley Park. I guess Benteke did a Peter Odemwingie last night and spent the night n his car at Anfield?

I think we should go for Bamford before someone else does (unless we are already too late). I think it might need to be on loan firstly because Chelsea are not yet too happy to sell him given how well he did in the league below last season. That deal should also not need to depend on Benteke's departure.

That is what they mostly do up there!

Yes, it could be P3te and if so what happens after he signs for them or anyone else will be his concern rather than my own.

Did we offer him an improved contract? If not, why not? There was talk I think of us going as high as £90k a week (although I took that with a large pinch of salt). I think it would be well worth offering him that for another year on his existing contract with the same £32.5m escape clause to rescue him from the potential hell of spending a couple of years playing for a club whose fans do not want him on a similar salary to play a couple of games in the Europa League and less games than he would for us in the PL. Or could it be that we need to sell to buy? If so, we need to do that as well as Southampton did with less money. By the way that tortoise that I mentioned that had left Anfield this morning with their £32.5m bid is still some way from Villa Park it seems.

I understand the bid is now on its way. It left Anfield at 9.00 this morning tied onto the back of "Lambo" their club tortoise and it is expected to arrive at Villa Park before the last day of the transfer window.