rodigan

my understanding is that this was as much, if not more, eric's decision as the clubs - world cup year, first team football etc...

from his perspective, coming to us gets him a year playing in the premier league in a team that is scoring a lot of goals that he will walk into the starting XI of... have a good year in the Premier League and his appeal to the "champions league" clubs increases dramatically next summer - bigger contract for him and two fees in a year for his agent... we are a genuine attacking threat at the moment, so actually, i think it will be easy for him to enhance his value while having the safety net of blaming the team as a whole if things really go pear-shaped... for us, its a strong statement of intent, keeps the fans very happy, doesn't actually cost us a lot of money, fills an important hole (the creative attacking position), probably aids us in our renegotiations with benteke, and allows us to ride the upside in his transfer value from the 10 - 12m that we pay for him.... maybe, just maybe, this one has legs - and if it does, Villa's credibility takes a very positive step in the right direction... get tekkers to re-sign as well, and we might all have to deal with feeling positive about our team at the start of the season - how the f*** are we going to cope with that?

its not necesarily about anything.... if something hasn't been signed, its entirely feasible that the reason for this is that andi is sitting on a beach somewhere enjoying his two weeks of the year where he can get away from his day job... there is a distinct possibility that he is entirely relaxed about his situation at villa, which is in line with his last quotes on the matter, and that his contract situation will be resolved when he returns to work, as has always been the plan...

i have no doubt in my mind that this is all made up by the press.... bentekkers is on holiday and has been somewhat effectively gagged by his agent, and nothing is coming out of villa park or PL. as such, everything else is pure speculation.... having said that, i am glad that someone has thrown some speculation from our side of the fence, and have used a valuation of 40m in there.... even if it isn't our statement of intent, its a good one....

thing is, we now (or at least very soon will) have a squad with a bit of depth to it, and with room on the wage bill to upgrade our squad... with those that appear to be heading out over the summer, if we look at the remaining squad, there are very few, if any, players that are not contributing to the team, while drawing big salaries... the balance now seems better than it has been for a long time, and i think that we will start to see prudent purchasing upgrading our squad over the next several windows.... my only concern is that we may see less and less chances for the kids coming through over the next couple of years. i think players like albrighton, bannan, clark, herd, lichaj, hogg, baker, stevens, delfouneso, weimann all got very very lucky coming through when they did, and had chances to play at first team level that the next crop - carruthers, grealish, gardner, siegrist, donacien, johnson will really struggle to get.... when you have the likes of clark, bannan, albrighton, holman, KEA, zoggy, bowery and herd struggling to get a start, and that doesn't even take into account the new signings that we will make this season, then i worry for these young guys getting chances... hopefully PL will send them all out on loan to get some experience and then lets see... and actually, as i look at it, having a squad that is simply too good for them to get a run is not a bad position for the club as a whole to be in...

and how do you pronounce this guys name? i really hope it isn't pronounced bell-end-er?

sure, but in benteke, we have a player who less than a year ago went on strike to force a move to a better team... and even if spurs weren't a champions league team, they were a far more attractive proposition than we are at our current stage in the cycle...

sure.... but tottenham are knocking on the door of champions league, which at least makes them competitive in keeping players... we are not materially different from a stoke, or a sunderland, or southhampton in terms of our ability to compete for european places over the last three years... buying players on the way up and riding their coat-tails is fine... but none of us should be surprised when our world-class players that he uncover want to move on as quickly as they possibly can... its happening to liverpool, arsenal, tottenham as well....

if ever there was a situation that was going to end up in the same position as we are now with benteke, it is this.... would love to get this guy in, as he looks like a real talent.... but there is no question in my mind that if he comes here, it is simply as a stepping stone to champions league football, and this time next year there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth when he is open to offers from the likes of arsenal, tottenham, athletico madrid etc... the problem with finding stars on the way up is that while we are a mid-table or lower english team, champions league standard players will only use us as a shop window for the contract they want.... nothing we can do about it, other than get some results....

by complimentary, does he mean free of charge or one that pays compliments? just curious....

he's certainly not the crap player that many of here make him out to be... work rate as always last night was phenomenal.... couple of cross field passes were quite brilliant, but i can't say that he bossed the game.... which is something that i could say for both honda and kagawa, who i thought were great... having said that, best on ground for me was the 35 year old, clubless, not match fit Lucas Neill..... which probably says it all...

everything since benteke's agent saying that he was disgusted at being misquoted when he joined up with the national team is pure speculation.... we have not had any direct quotes or quotes from his agent.... we have not, as far as i can see, had any clubs coming out and saying formally that they have bid for him.... we have not had any official statement from the club.... what you have in benteke is a top quality 22 year old striker who has just come off a great year in the premier league and topped it off with two goals for the national squad, who had a price a year ago that cost buttons, in a market where the top clubs are throwing round numbers in excess of gbp40m regularly for strikers.... young, proven talent at a struggling club that is cheap... coupled with many clubs looking to fill a striking void, it is hardly surprising that he is one of the most talked about names in football right now....

actually, i don't think the club has ever had a problem with paying wages to the right people.... the issue that we have had to fix over the last three years was paying people massive wages who weren't even regular starters in the squad.... with the new contracts that will be revised this season, we will see some of our players go from very cheap to reasonable, and one, if he signs, go onto a big wage... with all (or substantially all) of the non-playing large wage earners off our books by the end of the summer, PL can then go about ensuring that the wage pool is spread properly, among the squad, with the emphasis on the first team regulars. i wonder what the three players we are after are all currently earning in terms of wages? i'm fairly sure none of them are on anywhere near 60 - 80k....

at the end of the day, if he's way down the pecking order wiht our current squad, thats only going to get worse during the off-season with new players coming in. at the moment, he's either playing for the weimann spot, where he's probably ranked third or fourth out of weimann, zoggy, bowery, albrighton and himself... or he's competing for the third midfield spot, where he's competing with sylla, zoggy, bannan, KEA, dawkins, ireland.... just can't see him getting playing time, even without any reinforcements coming in, and therefore, i suspect, like lichaj, he will choose to move on...

bannan to me could turn out to be the next shaun maloney in five years time.... unfortunately, with a back four that have struggled all season and a newly developing and small middle three, we simply do not have the luxury of playing (and developing) a creative attacking midfielder with limited defensive abilities... shaun maloney when he left us, and the player he is today are completely different players - like barry, we simply did not have the on-fieldset up or the desire to develop him... while not commenting on whether he's as good or not as them, for villa, bannan needs to play in a taarabt, ben arfa, maloney sort of position... when you look at how well teams who adopted an enigmatic attacking midfield playmaker (QPR, wigan, newcastle) did this season, regardless of how good the individual player is, i think it sort of speaks for himself... for that reason, even a more proven and established player like zoggy has not had a regular place in our team this season... on the occasions that i have met bannan, he seems like a good bloke - in the training sessions i have been at, he was always first out and last to the leave the training pitch... i genuinely believe he has talent and simply wants to play football... i also genuinely believe that unfortunately there is no spot in our starting XI for him with the way that we are currently (or will in the foreseeable future be) playing... for that reason, i think he will choose to leave, and he may well go on to do very well somewhere else.... good luck to him!

i actually think that andi weimann would have benefitted over the last few weeks of the season from the odd game off, and i think holman could have filled that role perfectly well.... he has played at a level far higher than many of you give him credit for over a very long period, and i think if you bundle up what he brings to the game overall, i'd have him in my squad and would have given him more playing time than he got over the season... i don't get the impression that he's insisting on first team football, just on being given the chance to earn it on the pitch... he saw a lot of playing time pre-christmas, and virtually none after it.... if he's not going to see any next season, then at 29 and as australia's player of the year in the build up to a world cup, he will choose to go....

and my final point on the matter is that if Villa did decide to play hardball, could they afford to do so? the cost of CB languishing in the reserves for a season is not astronomical.... i would have thought we could identify and buy say a 10m striker from europe in the CB at Genk mold, without throwing all of the other plans out of the window.... he would be supported by an inform gabby and andi w. in that situation, what choice does CB have? he can throw away his world cup dreams, or he can sign a good contract that we are prepared to offer him, have a bumper year, which increases his value and the clubs coming in for him, and then leave with our blessing after the world cup for some of the valuations that i am hearing on here... and what a message that would send to the players, and other clubs, who think that villa remains a selling club...

on the positive side, i have a strong belief that paul lambert is not the sort of player that will be spoofed by anyone.... the fact that he came out with his CVB needs to develop a sense of reality quotes so quickly after all of this began, shows that he will not be steamrollered into a decision by any player that he doesn't want to make... we just need to hope that RL and PF have the balls to stand behind their man if he chooses to adopt that approach...

i know it doesn't help us, but what is the downside to CB or his agent of all this media coverage - if anything its simply increasing his value - either to a new club, or to villa in his new contract negotiations... its all deniable, in any event, as either not being from him directly or having been misquoted if he was... if the clubs feel there are many suitors, there may be a bidding war - agent and players dream situation.... it may help him in spoofing paul lambert in a deal that is worth more than we should be giving him.... at the end of the day, i don't think we can offer him enough money to stay... someone will always be prepared to match or top that number... if he stays, its because we have given him very good money and the promise that we are effectively going to be the best showcase that he can possibly have in the build up to a world cup... as i think about it, i'm not sure if even that is compelling... while he is playing in a side that is mid-table at best, his value and playing credibility sits in that category of a very good player outplaying the rest of his teammates.... he has yet to show the world how good he is at the very top level... if i were him, and i backed myself, i'd say give me the top level now, and i'll show you i'm good enough there too.... would love him to stay, although i would guess with the right teams coming in for him, its going to be very difficult to keep the big man here, even for one more year... i also don't think this is a uniquely villa situation.... looking at it neutrally, you have clubs like tottenham, liverpool, arsenal, borussia dortmund, napoli and athletico madrid losing their star performers to the concentration of 'super' teams that are forming across the leagues - the current version of the G14... these are big clubs with far better recent success than we have and they are all in the same sort of position that we currently are...

interestingly with the benteke bid from athletico and comparisons to liverpool for carroll.... carroll was a young player who had done well and shown bags of potential, resulting in him getting a transfer way above the odds.... time has proven that valuation to be way off mark.... as i look at where benteke is in his development now, it is not impossible that he follows a similar path... hope he doesn't, but he is still very early on in his career, and has yet to be injured... a team like athletico is our worst nightmare with regards to keeping bentekkers for another year.... they will offer regular CL football, the opportunity to play against real and barca regularly, cash to burn and a nice gap left where their star player was before meaning that the team would be built around bentekkers.... lets hope this one has no legs, but i have a nasty feeling about this...

when thinking about what is the appropriate way to deal with this contract negotiation with andi, i remembered brendan rodgers' quotes around raheem sterling at the end of last year, where he said: "I think it is important for the club that we sign our young talents but I think it is even more important for Raheem," Rodgers said. "This is a club that is going to give young players an opportunity. He has played more games than he could have dreamed of this season, both in the Premier League and the Europa League. Liverpool Football Club has given him the chance to become a full international player. So, I would think if I am Raheem Sterling and his agents, I would look to tie it up very quickly." Despite the current impasse, Rodgers remains confident Sterling will commit to a new deal at Anfield. But he has warned it is premature to be making excessive demands of Liverpool. The Liverpool manager added: "This contract won't be the biggest contract of his life. It is when he actually achieves something. What he has shown just now is fantastic potential. His next contract and the one after that [will be the big ones]. But this is Liverpool Football Club. If you are 17 years of age and you are playing regularly you would be very foolish not to commit yourself very quickly. I am confident it is something that will be sorted out very soon." I thought at the time that these were very wise words. I know that Andi is not 17, and this is not his first professional contract, but he is signing it after having made a big impact, much like Sterling had at the time... What he needs to do is step back and look at the big picture - Will Villa offer him the first team football in a structure that shopwindows him into the full Austrian national team... remember, moving to a new team on big wages comes with a level of expectations from fans and the media that demands instant gratification... he needs to weigh that fact against the increased sages he's going to get.... particularly if thats a team that may well be in a similar position to villa - capable of good runs, but also just as capable of being in the relegation positions... if he were to look at the sort of teams that are likely to come in for him now, I think that actually staying with us, in our form, with a clearly defined role in an exciting front three would be very attractive relative to any financial gain.... if he backs himself the financial rewards will come and in spades....

can only speak from what i've seen of the lads over here in hk over the past six or seven years, but those that have stood out have generally gone on to first team standard with us or elsewhere - cahill, gabby, bannan, clarke, herd, lichaj, albrighton, weimann... i know shaun maloney came out here too, but can't remember if it was with us or celtic... add to that players who still could - GG, Fonz, DJ and now young Jack Grealish, I think we can safely say that our academy is among the best around... as far as jack pushing for the first team, i suspect he is going to have it tougher than the young lads who have broken through in the last three or four years, as we now appear to have a much deeper squad with players only a couple of years older, but with 50 odd games under their belts already warming the benches and pushing for starts.... albrighton, weimann and bannan have all starred here in much the same way as jack did over the weekend - and i mean they really looked head and shoulders above any of the other talent out here at the time... their progression since then has varied, although to be fair, all have had first team runs when fit... i guess it shows that they deserve their chance, and whether they take it is up to them... one thing i would say about this years tournament is that the standard this year seemed far lower than previous years. i understand the tournament lost its government funding this year, which resulted in far fewer international teams... in particular, no ajax, no celtic, no australian a-league team, no japanese j-league team, and at least one or two less premier league teams than last year.... as such you would expect a lad like jack to shine and he really did... in fact, he was such class, people will remember his eight goals, which bearing in mind that he is not an out and out striker means that i think we did not actually see how good he could be up against the very best... what i can say is that he is magic with the ball at his feet, and he was making the opposition defenders look silly on occasions.... as expected, the result was often him being booted up in the air, which he took in his stride... he looks to be a tough little bugger, which bodes well for him in the future... i really hope he gets his chance with the seniors along with a bunch of the other academy lads.... donacien was great - big, strong, brave and fast.... bateman, josh webb, calder - all looked skilful and quick.... very promising for the future... I also hope that these lads are treated fairly and that the club explains to them the strategy for the development of their careers - when they need to be patient and when they will be given a chance...

i think its 50:50 whether he stays another season, and beyond next year, no chance.... if he has a stormer next season, we'll get proper money for him.... at the moment, i don't think we will - i can see offers coming in around 12 - 15m.... if they come from a club that he wants to go to, then we potentially have a real problem on our hands, as we could see a genk-style strike happening.... my concern is that suitor clubs structure a package with emphasis on paying him and his agent, and not paying the villa.... that would test the true extent of player power... would love him to stay, by the way, i think he's great for the club and would love to have him terrorising defences for us for years to come...

Kevan, he's a great young player and seems to be a lovely lad..... Looked after my 11 year old lad, who has a new hero! Keep him grounded and he's got a very bright future ahead of him! You can all be rightfully proud of him....

honest player - always gave his all, and can't remember many howlers, which is more than can be said for most of our youngsters... the few times i met him, he seemed a good lad... i hear he wanted first team football in the build up to the world cup, and he was never going to be first choice in his preferred position at right back if lowton was fit.... also, not actually that young... all the best wherever you end up!