tinker

Spurs will not pay the money we want, no surprises there, 18M would be the largest fee they ever paid. I also think if we did agree a fee with Spurs then Levy would be in a rather strong position to tie Benteke down to a salary largely proportional to performance, Benteke's hand would be very weak, he would have to leave Villa at that stage and Levy will use that to extract the piss out of the young lad. If Benteke has the bollox to turn up Thursday then Lambert has to put his arm round him and coax him back into the mind set of playing for Villa, if he can do that then the whole situation turns over in a matter of days, it would be like a knew signing and Spurs would look like their "cunning plan" has backfired. All is not lost while Spurs are the only club in for him, Levy will not get his man for £18m or even £20m.........will he? UTV

We have to look at this from Bentekes point of view. He deserves to be on the same money as Bent 65k - 70k, if we can't match it for one player in the team, the best player, the goal scorer then our business plan is not going to work

If we give into to that then the writings on the wall for all of us also ran clubs. Whats stopping Bale going on strike to force a move to Real Madrid?

In Bentekes defense, if we view him as a £30m player perhaps we should pay him a wage that suits that valuation, its got to be around £70k a week. If we can ditch Bent and maybe Ireland, Given then we should have the money to up our wage for him. i think we are a closer to Spurs than what they are to the top 4, especially if Bale goes and we keep Benteke. Spurs never buy players from us, they can't afford them and i don't see this changing

If he does go for 22 then Lambert must have a replacement for him lined up, can't wait to see em, after all Benteke was not his first choice last season, time to forget Benteke and move on, Christian... you're just someone we used to know.

Take it grealish is 11?, He looks a handful, like Gordon Cowans with his socks round his ankles

We lost bent last season who scored a hi percentage of a our goals before. We will have a replacement lined up for Benteke, I just Dont think we will need it with Spurs appearing to be the only club in for him and they don't seem to have the money unless they sell a few deadwood players first.

I don't think Spurs will pay £25m, and i would not want Villa to pay it either, if the roles were reversed. He wants about £80k a week, we want £25m, that's one hell of a package, hes not worth it to Spurs, hes not that good. Benteke is young and has only one season under his belt, his judgement is not good, as proven by this request to leave. The fact he appears to be trying to pick which team he goes to and at what price is further indications of the lads mental capacity. No Premier League team should be bullied by any of their players like he is trying, hes a disgrace. Benteke is playing Russian Roulette with his career. He should stay another year and keep his head down and mouth shut, after the world cup he can go.

Benteke has acted like an idiot, hes risked his countries world cup success and the early part of his career......Bent was a £24m player on £65k a week, hes left rotting on the bench.....Even if hes sold for 7.5m in 2 years time he cost us a lot less than Bent has in one year! He a very silly boy.

The press are looking at our first few fixtures and seeing us and CB panicked into selling him, their world will implode if we get anything out of those 3 games. CB is staying unless the money is 35m+ and the club in for him is a CL regular

Gonna be real busy, well up on last year secure CB and It could be the best ever......itk ?Na just a good bet UTV

Murray's fitness level won this for him, he will struggle to get any further if he starts the next game so badly. Great finish though from both players.

Shows our other players that we are not scared to play hard ball, if needed.........plus the point mentioned about accepting a lower wage from a club that's has met our valuation but can't agree a wage with him.......

Height at the back is my concern, don't want to be relying on Benteke to mark key players at set pieces.

I can see us playing 5-3-2 again or 3-5-2 either way baker okore vlar in the middle, maybe okore could sit in front of the other 2. I would not feel confident with okore partnering vlar, not enough height in there for free kicks and corners .

Back for pre season today, sure Benteke will be having a chat with Mr Lambet and setting his store out, either way we can expect to know more before the end of the week.

TT : Closer to the Edge, Gripping stuff.... The king of Kong's is a classic, what a villain

Whoever meets our valuation gets to speak to him, LPool could if they sell Suarez. Not sure they would buy another player after one years evidence of his quality, you never do kmow though. Spurs won't pay anywhere near enough, unless bale goes. Benteke is not yet proven, he looks odds on to be great but so did kenwyne Jones. Adebyor and a host of other players 30m is a big big gamble.

Spurs don't buy our players, were to close to them on the money front and would want to much. Plus Dave Whelan hasn't said it, it can't be true. ;-)

F*** it who cares, if he goes he goes all this 'debating' using minor bits of information and massive amounts of fiction is tiring, I only read it in hope of some decent facts and there ain't none until teke gets back to villa.

Guzan nearly always kicks out to Benteke, who's always on our left side, Benteke always wins the ball mind. Without a big target man, this would have to change.

Sort Benteke out first, then decide on bent. I wpuldnt want to start the season with the our front line minus Benteke, Bent would be worth far more to us than 6m in those circumstances. Plus with more service coming from the midfield/ defense our game plan may change from lumping it up the field from Guzan to Benteke.

Danny Rose would be nice, Dyer played well against us I thought, very lively

Lowtons goal against Stoke. In a bar in Amsterdam jumping up and down while the Grand National played out on another TV. When we lost to Stoke under MON, we started to decline, the top 4 dream fell apart. It's feels like it's where were gonna start to climb from for me. Footballs a funny old game.

Okore looks like he has all the attributes of a very good midfield player to me, add to that the fact hes only 6ft and with what we all seen with Barry. It may well be why he signed for us.......On the other hand it maybe why Clark hasn't signed. Looks a great player where ever he plays....happy days