Butterfingers

On Sunday,Newcastle & Sunderland have Arsenal & Spurs respectively,Fulham are away at Swansea,Norwich away at Man City & Southampton & Stoke play each other. If we were to win on Sunday,we would leap frog anyone as far as 11th spot who doesn't win.I reckon this means theres something between 4 & 5 £million riding on this game. We've had an amazing run since Everton away,winning every game pencilled down as "winnable" with the exception of Fulham.I have to say,loosing to Wigan will not upset me as much as drawing at Norwich would have done for example but to finish the season 11th or 12th would be brilliant & a few million into the coffers to boot wouldn't go a miss either.

When we signed him,like most Villa fans,I thought we had great value in the Milner money & if someone had offered Bent in a straight swap for Milner,I would have taken it. Theres no doubt that his goals helped keep us up under Houlier but with supply coming from Walker,Young,Downing & Albrighton,we were always going to create a lot of chances. The following season the 3 main supply lines had gone & Albrighton faded dramaticly.To add to this,AM as manager doesn't help any attacking midfielder or striker & as previously said,Bent became isolated on his own,usually receiving hardly any touches of the bal,let alone a chance at goal. This season,nobody could argue that a straight pick between Benteke & Bent will always result in the latter being left on the bench.I actually thought the partnership at Southampton looked good in the first half & there was a chance just after half time where one of them (I think Bent) should have scored to make it 2-0.Our defence then did its usual party piece & the rest is history-Maybe if that goal had gone in,the season would have been different although I'm a massive fan of the 3 pronged attack with the right players on either side of Benteke. Bent would be great cover for Benteke but is way too good to be on the bench all season-If he wants to go,he would go with my blessing & thanks for his contribution to our club in 3 very difficult and contrasting seasons.

They didn't pay 10 mill they paid 5mill - so that's what 5 mill gets you! Well we'll be fine then-Sell Benteke for £20mil,have a whole £10 mil to sign someone twice the value of Graham & still have plenty of change to slip a few quid into Lerners bank account.

Logic fail. See if you can spot it yourself. Not that I want to sell Benteke, not in the least. Oh right-Benteke only cost us £7mil You've cracked it-We sell Benteke for £20mil & then simply go out & unearth another gem for £7mil-Easy Why didn't I think of that?

For those who think that selling Benteke for £20mil will improve the team,Sunderland paid £10mil for Graham-That's exactly what £10mil gets you. There is no sense in replacing a top quality striker with 3 average replacements.We should have money available to improve the team without having to sell our best assets

So he's been the only big earner that the club hasn't wanted shot of then? Come on mate-Wake up & smell the coffee.Why do you think MON left & then successfully sued the club for constructive dismissal? Eh? I don't think the club particularly wanted to get rid of any of the good players, the players wanted to leave because "bigger" clubs came in for them. I don't think Faulkner is going to come out and say "Downing handed in a transfer request" when he didn't, is he? And MON didn't win. It was settled outside of court. I don't see what that has to do with Downing wanting to leave anyway. OK-I'll spell it out for you: MON was told he was going to have to cut the wage bill down & work on a different wage budget to the one that had been agreed when he first joined the club.Recieving money from Lerner out of court is winning in my book-Unless you think Lerner wanted to give him the money.Downing was touted to 3 clubs & Liverpool were the only ones who showed interest.If we didn't want to sell him,I find it strange that Lerner just happened to keep almost half o the transfer fee don't you?Lerner gambled & lost in the quest forCL football-No more talk of 5 year plans or bright futures,just talk of cutbacks in the wage bill.We may well have achieved 5 years worth of cut backs in the space of 2 seasons but it has almost cost us our Premier League place & we're not quite out of the woods yet. Anyway-That's in the past now.Lets hope he resists temptation to cash in on Benteke this summer-That would really add insult to injury to expet Lambert to work on a shoestring & still sell any gems unearthed for a quick profit.

So he's been the only big earner that the club hasn't wanted shot of then? Come on mate-Wake up & smell the coffee.Why do you think MON left & then successfully sued the club for constructive dismissal?

That's great-I really don't doubt that Downing was forced out so we'll have to agree to disagree won't we? As for Yorke-The Mirror ran a back page headline that United were in for him around 8 months before he eventualy joined them.I don't ever recall Yorke pledging his loyalty to Villa in those 8 months-In fact he was banging down Ellis's door begging to be allowed to leave.

Source? I thought it was common knowledge. Paul Faulkner "I can confirm that we have reached an agreement with Liverpool following an improved offer received earlier today and the submission of a formal transfer request by Stewart Downing, and have subsequently given them permission to speak with the player." But Downing had said a month previously that he wanted to stay. Its funny how the kangaroo court deems Faulkner to be telling the truth but Downing to be lying

I still think we could do a lot better than Delph. Bennett looks more of an attacking winger than a defending fullback. Vlaar seems a good leader but gets caught out badly too often for my liking. The rest are fine. I am beginning to change my opinion on Delph (shows what I know about football I guess).I was never his biggest fan but in recent weeks (as with all the team) I am warming to him.I think him & Westwood work excellent as a pair and on many occasions on Saturday,I thought they were hunting in the proverbial "pack",chasing,grafting,harassing,closing down & winning the ball.With the front 3 we have,the onus on midfielders to chalk up goals is not as great. What I would like to see is a Sissco type midfielder playing in front of Delph & Westwood I see something in Bennet that I like & would want to keep him.I wouldn't start with him though so a new left back would be nice,as well as an experienced central midfielder to partener Vlaar. Those 3 changes would really compliment what Lambert is building and would give us the ability to defend under pressure-Something we have not done for long periods of this season. More points already than we achieved last season & far better football to watch.I think most of us agree,its still very much a work in progress but there are certainly positive signs & people are feeling optimistic about our future again.

Source?

With regards GD-Ours is better at present but for those below us to catch us up,ours could go backwards whereas others will have to improve. An example is whilst we are 2 goals better than Wigan at present,2 draws for Wigan,a defeat for us against Chelsea and a 1 -0 win for Wigan on the last day of the season will see them finish above us on GD

I'm starting to think this position really suits him. I used to think a winger was a top priority as a signing in the summer but now not so sure. Not many teams play 2 forwards anymore and I can't see Lambert changing to that anytime soon. So for me I don't think weimman would be great playing the role of the centre striker. I think he wouldn't have much influence on the game in that position. His work rate, defensive work and pace are really suited for this wider position. Add in the fact he's a good finisher and this position looks more and more suited for him. Have to sign him up in the summer. My worry is he'll fancy a move to a bigger team. Agree with all of this-Weiman is a class act & I pray we can kep hold of him. Modern football rarely allows for the second striker ala Weiman so he either opts for the "hole" or one of the wide positions in a 3 man attack.His work rate means he's ideal for this position & he sets up his fair share of chances for others as well as converts them himself.

I disagree with your first sentence.For whatever reasons,the entire McLeish back 4 was replaced,mainly with youngsters.The two full backs had no PL experience between them,nor did Vlar.Looking back,this was a recipie for disaster & confidence was destroyed for a period of the season.When the team has confidence,they play some really entertaining football. The rest of your post is spot on.Since the Millwall debacle,we've played 6 winnable games-Won 5 & Drew 1.I really can see a future for the nucleous of this side-Something I would never have dreamt back in December or January. Lambert must take a large portion of the credit for this-He's had the balls to take on a job that many managers wouldn't touch with a barge pole & stick with his faith in the youngsters when it looked from the outside like the team were in freefall. A bit of investment in the defence & midfield,keep our strike force & we could see a very good Villa side next season.

I was also thinking about this KHV. If the rumour (tweet) is correct and we are in the Premiership next season, Benteke apparently wants to stay with us for another season. Yet it is a worry that we might have a one season wonder on our hands and his recent form would suggest that maybe Premiership teams are beginning to work out how to handle him? His current value would then certainly drop if his present form continues into next season. If a bid in excess of 20m came in for him during the summer it would probably be considered by the club rather than being thrown out right away and i think both manager and chairman would be right to consider it. It should only be considered though if the full revenue from the sale of Benteke is ploughed straight back into team strengthening rather than the chairman's pocket. Personally i'd love the club to be able to keep Benteke and to actually build a team around him as he has oozed that special comodity for most of the season, class, which generally promotes progression. The difficulty is that for us to keep him beyond another season, the chairman will have to reinvest in the team on a level with the MON era to push for euro and CL qualification and that is something i just cannot see happening at the club for the foreseeable future unless we get a new owner. Some good points made-I would disagree that teams have or even could work out how to handle him.His style of play is very hard to counter-He is deceptively skillfull on the ball and almost impossible to knockoff which enables him to take on and get past players in the box-Defenders bounce off him,the set up for the 1st goal against Man U is the best example of this & some of his long range efforts are also the stuff that defences can't counter. If anything,there maybe some mileage in him being a bit jaded as the season draws to a close.He didn't arrive here till the last day of August and a good pre-season in the summer is more likely to see a better player next season than it is for him to turn into a one season wonder.

The £10 million was a hypothetical figure but whilst not cheap,I cannot think of one striker out there who I would prefer ahead of Benteke for £10 million. Your point about quality is exactly the point that I'm making-Anyone who thinks that by selling Benteke we will somehow improve the quality of the team is either on drugs or extremely deluded.

Thank you sir for reminding me of that great day. I can remember standing on the half way line and the stand we were in and the stand opposite was full of Villa fans. It was an amazing site. Other great games that year included 48,000 against Bournemouth at home and Reading away (I think the score was 5-3, although the memory fades). Think I was in the same stand as you-The one on the other side was the biggest & packed with Villa fans.The Reading 5-3 was the season before-Unelievable times to be a Villa fan.Who would have thought that day at Notts County that in exactly 10 years from then we would be Champions of England & planning trips to watch the European Cup final?What a great 10 years they were.

Why would you want to line Lerners pockets to the detriment of the team? Money is not yours or anyone elses problem-Its Lerners.You've seen what happned (or rather didn't happen) with the Young & Downing money-There Is no point in selling our prize asset only for him to be replaced by some chimp for £10 million who isn't fit to lace Bentekes boots. What an absolutely **** ridiculous statement. How much did Benteke cost again? howmuch is the chanse that u hit the jackpot again with a low cost gamble? u cant always have luck to sign a successful striker Absolutely spot on_Villa have gone from being one of the highest payers in the division to being one of the lowest.Any decent strikers out there will be coverted by sides who are prepared to pay much more in wages than Villa are. We have a prize asset & the chances of buying another one in the summer are almost non-existant People on here need to stop worrying about money & worry more about losing quality players that WILL NOT be replaced like for like. Players like Benteke come along once every 20 years or so (Yorke being the last one) not every close season. Why would any Villa fan with half a brain want to replce a £20 millionstriker with a £10million striker? It doesn't matter how much money we get from sales,we're still going to be signing players from Crewe,Chesterfield,Midlesborough etc because they're the only players who will accept the wages we offer.

Why would you want to line Lerners pockets to the detriment of the team? Money is not yours or anyone elses problem-Its Lerners.You've seen what happned (or rather didn't happen) with the Young & Downing money-There Is no point in selling our prize asset only for him to be replaced by some chimp for £10 million who isn't fit to lace Bentekes boots.

Well said that man-I've cursed him on many an occasion this season but I really think that Arsenal game was a big turning point for him-Its a big ask to expect wonder performances from young defenders & for all his contributions going forward,Kyle Walker made many mistakes defending when he was on loan here. I honestly believe that in 2 years time,Bennett & indeed Lowton will really begin to establish themselves in this division.

Agree wholeheartedly with this Are you on drugs???? The guy is far more the complete player than Benteke is.I would sooner lose Benteke before Weiman. The way Villa play with the 2 wide men is not Weimans natural game as his asset is his ability within the 18 yard box.he is adapting to this position & his work rate is second to none. If you didn't notice the step backwards in attacking play when N'Zogbia replaced him then I would question whether you'd know a good footballer if one hit you in the face. Bentekke has a far bigger future in the game - that's not a slight on Weimann - just how I see it - you only have to looks at the clubs circling for Bentekke - (Arsenal Spurs) - where a liverpool might want weimann as a a squad player because they think they may be able tp pick him up cheap The beauty of football is the variation of opinions.I'm not convinced that Benteke has a better future & he certainly needs to improve his easy chance conversion ratio-That was exactly what the Belgiums were saying when he firs signed. Either way,to suggest we cash in on Weiman is just plain crazy-Who would you replace him with? Bowrey? Our strike force has been the only saving grace this season.The goals & assists from Weiman have been absolutely crucial in giving us a fighting chance of survival. I wouldn't mind betting he's been tapped up anyway so the decision may have already been taken out of our hands,given the length left on his contract.

Oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not the dreaded "is it half term" jibe

I really don't understand how someone can keep reading a thread he's not interested in,let alone continue to post in it

Of course it doesn't-He was told he was going,he would have obviously been delighted to swap Villa for Liverpool,who wouldn't??? handing in a transfer request merely forfits your right to having your contract paid up-Liverpool would have clearly sorted things out financialy at their end for him.A win,win situation really & good for us fans if the money had been re-invested. This is one of the reasons why MON walked out & also a reason why he actualy won a court case against the club for constructive dismissal Just change my name to Mysteryman & have done with it.

Lerners pulled the plug my friend-He gambled & lost and now he wants his money back.We pay less in wages than teams like Stoke now & our league position reflects it. I love the old "head turned on international duty" chestnut-Anyone would think we still in the mid 1980's LOL-I think you'll find tapping up is a tad more sophisticated in this day & age