AntrimBlack

I do not care who he plays for. I refuse to get any emotional attachment to any player.

The problem there is we would look weak, why would we back down from a release clause we have agreed with CB and his agent because the player throws a strop? It opens the door for more players to follow suit in the future. As stated by others, with the Euros coming up he can ill afford to be sitting on the sidelines and risk missing another major tournament for his country. I would say that one good thing about Lerner is that he has refused to be pushed around and underpaid in the past. I am convinced that he will insist on the release clause being met.

He has 2 years left on his contract, so I doubt it would have any effect on any possible takeover.

As should Vlaar. Vlaar's comments are reasoned, ours are abusive.

Let's assume it was half of the £10m. That's merely an opening offer and it's not a million miles from £8m. We might get him yet! £4/5m would be great business.

I am disappointed at the remarks in this thread, about an international player who has been very good for us during his time here, and always gave his all. The nasty, snide remarks on here are unjustified, and say more about us than about Vlaar. We really should try to be more reasoned with our comments.

That's Wilkins - not Grealish.

The club owes no players anything. The club pays them all handsomely for what they do. He was behind Friedel because he was not as good. He was perfectly able to move on if someone wanted him - which did not happen. And to claim that he kept us up singlehandedly is plainly ridiculous.

A loss of confidence can be career-changing for a keeper. One mistake can set them back for years or they may never come back from it. Certainly Guzan looked unsteady last season, long before that big error that keeps on being mentioned. And a number of goals I thought he would probably have saved in his previous seasons. The back four, to me, were effected by his obvious anxiety. I also do not think Given or Steer are good enough to take the number 1 spot in the event they are required to do so. It is fine margins with keepers, and buying a keeper who is only even a little better than the one you have can make an important difference.

I also agree. If we improve the players out on the pitch it will make Brad's job easier and won't be faced with a rediculous amount of shots at him each game. We were one of the worst for preventing shots in the league last season weren't we? Well this is a fallacy, we are pretty much bang in middle in terms of shots faced. But 3rd/joint 2nd worse in terms of shots faced to goals conceded. Stats. Yawn. I prefer to watch the matches and make an opinion. The stats bear out what I have been seeing from Guzan last season.

Yes because the circumstances were entirely different. Yes. In those days 6th place was the norm. The Norm I would expect over a period of ten years not 2-3. Our average is 7/8th over history so I never saw what Houllier said a crime. Well, Houllier took over when we had 3 consecutive 6th places, that's why he was getting some stick. I suspect it was just a throw away remark, and most of us were not bothered by it. More of a problem was that he turned us from a top six side into a top 10 side. I suppose you could say that he kept his promise.

He'd fit in well as a member on VT then :-) Keep an eye out for any new members with a nickname like "Baldy Head" or things like that Or Kryton.

You could say 'an improvement on' or 'an improvement compared to'. Those would be the most natural choices IMO. Thanks, HV. Annoyingly difficult to nail the English prepositions, sometimes. No worries, any time! I agree with you, I think prepositions are the hardest part of English really. On VT, I sometimes think commas, full stops and capital letters appear to be the hardest part. But you two guys have nailed that bit.

Lerner said he was leaving Fox in control.

Yes because the circumstances were entirely different. Yes. In those days 6th place was the norm.

No it doesn't. You are only trying to justify your original post.

He has not signed. A lot of people getting a little bit carried away.

Not forgetting Fox's input. Exactly how I feel.

This is a great appointment. We are building a really good staff. Very positive and unexpected development.

Hopefully to take charge of the youth setup, which I feel has deteriorated since he left.

It is clearly not about that oft-quoted `one mistake'. Guzan has been shaky and unsure for a large part of the season. I have not been confident watching him, he himself does not look confident. Given has been a great keeper, but age sadly has caught up with him. I can fully understand why Sherwood might want to improve this very important position. Consider how many games where a keeper has won the game by his performance.

Are you there, Richard? Get your boots.

It is the very least a caring new owner should do for us after all our suffering.

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. Tim Sherwood knew exactly what he was doing when he revealed the buy out clause, it was a win win situation for him. Expect him to stay and score a hatful of goals and he will be sold for around £15m next summer, forget the buyout clause cause next summer its sell him for ££ or he goes for free following year. No, if he scores a hatful of goals we will get at least £32m next summer. No chance we will. We will have to disagree. In that scenario he will be more saleable than he is now.

I am becoming repetitive, but at this moment in time we rate him more than other clubs. No one will meet the buy out clause, he will be with us at least another season, and if he is successful we would still get the buy out clause next summer. I also suspect he will sign a new contract with us. And if he leaves for nothing after next 2 seasons, he will hopefully have fired us into a decent position in the league where we will be able to attract better players. And over those 2 seasons I would hope that Sherwood would be building a better side around Benteke, with the advantage that would give Fox to increase revenue streams also during that time.