John

The Times claims "Liverpool are still keen on Aston Villa forward Christian Benteke but will only step up their pursuit of the 24-year-old if Aston Villa are willing to compromise on their £32.5m asking price". They are happy to throw money around to buy other players but think they can bully us into accepting a bid that is lower than his worth to us! Just tell them the price is £32.5m and not a penny less and why not add that you suspect the player would not see a move to beaten FA Cup semi-finalists as a step up in any case?

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-not-meet-stoke-9529159 That should be that. Sounds a bit like how Liverpool have played their hand in their plan to sign Benteke for less than his release clause from us. I hope this talk of "financial restrictions" is a cunning plan to get clubs to agree a lower figure before we tell everyone about our new mega bucks owner. If the deal is to be done we will need to do it now before someone else comes in for him and Bournemouth have shown today that £10m is not an unreasonable asking price for a player of this quality. Or are we thinking Stoke might do a buy one get one free deal with Begovic & N'Zonzi?

Welcome on board Butch! His experience, reputation and coaching ability can make a big impact on us.

With what few links we have had to date, the likely cost of most of the recent links and more players leaving than joining us it seems that yet again money is too tight to mention at B6. If a takeover does happen in the window things might change quickly but if like last season it does not our present custodian really needs to put some money into the transfer kitty or risk another flirtation with relegation and the impact that might have on our sale price.

don't see us getting 32 mill with a year left on his contract Why? To the elite, chasing a 30 goal a season striker, it's a drop in the ocean. They will pay it just to get a bite at the cherry. Score 30 goals on top of his already very impressive strike rate and the Madrids come sniffing. always be a cheaper option elsewhere.you wont get his buy out clause with 12 months left on his contract no chance in hell So be it. I am not worried whether we get the buy out clause, £20m or £40m in 12 months time. I would rather have him with us for the following season and who knows with a new owner and some investment on the playing side by then staying with us might look a better option for him than it does now.

I would have no problem with Benteke seeing out his present contract because we would get another 2 years of goals from him. It would be a lot better a situation than losing him on transfer deadline day without being able to replace him. We would get him for say £14m a year if 28m is all anyone is prepared to currently pay for him and it would save us around £30k a week over that 2 year period if he is not prepared to sign another contract. But I think if no club meets the £32.5m figure then he will sign another contract and take the extra cash to stay with us for another season or two.

It seems they may have made their choice and will save £3.5m by signing Firmino rather than our man. I hope that will put these links to Liverpool signing our player to an end once and for all. One potential buyer down - Great news!

Does anyone think Liverpool might have guessed at or been told of the buy out clause in Fab's new contract? £12m & Borini (who no doubt they would value @ £10m minimum because he has appeared/scored for them once or twice) along with a 12-month loan for another player would be about £10m below a £32.5 clause which would be par for the course for them.

We could do a lot worse and don't call me Shirley.

I wonder if Tim made a call about loaning Ibe or even signing Borini & the response from Liverpool was they would do both if we took £12m for Delph or possibly a bit more for Benteke? I guess Tim would have laughed and/or told them where to shove their £12m before hanging up!

Tell them £32.5m for Delph but £40m for us to take Borini & Ibe on loan as a part of the deal!

Why on earth would we drop the asking price for them or for anyone else? They have the money as has been shown by their previous signings so if they do not think he is worth what he is worth to us then let them go for their other targets and the same applies to Liverpool who value Sterling so much higher than they do our man. Benteke might want to go but we have been here before and I would be happy to see him sign another improved contract and play as well as he did for us after he signed the last one.

Another one gone and some more money back in the coffers. That out door seems to be seeing a lot more action than the in door to date. Matt looked like a real find in his first season and did a decent enough job when called upon after that. This move can be a good one for him. I wish him the best of luck and thank him for his efforts in our shirt.

Which top class would join us? We'd have to so like Southampton have done recently. Plus if we spent all our budget on one striker snd they got injured like Benteke did, we'd more than likely be in a relegation battle. We can't be reliant on one person. I agree with this and this is our current problem we rely heavily on one player. If he is injured or plays poorly we struggle. We need a squad of quality players to cope with bad form/injuries Yes, we need Benteke along with a squad of quality players. You do not become a better team very often by selling your best player or avoid relegation by selling the player that has made a habit of keeping you up.

1. Rimmer 2. Gidman 3. Aitken 4. Evans 5. McGrath 6. Mortimer 7. Graydon 8. Little/Rioch 9. Gray 10.Cowans 11.Morley

If Watford have already turned down an £11m bid for Deeney they can keep him. We can do better than him for that sort of money. I think he is a Nose as well so I guess we would be the last team he would have his heart set on joining.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/11688896/Liverpool-go-cool-on-Aston-Villa-striker-Christian-Benteke-as-focus-switches-to-Fernando-Llorente-and-Carlos-Bacca.html I would like us to sign Messi & Ronaldo but would want us to pay closer to £30m each for them rather than somewhere near what they are really worth. I guess our chances of signing those two should therefore be slightly lower than Liverpool's chances of signing Benteke for around £10m below his release clause.

Is there any reason why due diligence might not have begun on or very soon after 16/5 given we were safe by then if securing our top flight status was all that had been holding things up prior to that? If so, might we already be a month into this?

Take Benteke out of our team and we would have a mountain to climb to stay up. The good news is that nobody seems very keen to spend £32.5 on him as yet. We are also currently in profit as things stand transfer fee wise which will please our custodian.

The last 4 years were far from good but they were not the 4 worst years in our history for me. I would go for 1966/67 21st relegated from Division 1, 67/68 16th in Division 2, 68/69 18th, 69/70 21st relegated from Division 2. I rest my case. Sad days indeed. But this deal is taking too long to go through for me and I can understand those that doubt there is any potential deal waiting in the wings.

Is he?

I take it we will not have sought any sell on percentage as part of the deal? But in any case, they have signed a player that can do a very good job for them at a decent price. Thanks for your efforts in our shirt Andi and the best of luck with The Rams and with Austria.

Welcome to the club Micah! Nice to see this deal come off and it does show Tim can persuade quality players to sign for him when they have other options. This could well end up being seen as the best value catch of this transfer window.

Jack to go out on loan to CD Tenerife possibly?

Our 5 games from mid October offers games against Chelsea (a), Swansea (h), Spurs (a), Man C (h) & Everton (a), We then reverse those fixtures in the 5 games from the start of March. 30 points from that lot then.