El-Reacho

Did Barry sack his manager after the whole Liverpool fiasco or did I just imagine that?

It wasn't long ago that our captain, best central defender, and tough-man central midfielder left us to join Middlesbrough due to our lack of ambition. We've been in worse spots. Saw this from John Gregory on twitter yesterday: John Gregory ‏@JohnGregory7720h #benteke has stated that he wants to play Champions League football this season so he's obviously going to Middlesbrough !!! #GSUEGB

Jeez - I'd just come to terms with him leaving and then I read that. What a big bloody whole we need to fill.

Part of that isn't true, in my opinion. He looked completely lost for a good few weeks post Christmas. We couldn't but a win from anywhere, everything went against us. He looked old, war torn. I thought he might throw it in. But I'm thankful he didn't. He's doing a magnificent job right now, long may it continue. To bring it back from the brink the way he did was one of the greatest comebacks in PL history. We were utterly shocking over that Christmas period with zero confidence, zero experience, and zero prospect of bringing in anyone to rescue us. I know I'm conveniently ignoring the fact that it was PL that got us into that position, but to get us back out of it again without going down the Redknapp route in the transfer window was very very special in my opinion.

So my whole social appearance is in question because I find it a disgrace that John Carew openly admits he ripped off the people paying his wages? Jesus, in what conceivable way was one of our best players, who was usually one of the first names on the team sheet when we were comfortably top 6 ripping off the people who paid his wages? He was our top goal scorer for about three years in a row. I think we got value for money for Carew. The player we bought was a lazy shite, but O'Neill put up with that because he scored lots of goals.

Hand on heart, I am beginning to see Benteke as the victim here. The only thing he is guilty of is putting all his faith in an agent whom sees his player as a meal ticket. Everything I am reading (from what the club has said to Pete Colleys quote earlier) points to the agent. Im pretty cool about this situation now, and can see this backfiring big time on Kismet and his team. He comes across as a little man trying to be the big man in a big pool, but deep down he knows he is out of his depth. Lambert is chipping away at this with the player as we speak, you can be sure of that. I can still see him staying. Yeah, I wondered if this could back fire big time on Benteke. If Spurs don't up their bid and Al Jazeera or some Russian team come in for him with £30m. Would be ideal for us as it doesn't strengthen the likes of Spurs but CB ends up off in some footballing back water sweating on his WC place.

Perhaps PL realised Bent had no incentive to move to another club, on a likely to be smaller contract, if Bent is still happy training and/or playing with the first team? That would suggest the club are more interested in getting the wages down than bringing in cash from transfers maybe? Ireland has been told he can leave for nothing right?

Lambert's handling of Bent in the last month has been pretty surprising. He completely justified his actions during the season though. Why he would exclude him from the squad and locker room is bizarre as it doesn't give us any sort of bargaining power with Newcastle. We could have even taken advantage of the Benteke situation to get more for Bent if we'd been a bit more astute about this. Lambert clearly feels it's of more benefit to have the guys he no longer wants out of the squad from the outset of the season, even if it means devaluing them.

Would love it if this was genuine. On another note these things only ever happen to us when we're on the up. Nobody came after McLeish's squad. Who do people think will be next summer's Benteke? I reckon Tonev.

Hardly the most important issue surrounding whether he stays or goes! Think I'm pretty much convinced that he's gone to be honest. Just would prefer it if he didn't bag a brace against us on the first day of the season.........

If he signs for Arsenal will he be banned or are red cards from last season not carried over? Was it just a one game ban?

Vlaar's probably the only Lambert signing anyone actually thought would be ready, so I wouldn't be surprised if this guy was in thick of the action this season.

Yeah, it's no wonder Benteke won the most headers last season. I'm a bit worried that we'll need to change the way we play again. Like you said, it may not be a bad thing, but it means another transition period of changing the style of play. Which will probably mean a slow start again. Think the ball up to CB was a good safety valve, particularly when our defenders were so full of mistakes. Not having that presence up there we'd just be giving the ball away if under any pressure at the back. If and when Benteke does go I reckon Lambert will have someone lined up to do the same thing if it's not Helenius.

Benteke's knock downs from Guzan kicks were a big part of our game last season. Weimann and Gabby thrived off them. Think Andi up front on his own would need a whole new way of playing. Perhaps not a bad thing....

I honestly don't think that really matters - we were banging on the door of the top four and Barry, Young, and Milner still wanted out.

What is he supposed to do though? The player doesn't want to be here. He could grow some balls and tough it out. I am betting Lerner's pockets are deeper than Benteke's! He's been hammered over the past three years for his financial mismanagement of the club - leading us to three relegation battles in a row. Now you expect him to have learnt from that and to piss away his latest asset's value by keeping him here against his will instead of cashing in now when he's in demand and can command a huge fee? You have answered your own question 'his latest asset'. What highly successful businessman would sell his latest asset for below the market value? Benteke will become more valuable and to sell now would be like selling all your gold bullion reserve when you know its value per ounce is going to significantly increase in 12 months. So Lerner makes a decision between taking what he can get for him now, having just finished third behind Messi and CR7 in 2013 scoring charts and with a host of clubs after him. Or forcing him, against his wishes, to come back to preseason and simply pretend none of this transfer request business has happened and hoping he will quietly knuckle down and start scoring for fun again next season, after which he will sell him for what £50, £60, £70m? Maybe he'll sign a new contract too so we can get even more money next season? I know what I'd would do.

What is he supposed to do though? The player doesn't want to be here. He could grow some balls and tough it out. I am betting Lerner's pockets are deeper than Benteke's! He's been hammered over the past three years for his financial mismanagement of the club - leading us to three relegation battles in a row. Now you expect him to have learnt from that and to piss away his latest asset's value by keeping him here against his will instead of cashing in now when he's in demand and can command a huge fee?

And we know that for the purpose of the deal they'd stick a £10m tag on Townsend and make it £15m+him. That's the problem with part-exchange deals. It's too easy to pick a high figure for the makeweight just to bring the cash part down. To Spurs' credit, you know they'll come out on top in a transfer deal with most teams. That's reason enough to tell them £25m or nothing. Yeah I agree with that BOF, was more a response to the argument that if Spurs were willing to part with a player, that player would be too shit for us - as opposed to how good a deal we'd get. I think Lambert will be as strong as anyone out there with this deal and won't veer from his plan with loans or swaps for the sake of convenience.

No, you're being a sucker for reputation again. Think about it. Anyone they are willing to let go is shit. Not good enough for us. The only way a player swap deal could work for us is if we had complete freedom to choose any player we wanted. That won't happen. We'll get a choice of the not-good-enough brigade. Or else could be someone like Andros Townsend who clearly has talent - and has the potential to be better than any of their midfielders bar Bale. They might decide they have enough attacking midfielders and will decide to let him go if it gets them Benteke.

Do their players jump ship after one year? That's what sticks in my craw. If he'd stayed another season I would've wished him well next summer. they are about 5/6 years ahead of us in terms of development though. they were never lingering around relegation zone. If we were to finish 8-12th next season then I dont think the players be begging to leave 5-6 years probably about right - although they came back from the brink of going out of existence in the mid 2000's. It shows how well this business model can work when you see they go from that to a CL final and signing £20-30m players in the space of 8 years. Manager is clearly key to it though.

How do you draw that conclusion? When have we allowed ourselves to be bent over before and how are we allowing ourselves to be bent over now?

Think Lambert is on another level to McLeish in terms of having clarity about his vision for the club. I reckon he has his list of players and will not veer away from it no matter how much it would suit Spurs.... Just don't think we'll be in for any player who's currently playing in the PL and earning £30k+.

I asked earlier in this thread but didn't get a response. When Dortmund were doing similar to us did they sell their better players on all the time? Or did they manage to keep hold of them? Don't really know beyond the obvious Kagawa - but they reached the CL final after selling him. They've replaced Gotze with Aubameyang and Mitikartyan which looks like a good bit of business.

As we see ourselves creeping up the league and generally become more successful, that will change, but we must be constantly talent spotting and wheeling and dealing until we find ourselves OFF the back foot and ON the front foot. We are finding ourselves in this position because the player( Benteke) has out grown/performed the TEAM. He is aware big money and prospects are calling him. It will change, but only if we are making steady progress on a consistent basis. I believe we should have gone in early for Lakaku and made a statement of intent, but hey its all much easier from OUR angle. I think we're too early in the 'project' to bring in someone like that. He'll be wanting Top 4 wages which is clearly what PL does not want to pay - especially to a new signing. Maybe it would be different if it's a player who has proven themselves at Villa.

This thread has just become fairly upbeat :-) - Can't wait to get the replacement in now....