roadoftrinity

£8m is a lot of money.

Only £1m more then Kozak.

pretty sure it was euros - Kozak was around £4mill

I would like to change my pounds to euro with you

Apparently he wanted to play Welbeck as the lone centre forward. You can see why Gabby doesn't come into Hodgsons thoughts for that role as he doesn't play centre forward anymore.

Welbecks role he played on Friday would have been perfect for Gabby.

But why?

Why is lambert being made to suffer for the mistakes of others? Signing a couple of players while keeping the bomb squad isn't going to bankrupt us. In fact finishing higher in the league could cover the extra money we spend and make us more attractive last summer.

I don't see why Lambert isn't being fully backed this summer. Actually that's a lie, I do, it's most likely because the owner is only interested in keeping us in the league and keeping costs down.

I saw something the other day where David Sullivan was saying they couldn't sign any more players at West Ham until they got rid of some, as their wage bill was at the maximum under the new Premier League regulations.

Obviously Sullivan is full of shit but maybe the clubs hands are tied by the wage bill/regulations.

He also said they were finding it impossible to shift the players they have got as you couldn't even give free transfers as so much had to be paid to them.

There is no way he is 6 foot either.

He'd be 6 foot 5 if he had a neck.

Delph was exceptional tonight, bring on Liverpool, after the first two games I would say Westwood should be looking over his should the most, thought he looked lost last night.

Also Lowton needs to improve his positioning.

Really need him fit all season, he is a massive player for us this season.

The fact that Lambert wants Okre to play right side of defence does make it a possibility that it won't be long until we see Okre with Baker/Clark

It's unlikely we will get a game when all three of Weiman, Benteke and Agbonlahor are at the very top of their game.

If that does happen someone is going to get a spanking.

...soon be sharing 'what coulda been' stories with Moore (x2), Byfield and even Vassell. Presumably, someone took Gabby on one side early doors, and pointed all this out ?

Coming through the reserves and Gabby was the least rated of all of them.

Maybe he was to stupid to think he had made it, or he's not as daft as we think.

its a loss and a mistake imo

Time will tell, but the stats will be destorted as Bent will score goals, however, the proof will be if we finish above Fulham.

Also, the proof is in the watching, and our football is far better without Bent in the team

Gary Cahill has to be one if the most over rated players in the Premier League. I don't care if he plays for Chelsea, he is so poor defensively.

Interesting stat from last season -

@WhoScored: Most Premier League goals in 2013: Liverpool 40, Man Utd 36, Chelsea 35, Arsenal 33, Aston Villa 32, Tottenham 30, Man City 28, West Brom 24

Shows that we have goals in us so aims got to be to keep some clean sheets and fancy us for top 10 finish and maybe 7th and Europe? ;-)

Shame Boro aren't still in the Prem as I would have recommended that. Would put her off for life Villa - Boro at Villa Park.

Would never take my wife to Villa Park, football and golf is my time.

Maybe it's the fact that he decided to play 4 up front with no width? Man that game was embarrassing and depressing.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, it's more likely to be Ireland related.

I'm pretty sure we have given the whole footballing worth permission to speak to any of the bomb squad if it will help us shift them

He will no doubt have loyalty bonus, Sidwell when he left had a loyalty bonus of £200k, so Bent's you would think would £500+ if not more.

 

We could have thought about keeping him if Lambert hadn't treated him like crap from day 1 of his reign. The only criticism I have of Lambert's work so far I might add.

Making him captain was treating him like crap?

Obviously something happened between Lambert giving him the armband and Bent being sidelined. The theory about Bent's refusal to play any position other than central striker is the most likely in my mind but it's up for debate.

 

Maybe Bent did something un-football related that Lambert didn't feel was befiting of a captain

Vlaar's problem is we expect him to be like Martin Lauren and can just control the defence on his own. Get him in a good defensive until and I think we will see him become a bit more dominant

Why should he take a pay cut, when he knows that if he holds out for longer, Villa will most likely make up the rest of his wages, same as Dunne, Ireland and Given did when he left Man City.

Same as all of the "bomb squad", why take a pay cut when you know that closer to the transfer deadline Villa will be just happy to get at least half your wages off the bill and be prepared to make up the difference.

Benteke withdrew his request because clubs saw it as a gamble paying 25 million for a player with one good season.

The premier league is littered with players who looked fantastic for a season, I think as Villa fans we feel we know Benteke is different and it's only a mater of time when he plays on the biggest stage, but he won't be going this summer as if teams wouldn't want to pay 25 million, they aren't going to want to pay more than that.

Nobody was prepared to pay 25 million for Benteke, so after a hat-rick against Crewe they aren't going to decide to spend 35 million.

Good luck to the lad. I don't think he is good enough to play in the Prem so on that score I am not sad to see him go. I always got the impression he did his best when called upon for us though so you can ask no more. I can see him carving out a decent career for himself in the Championship and in the grand scheme of things that is nothing to be sniffed at and will rightly be considered another success from our academy.

This!

Hope he does well for Blackburn

To long now, I won't be joining in any more.

The fact that we have played in the last two games with our defence as

Guzan; Lowton, Vlaar, Clark, Luna

I would say shows that Lambert still has complete faith in Clark and he is likely to be starting the season with Vlaar. I'm not keen on Clark at all myself, nor Vlaar for that mater but even though Vlaar looked poor at times, our results did dramatically improve when he returned to the side at the end of the season.

Maybe N'Zogbia's injury is a lot worse than originally thought