John

Liverpool need to offer us £32.5m cash without any of their rejects at over inflated prices. Benteke can then decide whether or not he wants to join them. Until then it does not matter how big a club Liverpool think they are or anyone else thinks they are. Find the money or jog on!!!

I would like to think he will prove Six times better and that he will soon be able to say that £9m was a sound deal "because I'm worth it". I would have liked this deal to have been signed, sealed and delivered by now because as we have seen the longer it takes to get a transfer done the more likely it is that other teams will try to scupper it (as Arsenal did when Bergkamp arrived at BHX with a view to signing for us all those years ago). Genuinely never heard of bergkamp in the verge of joining us. Is it true? It is. Our former chairman picked him up from the airport and it was all over the Evening Mail that evening.

Our former chairman who considered us mere "men of the terraces" makes our current owner look a very good one. I hope our new custodian will when compared with Randy prove as much of an improvement.

I would like to think he will prove Six times better and that he will soon be able to say that £9m was a sound deal "because I'm worth it". I would have liked this deal to have been signed, sealed and delivered by now because as we have seen the longer it takes to get a transfer done the more likely it is that other teams will try to scupper it (as Arsenal did when Bergkamp arrived at BHX with a view to signing for us all those years ago).

He would be a praet to sign for anyone else. Get it done Villa!

"I loved Cropley too, one of my fav ever Villa players but wasn't able to give us more than a couple of good years because of that vicious tackle by Ally Brown. Hasn't aged too well!" - I'm sure Alex might think that a few of us that watched him from the terraces have also not aged too well Paul C!

Given what their fans have said about signing Benteke to date I very much doubt that buying him would sell many extra season tickets up there. Their fans are idiots. The defend the club like its their mother. They are moaning now but trust me if the deal goes through Benteke will then be the best striker in Europe. What and miss an opportunity to moan about signing Benteke instead of Messi (who also is not good enough for them) on their radio station (Talksport)?

Given what their fans have said about signing Benteke to date I very much doubt that buying him would sell many extra season tickets up there.

I think Guzan's contract had expired before he signed his present one with us. If so, Ron might not yet have quite burnt all of his bridges with us.

"The Sun" says Aston Villa are set to make a £6.5m move for Senegal midfielder Idrissa Gueye, which could prompt the departure of Fabian Delph, also 25, from the West Midlands club. Trust them to add a negative to the news.

John Percy in The Daily Telegraph claims WBA are to bid £10m for Austin. No doubt to replace Villa bound Berahino.

£20m is and was not then enough. I would also question how often our net spend has been circa £20m since MON left (50/50 or less) ? I share your hope that austerity is at an end now at VP but I will wait to see what our net spend on transfer trading during the whole of this window is before being confident about that.

Whilst I share your concern about this transfer window to date our "bottlers" did knock them out of the cup.

The lack of any news of any sort remains a concern for me. There is either a wall of silence around the potential takeover that MI6 or the CIA would be proud of or nothing is happening at all. I suspect the odds might not be 50/50 on this but I hope that someone will mention the possibility of a change of policy and custodian at the club to the likes of Benteke and Delph if such a possibility does exist before they make any major decision during this window.

There really is nothing to agree. They agree to pay the £32.5m and not a penny less or we hang up the phone on them!

He was most likely wearing a Liverpool shirt when being interviewed. He has a clear bias towards Liverpool it is a little like asking someone off the Kop for an opinion concerning how likely a deal might be. This radio station is willing him to move up there. They keep mentioning it to get fans talking about it and in the hope they might be proved right one day. Beecroft may have heard something from someone but I think we should not believe this until it comes from a named source or the official web-site at either club.

Its Harry Kane or all of the cash Spurs!

But it is a great look.

I see your point but I would not like to see him play for Manchester United either. It would be a little like it was for me when Yorke went there and was part of a winning team with them. Did I not like that!

It would be £10m more than we would have got had he not signed a new contract. I hope he stays and understands that his England place could be placed in doubt should he spend much of next season on the bench at a club that is looking to add English players just to make up the numbers.

Sadly the only teams in the league this coming season not a step higher than us based on last year are the 3 promoted clubs But only Arsenal currently stand above us in the 2015/16 table.

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.