brommy

Would it still be the board's fault if Andi left for more than your £40k/week maximum? How would you have got Andi to sign a new contract earlier?

As there are plenty of clubs who can afford to pay a player more than £40k/week, how do you square the above extracts from your post? You have selected a, some might say reasonable, round figure of £40k/week maximum to offer AW. The board and manager will know the finances of this club (and to a certain extent other clubs) better than us and may decide AW is worth a maximum of, for example, £36k/week. Would it be a clanger if the board decided not to match another club's offer above these figures?

Sorry where did you read that. My understanding is that he's on 15k and has been offered 20k What is your understanding based on, out of interest? I think all our talk of players' salaries is guesswork based on rumour and often conflicting media/internet 'fact'.

Benteke. I think I agree but it does depend on Andi's potential. If he steps it up another level my answer would change! Without hindsight there's no right or wrong answer! Nah for me, Benteke's the best player I have seen at VP by a country mile. Andi's my fave but I go with my head here. There's no doubt Benteke's the better player but what if young Weimann was played more centrally and, after adding experience to his work rate, he bagged 15 league goals next season, 17 the next season and 19 or 20 in the last two years. Wouldn't that be worth more to us than say 22 league goals from CB for one season? Just being curious.

Benteke. I think I agree but it does depend on Andi's potential. If he steps it up another level my answer would change! Without hindsight there's no right or wrong answer!

Finished where?

We are all just guessing at the numbers BUT wouldn't most Villa fans and a few football clubs think Weimann was worth offering more than £15k to £20k/week? I'm also guessing that Villa are waiting to see what Andi is offered elsewhere before deciding whether to match it.

Whoops.

A hypothetical choice for you: Benteke for another year OR Weimann for another 4 years?

A hypothetical choice for you: Weimann for another 4 years OR Benteke for another year?

This may have been asked already but are they the same one? Engaged to your step-mom's sister or engaged to your mom's step-sister?

Mind Your Language!

Hindsight is what we need. Weimann leaves and plays great for someone else - we should have done more to keep him! We beat a £45k/week offer from another club to keep him but he doesn't develop (think Hendrie) - why did we agree to pay him £45k+/week?! Without hindsight, it needs someone to have the full picture of the finances available and the full attributes of the player to our team. Over to you PL.

That's fair enough and similar to what most would say, I guess. That does mean if another club offered 40 and 55, we would lose both players so why state this?

Seems weird to be posting a picture of your fiancee when you are...

They haven't left just yet but with what you know about our approximate finances, how much would you offer Andi and CB to ensure they stayed?

Best eating with a hangover, even if you don't feel like it. Either it stays down and you feel better, or it comes up and you feel better.

Doesn't it depend on what he is offered elsewhere?

I don't know... perhaps that another manager sees Andi as a great prospect, knows he can buy him cheap (just one year left of his contract) and so can offer Andi OTT wages. Different managers/clubs value players differently at different times. Occasionally that can benefit us; for example, 9 months ago we valued Benteke higher than Arsenal and others. While we're playing the wages game: Those who have said we should do whatever to keep him, I'm curious what is the maximum you would offer? Those who have said we should not allow certain contracts to run down to the final year, how would you avoid it?

What amount of a country's poplulation need to be involved to call it a 'civil war'? 51%? 10%? 1%? 0.1%? 0.01%?

I think the internet proves there is often smoke without fire! Over the months after a signing there are 'leaks' of salary. How accurate they are I don't know. These figures you mention could just be an average of what is rumoured. It seems strange that the yearly salaries quoted are made up from round-ish weekly figures. Wouldn't a contract be made up as a round-ish yearly figure? I'd have thought agents would be asking for £Xm per year or £XXm over a long contract, not asking for a weekly wage. For some reason, the media love 'per week' figures and you can bet they are rounded up, and then some. Also, the figures quoted may include bonuses based on a good deal of success; something that hasn't happened for a while! The media always state DB9 cost us £24m and yet I remember it as £17m or so plus add-ons, many of which we are unlikely to have to pay. Still, £24m sounds a lot more spectacular than (for example) £19.18m!

If a contract is accepted at first offer, I suspect the offer was too high! I don't think any of the contract talks are at stalemate yet. Our club is not a bottomless pit of money so I don't blame it for not being held to ransom, i.e. deciding what a player is worth and not exceeding it. The club will offer lower and move to a middle ground - the period we are in, I guess. At the same time, I don't blame players and agents waiting to see what other clubs are offering. I would really like Andi to stay but if he has an offer of say £45k/week, should we really be trying to match or improve on it? Andi would be snapped up by half a dozen clubs at £25k per week, but we'd have no trouble matching that. I only hope there isn't a manager out there who takes a shine to Andi and persuades his club to offer £40k+/week.

Couldn't agree more How do you force a player to sign a contract for less than he thinks he is worth?!

Weimann

Go for it, that would be ace! Expect the media to report it as 'Benteke urged to end stay at Villa'.