Butterfingers

Stewart Downing will always be seen as someone who was looked after by the club - who was rehabilitated, both physically; arriving with a broken foot and in terms of his career which was revitalised here. He then showed a complete lack of gratitude in getting out at the first opportunity. There are players who get unfairly treated at Villa Park - Gareth Barry for example, who gave us years of service and there are players who get exactly what they deserve - Stewart Downing is one of those. 

 

We're only booing him while Liverpool's fans are on a break.

Garath Barry is booed because he claimed he wanted to sign for Liverpool because they were playing CL football at the time.A year later when he moved,he snubbed Liverpool & their CL football to sign for the club that offered him the most money.Thats why Gareth Barry gets booed you crank

Stewart Downing was aware of all the things you mention-That is why he pledged he was going to stay with us for the following season.Do you really in your wildest dreams think he would publicly say this & then leave a month later???? Come on-Even taking into account how gullible most on here are,that is a rather far fetched story.

Stewart Downing was told that he was going to be sold-He was replaced by N'Zogbia who came on lower wages & the balance of the transfer fee went straight into Lerners back pocket

I thought it turned out that that photo was indeed real?

The photo is neither here nor there

The fact of the matter is that he was told that he was going to be leaving

Hey look I can get "in before the lock" as well-Its good isn't it?

Most pointless and pathetic thread in the history of VillaTalk?

Oh dear -I'll go & stand in the corner with a dunces cap on for an hour shall I?

Fu#kin priceless

You really think that photo was genuine don't you?

God give me strength

Can the people who persist in booing this bloke please stop it.

He was prepared to stay another season but was told he was going to be sold.

The reason for this is that Lerner wanted to cash in.Downing was genuinely gratefull for the opportunity given to him by Villa and was prepared to give us another season.

Save the boos for the real person who is not committed to our club ie Lerner-Booing Downing only motivates him.

To be honest if a sizable bid came in - I would take it. He is the type of player we have hung onto to long in the past. I have a feeling he may just get by on work rate - and energy. Thought he was poor today. - to be fair hes been great this season at times - but I have my doubts if he can sustain it

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.

How about Notts County away (3-0 division 3) Only the odd 20,000 Villa fans there?

Some great games already mentioned & its impossible to top some of those games.

A quick taxation of the memory banks bought another 3 to mind:

1. Sheffield Wednesday away (Ron Atkinsons 1st game in charge)

2. Arsenal at home (0-2 down,won 3-2,the Father Christmas accident)

3. Arsenal at home F.A Cup 1973 (won 2-0,Sammy Morgan V Bob Wilson)

Be nice to have stored all these memories in a bottle & lived them again this season

BBC Radio 5 Live are doing a special interview with Darren Bent at the training ground on Tuesday this week. I'm writing the brief for it atm and need to suggest questions to be asked. Anything in particular that would interest folks?

 

 

How much of his 70k a week wage does he feel he deserves at the minute?

Thats a ridiculous question,he signed a contract that was acceptable to both parties at the time.Bring back Young,Downing,Walker,an in-form Albrighton,coupled with a premiership standard defence & he'll bag you more goals than Benteke all day long.He is not playing regularly through no fault of his own & whilst I would go along with Benteke ahead of Bent,I would also say that Benteke is not justifying his projected sell on price tag at the minute either.

On todays performace you would happily take what we paid for him back ,that said Nzog was also pretty poor both unable to link effectively 

You'd take £7m for Benteke?

He said that on yesterdays performance,he would happily take £7m for him.I wouldn't disagree with that.

I don't often agree with what CI says but i definately agree that he is getting hyped up too much,both on here and in the press.Pre Liverpool,a large section of our fans were getting restless over Bentekes contribution.Ghent fans were saying before he played a game for us that his bread & butter finishing needs to improve-It hasn't.He had a purple patch against Liverpool & Norwich,early December and then contributed nothing bar converting a penalty untill he scored a great goal at WBA.2 fantastic goals at Everton seem to have been the catalyst for all of this hype & paper talk & he took them both superbly but when people are talking about quality balls in,they should think about how those goals were created.I didn't think he gave us much against West Ham either but perhaps the fact that we won the game hid that fact a little.

Benteke is different & is certainly hard to play against.He is a valuable member of the squad & NO I would not accept £7m for him but he needs to find more consistancy to justify some of the accolades that he is recieving at present.

You think Lerner and Faulkner are going to have learned from the past? I don't.

I think Lerner has learnt from the past-In as much that the penny seems to have dropped that the only people to make money in professional football are the players and the agents.He has clearly stopped all financial support to the club and whereby he boldly announced a "5 year plan" to go forwards when he first arrived,he seems to have adopted a "5 minute plan" to cut his losses.Just as it takes years of planning & building to go forwards,it also takes years to reduce outgoings-To do it overnight as Lerner has done  will only result in the shambles on the pitch that we are witnessing on a weekly basis.Whatever money we recieve for Benteke or whoever will just be wasted on more dross who are happy to come here for 5-10 grand a week.I feel we've been badly let down by Lerner and I worry to think where its all going to end.

I see Falkner as little more than Lerners yes man who keeps an eye on things on a day to day basis.

SEVENTY-FIVE GRAND PER WEEK

 

£75,000

 

SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND POUNDS PER WEEK

 

SEVENTY

FIVE

THOUSAND

 

Crikey Moses...  I'm sure there are better players out there earning less than that.

Great-Not many people were saying that at the time he signed though were they?

I wonder what it says about the rest of our team then considering Ireland was the best of a bad bunch that game.

Really he wasn't .

There wasn't a lot wrong with the teams first half performance & we were unlucky to only be one goal to the good.Ireland certainly played his part.The second half was desperate with no player covering himself in glory and the whole shape and tactics of the team went out of the window as we became more & more desperate.Not sure how Ireland can be singled out for blame and I'd guess he was subbed at some point in the second half as well.

The reason Ireland doesn't figure is that PL's preferred line up is Benteke up front,Gabby & Weiman behind him with N'Zog in the free role.This means the remaining two midfielders must be industrious which is not Irelands game.You obviously don't like Ireland which is fine but you seem to be allowing your dislike of the bloke blinker your opinion of him as a player.I don't like Warnock particularly but I would have had him ahead of Bennett all day long this season and I like Bennett and wish nothing more than he can make it at this level.

I think he was given his final Chance by PL in the 2nd leg v Bradford. Ireland was played centre mid and was given the stage to become a hero and really kick start his villa career.

Instead what predictably happened was that Ireland was outmuscled outfought and just didn't show the desire effort skill or determination of his much lower league opponents. It really was a wretched show from him and I think lambert has now called time on him.

Well what a pity Clark,Bannan & Bennet have not been given their final chance as well then.

Sorry mantis I think you are wrong. There is only one factor in the modern game that dictates sustained success or dictates that you are better placed to retain your best players. Money

Money to invest in the squad, money to buy the best players yourself and become the club cherry picking the talent and money to pay the wages the top players want.

Unfortunately our club is constrained by the one thing that it is vital to have in this day and age and that is money. And that is very much the thing that Lerner has control of and which he has failed utterly and miserably at

Even clubs with far more money than ourselves get their best players poached off of them. That's just the way the game works. I don't like it but all I ask is that we get a lot of money for Benteke and that it is reinvested.

Arsenal are a prime example of what you are claiming-They have lost their star players to bigger clubs for the past few close seasons.

We would have lost Benteke,even at the height of the MON period.We may have kept him for another season but who's to say we won't anyway?We are under no pressure to sell as CB will be worth the same,if not more in 12 months time as he is now.

The eventual fee we recieve for CB is irrelevant.Villa are privately owned by Lerner ie its HIS money.Signing another 10 Jordan Bowrys will not keep us in the premier league & any player who is half decent will be offered better terms at most other clubs than at Villa.

Its heartwarming to read so many peoples concerns over how much Randy will be able to put in his back pocket from the Benteke sale but I wouldn't mind betting anything over 15m (if that)  will go straight towards re-paying Randys loan.I couldn't give a monkeys how much "we" get as more unknown players on 5-10 grand a week coming in does not fill me with confidence.

One possible glimmar of hope for me is that if we do sell Benteke this summer,it COULD be that Lerner is looking to sell asap.

or why is he branded a rotten apple in the dressing room? I know it's fun to hate - but a lot of people seem to just pull stuff about him from thin air.

 

I think he has issues trying to get his head right, possibly in a Collymore way, maybe hard to motivate. Lambert said at first that Ireland worked hard in training - i'm now guessing Ireland has got disillusioned and has not put in a good shift or turned up late, and Lambert is trying to motivate him with tough love. Although i cant see that working on Ireland.

Now all the above is baseless conjecture, a gut feeling, but at least it's more constructive than saying he's a lazy tosser who doesn't care about the team. Everyone is entitled an opinion though, I just don't get the levels of hate on here. If any player did come on this forum they would be utterly destroyed by what they read.

Ireland has been asked to play out of position & understandably he has not been as effective.The same could also be applied to N'Zog last season and Weiman this season.

I also compare the level of hatred he recieves to that of Collymore.I put it down to ignorance and personaly don't care if a player drives a pink car,smokes a pipe or looks surly off the pitch.

I believe that the only position Ireland can play is "in the hole" behind the striker,as Young did in his final season for us.It is plain stupid to expect him to be a 20 pace box to box player or one that will win 50-50 tackles-There should be other players on the pitch for those roles.As he hasn't had a decent run of 10 odd games in this position,I will give him the benefit of the doubt.His move here hasn't worked out and I think it would be best for both parties to part company as soon as possible

Looks like he'll be off first chance he gets then, according to his agent in The Guardian -

 

 

Aston Villa's hopes of holding on to Christian Benteke in the summer appear increasingly forlorn, with Tottenham Hotspur heading a growing list of clubs interested in signing the Belgium international on the back of an exceptional first season in English football.

Benteke has been a revelation since joining Villa from Genk in a £7m deal in August, scoring 15 goals for a team that is embroiled in a relegation battle. Paul Lambert, the Villa manager, recently suggested that Benteke's value will have more than doubled on the back of his impact at the Midlands club.

Although several overseas teams, including Atlético Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, have watched Benteke, the 22-year-old's preference is to remain in England. Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea are all potential destinations for the striker.

Arsène Wenger followed Benteke's progress in Belgium and the Arsenal manager admitted a few months ago that he was "surprised" the player ended up signing for Villa. Spurs, meanwhile, have sent scouts to take a closer look at Benteke, whose physical presence has helped him adapt to the Premier League with the minimum of fuss and caught the eye of André Villas-Boas, the Tottenham manager.

Kismet Eris, Benteke's agent, said: "It is normal that, if you go to a club and do well, then other clubs will show an interest. Christian has shown that he can play in England. So why not take the step up to the next level if the opportunity is there?

"At the end of the season interested clubs will talk to Villa – but it has to be right for Villa, the buying club and Christian. If all three parties are agreeable, then something could happen. But right now his focus is on Aston Villa – and helping them stay in the Premier League. He wants to repay Paul Lambert for the faith that has been shown in him. He has scored a lot of goals this season and wants to give 100% between now and the end of the season.

"But Villa will now ask a big price for Christian, much more than they paid for him, because Paul Lambert was the one who gave him his chance. There will be clubs asking about Christian next summer because he's proved he can do it in England. None of the big clubs wanted to take a chance on Christian when he was still unknown. I have been with Christian for 10 years now. I know what his ambitions are – he wants to do well in England."

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/feb/15/aston-villa-christian-benteke-losing-battle?CMP=twt_gu

Not sure which part of that article quotes his agent as claiming "Benteke will be off first chance he gets".

There is not a player in Villas first team,with the possible exception of Gabby who would not crawl on his hands & knees down the M1 to sign for Arsenal,Chelsea or Spurs at this moment in time.

It will take big money to prise Benteke away from Villa & although he has certainly proved himself in the Premier League,the limitations that Genk fans were pointing out about his game are still there,ie the inability to convert the bread & butter chances.

For his agent to come out with that quote indicates to me that serious interest has been shown in Benteke-This should ensure any potential transfer fee will be high in order for Villa to agree to sell.We could quite easily keep him for another season and still get the same figure-Maybe even more if he improves.

If we were to stay up,I believe that we could keep Benteke if we really wanted to.Having witnessed what we have become,I also believe that Benteke will be touted about in the summer,just as Downing was 2 sumners previously.Benteke will enable Lerner to grasp another £10 million of his fortune back.

I agree with others that Benteke is not the finished article and needs to improve consistancy levels as well as the ability to convert the simple chances.That said,I feel he's well worth a punt for the top sides,especialy given the money that Balloteli has moved for.

I've no complaints if he goes-Who in the right mind,with the smallest grain of ambition would want to hang around at a club like ours who's sole existance appears to be to make sure the owner does not have to put any investment or commitment into the club.

I have to admit,I was excited at the prospect of Ireland joining us.

Sadly,3 Villa managers on the trot have all given up on him which tells me that he's not the player I want him to be.

I still maintain that he should be played in the position that N'Zog now finds himself playing-Asking Ireland to do the dirty work is akin to asking Weiman to play in goal.It was not to be and we are way past the point now whereby we can give ireland the benefit of the doubt and hope that he'll come good.With Benteke,Weiman,Gabby & N'Zog all starting (& rightly so) there is no room for Ireland anyway.