danceoftheshamen

So clearly he has had his head turned, no doubt his ridiculous agent is desperate to get another massive cut of the large transfer fees being touted about so has gone all out to persuade him he would be holding his career back by staying here... could see that one coming months back. That statement indicates that he has clearly been speaking with PL who has told him to think about the World Cup in Rio & to unsettle his career now could put his place in the Belgium team at risk potentially.... Benteke has countered that by saying he's not worried about that... Or in other words, "I'm off". As for the club keeping him against his will?.....Really?... History shows us he'll be gone. So... With Bent now off too looks like we'll need a new striker or two.. Unbelievable!.. How to lose both your star strikers in one go.... Only at the Villa.

Ah well it was good while it lasted.

Nah man, as long as they're on VT get them involved! Or if they're not, get them on VT. Will have a word with him.. meanwhile i'll have a go at trying to get fitter.. who knows maybe you'll still be after players next year.

Would love to play but not exactly fit sadly, i used to play for a team in the Worcester league many moons ago. Would need about 5 years to get fit though Is there an age limit? as may know a young Villa fan who would love to play. Maybe i could be a biased lino or something to give the rest of you a chance at least

Personally i don't care a jot how much a player costs & whether he is known or unknown, what nationality he is, team or division he comes from... If Paul Lambert thinks he is good enough to be part of a successful squad then i am all for it. In fact sometimes it is more interesting than buying established players who may or my not fit in with our style. In most cases it appears these types are too set in their ways through being established & are simply "unmouldable" perhaps. Paul Merson stated yesterday on SSN when quizzed about whether "Villa would be able to hold onto Benteke", that sometimes a player just doesn't "fit" at a club no matter how good they are & that Benteke/Villa was a perfect fit & if he moves to a top 4 side this may not be the case & he could flop. I believe we have witnessed this ourselves with the like of N'Zogbia, Stevie Ireland & many others over the years. Stan Collymore was another perfect example of that & he is a huge Villa fan! So likewise for me if Paul Lambert thinks some unknown young star of the future will fit here then all power to him & i would rather watch a young player grow into a fantastic player at the club than watch some overpaid, couldn't give a toss, "name" come in & flop here... we have done that route & last season was a direct result of following that policy... If you need more evidence watch a re run of Sunderland's season. It appears the "big name" (although "Big Ego" is possibly more apt in this day & age) players only give a stuff if they are playing for a top 4 side.. they look down their noses at clubs like ours & when here many treat the club & us fans with contempt. They couldn't give a monkeys. we are a nothing club to them, a stepping stone nothing more. There are the occasional exceptions of course but that was in the main many years ago when we still were remembered for winning cups & titles. We are now viewed differently & until we can change that we will suffer this kind of attitude. Put it another way... name the players in the last few years who have signed for us & actually performed that had a big reputation prior to coming here. I can think of only Darren Bent actually but then he came from Sunderland so could arguably have seen it as a step up in coming here... No other names will come near the place & the ones who have just look like they don't want to be here.

Another one i witnessed "live" was a Brendan Ormsby wonder strike winner away at West Ham in the 80's.. i remember us all laughing our heads off in disbelief.

The one etched in my memory was Tony Morley's "goal of the season" winner at Everton in a 1-3 win in the 1980/81 title winning season.. Even the Everton fans applauded it.

Was wondering what was happening with our scouting system after the departure of Henke... Lambert may well have "the eye" but he can only cover so much ground lets be honest & we do need help with this area surely? I see a system where our scouts flag up potential players who then get sifted by the head scout & then finally the remaining ones decided on by PL personally? Surely he wouldn't have time to do this whole process on his lonesome?.. But then what do i know

Well personally i think he did an incredible job to keep us up..considering the huge changes to the team & the amount of youngsters coming through but most of all considering we were effectively dead & buried by the time we lost to Wigan & Newcastle... A remarkable piece of management to keep us up & i am quite hopeful that we will have a better season next time out.

Well we got away with it...just! Hats off to all concerned as that was a minor miracle to escape with that defence.. & to recover from a historically bad spell over Christmas & New Year including the humiliations of Chelsea, Bradford, Millwall, Wigan (h) etc.. I Have to say an incredible recovery from that so fair play to PL & the players... I honestly thought we were gone i really did. Pluses Gabby rediscovering his form Vlaar's goal scoring ability Benteke Weimann's emergence Lowton's improvement Bakers bravery Guzan Westwood Delph finally starting to show The fans finally shaking off the McCleish negativity Minus's LB position badly exposed Lack of creativity in midfield Lack of a decent dead ball specialist Defence is very poor overall Incredible amount of lapses in concentration extraordinary number of OG's Number of sitters missed Weak squad depth Lerners absence Scouting system? do we have a chief scout now? Overall summary PHEW! how did we get away with that?!

We are so on the beach here it's embarrassing

Ameteurish defending from Vlaar there

Scary thing is that as things stand if it had come down to last day with Wigan needing to beat us & all the other teams on the points they are on now & with results as they are at HT.... we would have been relegated... Thankfully it doesn't matter too much apart from making us look crap

Goodness me does it ever end with this awful defence, Our leading scorer this season is the Own goals column isn't it?..Unbelievable

I wonder if we are still interested as I'm pretty sure he would quickly Jelle into the team! Flipping Jelle that was poor

Quick question Who do we have scouting at present? our head scout has left has he not?

I think what happens with Benteke will 100% show the true ambition of this club...The Jury is out

I too went 5 actually.

So with Dunne likely leaving, Bent, Petrov's contract ending & no doubt some others off... that coupled with the ability to spend (albeit in advance technically against the new influx of money) should give us quite a lot more spending power than we had previously. Although as some have mentioned this will be irrelevant to a point as every other Prem club also gets the same influx of money... The big thing here though is we will now have a "hole" in the wage bill which according to the club is what has been holding us back over the last few years... So we should at least now be able to at least be competitive in the transfer market again shouldn't we?

Apparently according to BOF it's £750.000 per place.. so about 3.75m ish if we finished 11th

I don't think so no but most clubs "spend in advance" anyway don't they? so it still should impact our spending prowess surely?..that is if we're allowed to spend it with FFP

OK so we are safe!.. Of course this is fantastic news but what does it mean financially for this club now? Just how much will we get from the new tv money incoming? & also with FFP having been passed through (although apparently now in the courts?) even though we have this new found wealth..just how much can we spend? Indeed how much will Randy allow Lambo to spend? Then there is the fact that some of the big contracts which have massively tied up wages will be ending so surely it's all great news isn't it?! More questions than answers really though & with most of us being caught up in working out the worse case scenario's if we got relegated i don't think we have allowed ourselves much time to speculate on what happens now we have survived!..

5 * ~750k = £3.75m So if we get 11th with the new tv money added to that as well thats gotta be worth a total of what? 60m?......WOW! Am looking forward to see how this team performs without the threat of relegation looming over it actually. Also what PL will do now we're "Bentekeless"... Gotta be Bent & Weimann i guess

Would imagine Sunderland will lose, Stoke at best draw, Newcastle could struggle to beat Arsenal, Swansea should beat Fulham, Man City will surely beat Norwich So if Stoke & Southampton share a draw & all the other fixtures go as expected we would be 11th!...Whats the prize money difference with 16th & 11th? (Edit Sorry Bof was working that out whilst you posted)

Whats the best we could realistically finish with a win? anyone know?