Butterfingers

I agree with what others have said-It is definitely worth contacting Villa with a request. They are keen to accommodate fans from afar & with a Cleveland address,I'd say theres a pretty good chance due to the obvious connections. I certainly see no harm in this-To quote the General: "contact Alison Plant"

have you got a link , please. Its the same board as previously mentioned: http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/index.php?threads/christian-benteke.92986/page-111 Page 117 onwards is also worth a look as this is when they start to realise who the deluded ones really are. All those loud noises & rumbles that people may have heard at around tea time yesterday was not in fact a minor earthquake but was the result of many pennies dropping in the London & Home Counties area.

If anybody has a spare 10 minutes,pages 111-114 of that Spurs forum are absolute quality & highly recommended. I was going to post a few quotes but theres that many,I wouldn't be doing justice to the ones I didn' post.At least equal to the Sunderland board when we signed Bent & probably better IMO due to typical Cockney "engage mouth before operating brain" syndrome. Hopefully one or two of the more intelligent on there will be able to see the irony of them calling us "deluded"

I loved this bit " forget strikers, we need to upgrade our itks first. sign him up levy. That Villa ITK is great . " Wait till they get a load of our aircraft surveillance... This bit takes some beating: POST 2334 Presumably the good news is just that they've rejected our latest bid. Doesn't stop us bidding again. It's highly unlikely that he's signed a new contract or anything like that having just handed in a transfer request. POST 2335 Christian Benteke agrees a contract extension to keep him at Villa until 2017. http://bit.ly/13GcBq4 #AVFC

One final point from me before I go & watch the eviction on Big Brother. We have shown what Benteke is worth to us by turning down the offers from Spurs-He means more to us than the millions placed on the table. I've slated Lerner a bit over the past couple of years but he's backed his manager by stumping up the improved contract and also by not cashing in.On the other side of the coin,given the money spent in previous summers,we've spent low-Especially as it looks like most of the outlay will come back via the sale of Bent. I reckon at least 1 more signing & maybe costing a bit more as well.

My advice would be to try obtaining a ticket from WBA.As a "neutral" you could purchase a ticket provided they go on general sale (which they should do) As someone else mentioned,it is not advisable to jump up if Villa score,English football grounds can still be hostile to visiting supporters-Provided you are happy to sit amongst the home fans & not display emotions,you will be fine.I've done it myself a few times over the years,not an ideal choice but like you,if its that or missing the game then it had to be done.

No I'm sorry but this is ridiculous. He's here for the next season. If a club was prepared to pay £25m for him then why were there no bids for him when he submitted a transfer request? Hang on. So you are telling me nothing can change from now until next September? With all due respect mate you also said my post was ridiculous when I said we were gonna be fighting relegation next season. I think the thing here Amo is that Benteke & his agent were aware of who was in for him.Its unlikely that any of the top 4 will gamble on a 22 year old with 1 season in the prem behind him.Now that we've upped his salary & tied him down for another year on top,the asking fee goes up accordingly-If no-one came in at the reported £25mil,they won't come in at £35mil.Chill out & enjoy the summer,CB is going nowhere.

What are you smoking my I ask If we get into Top 10 this season, it will be a success after what we had to endure this season... FFS why does everyone keep saying this when I'm proved right every time?! I'll say it again, for quoting and using it against me later. With an AM the quality and stature of Sneijder and we would be within a few points of the top 4 at the end of the season. We were in Europa league form from march onwards last season with a leaky defence and no strength in depth. Both have been addressed, and if we added some top quality to the side it's not that big of a jump to think we'll be up there next season. Bloody hell even WBA with a pretty poor squad were close. The big question though is are we better with an attacking midfielder (a la N'Zog) o with a more defensivey minded one (a la Sylla)? I personally believe we are too front loaded with the front 3 and an attacking midfielder behind them.During that dreadful run through December & January,the midfield struggled as much as the defence did-We have options with Sylla & Tonev/others.We are building a young vibrant side-I'm happy to continue along this road-Aging players generaly haven't worked for us in recent years & I can't see Lambert ever buying one anyway

You can't guarantee this-2 hours ago,the majority on here were saying that he'd be gone this summer. 10-12 goals next season may not be enough to earn him his big move.He needs to repeat the high standards he set last season.Theres a bit of pressure there,Weiman is improving and there is the potential of goals in some of our new signings.12 months is a long time in football.Who would have thought we'd be having this conversation 12 months ago about a 22 year old from Belgium? Or, on a more positive note, we push next season and gain a place in the Europa League. Benteke decides he wants to keep on fighting for us to hit top 4. But yeah, we could just be crap ey! We are far from crap-We finished last season very well,playing some great football along the way.I've no worries that we will score goals given the formation that we play-The point is, for Benteke to get his big move,he needs a repeat of last season-Lets not take him leaving for granted.

You can't guarantee this-2 hours ago,the majority on here were saying that he'd be gone this summer. 10-12 goals next season may not be enough to earn him his big move.He needs to repeat the high standards he set last season.Theres a bit of pressure there,Weiman is improving and there is the potential of goals in some of our new signings.12 months is a long time in football.Who would have thought we'd be having this conversation 12 months ago about a 22 year old from Belgium?

Oi Glaston-Darren Bents available & should fit into your price bracket-No deadline to get the deal done within a certain time frame either.

Maybe the transfer request has driven the wage that Villa were offering up a little? There will probably be a buy out clause but most have always accepted a repeat of last season will open doors to bigger things for him anyway. Must admit,I had him down as gone-I'm delighted that I was proven wrong & console myself in the fact that I said £60k max in the recent poll regarding what we should pay him.Hats off to his agent-He's got as good a deal as he could have for his player.Now f'ck off back to Belgium you fat slug.

thats hardly news but it is promising as some managers dont ever look that far ahead. before when Yorke left or Barry we didnt have a replacement lined up straight away Bit harsh on Gregory given the circumstances & time scale he was left with. Sometimes there just isn't the right option available-In Barrys case,we bought Milner inside so a replacement was already there. What is reassuring (if Lambert does have a replacement in mind) is that we ARE looking to bring someone in rather than juggle what we already have.

I think the reasoning is that Spurs may not have a choice if Bales head is turned-In much the same situation as us with Benteke. As TRO said earlier,the likleyhood is that Spurs will be keeping Benteke (via his agent) updated throughout this process. IMO the selling of Bale would be the kiss of death on any hopes we had of keeping hold of Benteke.

I think he's been horrendously advised by putting in a transfer request without a bid in place. thats where i am too, the fact spurs have not made a bid, nor even an approach has got to be playing on his mind. if they did "tap" him up by getting in his ear saying we`ll give you x amount of £££££, start every week but we need you to force a move, when you do we will make a bid. as i said last week, this has the potential to become a very messy situation now, returning to training may have cooled his appetite to move, who knows. id put money on him still being here in august. I think he put the request in to ease the sale through (ie make it cheaper for Spurs to sign him) I'm quite pleased that Spurs haven't put a bid in yet but still feel theres a long way to go in all of this.

I used to do that stuff when I was a kid-I grew out of it like most of the others. A mindless bellend IMO is some idiot who claims that of another on the back of some kids stuff 30 years ago.

"Mindless bellends"? Source please Or is that just your ignorant,pointless opinion of people that you don't know?

Please put up a warning that viewers may be exposed to more than they are expecting due to the nature of early 1980's shorts. I was more concerned about the haircuts TBH

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hooligan_firms#England I believe we owe that particular group to our connection with the Cleveland Browns. Never heard of the Steamers to be honest and Villa Hardcore doesn't ring any bells, which seems to be the currently active firm. Villa Youth was from the 80's and the C-Crew the 70's if I'm not mistaken. You've never heard of Cleveland Steamers before? Look it up I meant a Villa firm called the Steamers. A lot of the old Steamers still about today.70 odd spent the weekend in Norwich when we played a couple of months ago on a stag weekend C.Crew wrecked Brussels when we played there in 1982-As a result no Villa fans were allowed to enter Rotterdam until 4 hours before KO in the final

We are trying to get rid of Bent so we go out and sign a player exactly like Bent? I'd liken him more to Weiman but agree with where you're coming from.Our style of play requires contribution from our No 9 from further out.It will be a relatively unheard of player who replaces Benteke. I wonder whether a traditional big man is necessary now-I take on board that Lambert has always used one but I think his style has shifted,even in the short period that he's been with us. Another option available to us (not that I'd choose it) is to go with Gabby up front & one of the new lads out wide. I'm convinced we've got goals in this side,with or without Benteke-Just wish I was as confident about the defence.

He wouldn't have spurs top of his list if that was the case I don't think he's ever been quoted as having Spurs top of his list. What is very likely is that Spurs are the only ones to have shown interest in (& most likely spoken with) him. The fact that they are competing for CL placings & have a couple of his Belgium team mates makes it a more attractive move all round.

Because they are a deluded bunch who insist that they are title challengers every year, even though the last time they won it was in 1961. The fact that they get disproportionately more media coverage than similar sized clubs, because they are from London. That they endlessly go on about the ‘Tottenham way’. The fact they charge over 80 quid for tickets because they can. That White Hart Lane is in a shit hole and miles from a tube stop. That they embraced money in football before virtually anyone else- ‘there used to be a football club over there’. Alan Sugar. Chas and bloody Dave. I mean I could go on.... But Dembéle and Vertonghen play there Who????

after some time on this board, it seems like Villa supporters hate everyone there's the obvious WBA, Birmingham City and Wolves, but apart from that I've read quite some negative remarks about both Manchesters, Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea, Newcastle, Stoke, Arsenal, Wigan, Sunderland... pretty much every team that seems to be anything else than a gray mid-table team (Fulham, Swansea, Norwich) Pretty much sums me up-Although Spurs gain extra hatred as they are a cockney team & media darlings. Plus their fans spout "Cam on you Spurs" like annoying parrots

I hope its true-The further the clubs are apart,the more likely it is that an agreement won't be reached. £18m is a load of tosh. We got £20m for Downing who is older, shitter and had less contract remaining. It's not going to happen. Yes I know-That's what I'm saying.

I hope its true-The further the clubs are apart,the more likely it is that an agreement won't be reached.