rjenkins

 

 

 

looks like lukaku has himself a new agent and is making noise about playing in europe too, could be good for us, if he plays up and becomes available hopefully others will look at him instead, or at the very least evertons no doubt ridiculous valuation of him will actually make our £32m look half sensible so we can hold out for a figure i doubt anyone would pay

 

Does everyone think that Christian Benteke represents good value for £32.5m?

 

As in, if Benteke played for Sunderland and we were offering £32.5m for him, would we be pleased as fans?

 

 

100% yes I do. In a good team he'll get you 20-25 goals a season guaranteed, and at 24 you could even still feasibly make a profit selling him on in 2-3 years time.

 

 

But that's not what I'm asking

 

As an Aston Villa fan, in our current state, would a £32.5m Benteke from Sunderland be considered "good value"?

 

I'm only wondering because pretty much everyone seems to want to cling on to keeping Benteke (and rightly so from a playing point of view) but £32.5m is a huge wedge - especially to us.

 

(Obviously this opens up a wider issue of how much we'd actually have to spend from this etc, but still...)

 

I think the big issue would be do we have £32.5m to spend. Liverpool, Man United and Spurs would have bigger warchests than us so that does bring a new dimension to the whole question, as you've alluded to.

If he had the three Premier League seasons for Sunderland that he had for us, and we could do the deal, I'd do it still. For me there are very few better all-round Premier League strikers, and even fewer that we could realistically attract.

 

looks like lukaku has himself a new agent and is making noise about playing in europe too, could be good for us, if he plays up and becomes available hopefully others will look at him instead, or at the very least evertons no doubt ridiculous valuation of him will actually make our £32m look half sensible so we can hold out for a figure i doubt anyone would pay

 

Does everyone think that Christian Benteke represents good value for £32.5m?

 

As in, if Benteke played for Sunderland and we were offering £32.5m for him, would we be pleased as fans?

 

100% yes I do. In a good team he'll get you 20-25 goals a season guaranteed, and at 24 you could even still feasibly make a profit selling him on in 2-3 years time.

If Weimann is forced out, then why is Gabby not as well? Weimann has scored 22 goals in 3 seasons. Gabby has scored 27 in 5 seasons. 

 

Gabby has a goals to game ratio of 18.6% over the last 5 seasons

Weimann has a goals to game ratio of 21.6% over his 3 seasons as a consistent professional

 

Weimann on paper provides more than Gabby, yet Weimann doesn't get the minutes Gabby does. 

Gabby, for all his many faults, does offer more than Weimann though. He may not have the pace he used to, but he's strong and a nuisance and can cause a bit of panic as he stumbles at speed towards defences. He also does still have those games (about 3-4 times a season these days it seems) where he's just in the mood for it and can cause havoc.

Weimann, although his effort is commendable, just doesn't have that in his locker. He's scored some important goals for us and I wish him well, but it's no good for either party if he stays here as a bit-part player at this stage of his career.

I'd keep Carlos.

He does go from the sublime to the ridiculous but with a pre-season under his belt I hope that type of performance will occur less frequently.

I thought Okore started nervously today and got better as the game wore on. That's not to say he was brilliant or anything, and he's got a lot to work on certainly, but I think he'll come good for us given time.

I'm not whether we were physically spent or just choked. Either way it was disappointing that we couldn't bring our best game to such a big stage.

I wouldn't have picked the starting XI that Sherwood did today, but I've thought that before and we've played well so what do I know? I certainly think it'll be last time we see a few of these players.

Richardson probably had his best game for Villa today, and a couple of players had their worst. Oh well, roll on next season.

I don't think we need major changes this summer. In order of priority for me I think we should look at:

1. We'll need a striker to either challenge or replace Benteke

2. Try to sign Tom Cleverley on a permanent basis

3. Sign a first choice left back

4. Make a decision on Guzan / 'keeper situation

5. If Senderos is broken, we'll need a centre back

Tried that PositionDial website, and apparently I'm 'Left, in the Centre, Eco-friendly, and strongly Progressive'

83% Plaid

81% Labour

75% Lib Dem

70% Green

32% Tory

-34% UKIP

Actually scored the highest with the SNP bizarrely, but living in Wales hinders that irrelevant.

The performance was poor today, but I think we were on a hiding to nothing given the formation and selections. I do sympathise with Sherwood having limited midfield options but starting Weimann is inexplicable really.

We always knew that the QPR game would be massive and so today hasn't really changed anything in that regard. I just hope the players turn up because our performance against them earlier in the season was embarrassing.

On the plus side, I think Clark and Okore are still looking like a decent pairing and Benteke grew into the game as it went on I thought.

One for rob

What's the difference between Chelsea and sasha gray? Sasha gray can handle 10 men at home

Only problem with this joke is that, in the Sasha Grey scenario, surely all 10 men score?

102 miles for me.

 

We finally get an enjoyable player to watch, that actually looked like turning our final third woes upside down.. Carles Gil.. was nice knowing him anyway.

He played well and scored that belter against Bournemouth however I dont recall him doing much against Arsenal,Chelsea,Hull or Stoke if I'm honest

 

He was excellent against Chelsea. He set up our goal and gave their left back a real game.

Hes been playing in a conventional right midfielder role since which isn't his position. He needs to be starting closer to Benteke to have most effect, but obviously Sherwood sees something in N'Zogbia and Agbonlahor ahead of him.

Economic Left/Right: -3.13

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.05

It's funny to see how these things change over time. I'm becoming less left wing but more libertarian as I get older it seems.

Based on the positions plotted for UK parties on the site, however, I'm still out of whack with most mainstream political parties.

Welcome Tim, and best of luck.

Thirteen massive games to go, and you can't say the man lacks fighting spirit. Just hope we can stay up.

 

I wanted Paco Jemez when it looked like Randy would sell in the summer, but now I think that is too risky. Prandelli would be a massive statement, but I think we're best off going for someone who knows English football. Sherwood isn't experienced enough for me, what about Nigel Adkins? He didn't do well at Reading, but the club has been a mess since relegation. I think it's worth a shot until the end of the season at least.

You do realise the aim is to STAY in the league ?!

 

Adkins was doing reasonably well with Southampton I thought before his sacking. He's been managing since the 90s too, albeit with spells as physio and coach inbetween. If we're looking at Dyche and Howe I don't see the difference.

I wanted Paco Jemez when it looked like Randy would sell in the summer, but now I think that is too risky. Prandelli would be a massive statement, but I think we're best off going for someone who knows English football. Sherwood isn't experienced enough for me, what about Nigel Adkins? He didn't do well at Reading, but the club has been a mess since relegation. I think it's worth a shot until the end of the season at least.

I can't see us staying up this time.

The fight of previous seasons just isn't there, and we don't look like a team failing to implement a tactic, but rather a team not sure of what they are supposed to be doing. I don't know whether it's the injury or whether it's attitude but Benteke is not what he was, and no-one else is going to score enough for us to maintain a Premier League status.

On paper we have a very decent team, but I can easily see us entering the championship with a lineup of Steer; Lowton, Senderos, Clark, Bennett; Bacuna, Gardner, Westwood, Grealish; Weimann, Agbonlahor.

There's no way we're coming straight back up with that team.

I like Westwood as a player, and he is the most reliable passer out of our starting midfield three, although I think his inclusion in the starting line up really hampered us on the weekend. Sanchez was doing really well in that holding role and I don't see the logic in trying to fix one of the only things in our team which was not broken.

I think we really need to look at how best to include them both tactically, since we know Delph is going and Cleverley isn't cutting it. If we can't then Sanchez starts for me out of the two on form. I'm interested to know what you guys think on how best to play them both.

For me, in no particular order...

Benji - Sun Kil Moon

Annabel Dream Reader - The Wytches

Tied to a Star - J Mascis

Soused - Scott Walker + Sunn O)))

Burn Your Fire for No Witness - Angel Olsen

 

Wasn't he universally disliked by the players last time around? That said, he did alright when Houllier was ill

 

So was McLeish's assistant Peter Grant, Karsa and Culverhouse, and supposedly Roy Keane if you listen to the tittle tattle. Not sure what our players are after in an assistant manager really?

 

O'Neill's guys seemed to be OK though.

 

I've heard before that John Robertson was a big factor in O'Neill's successes actually. Seems like he was rated.

We were utterly hopeless throughout, bar maybe 15 minutes of the first half. In a way it was a good thing Cole got injured because Sanchez's first half performance was the only reason we got a foothold in the game and got our goal.

After that... utter dross. We won though which at least puts an end to the run we've been on.

Great ball in from Clark. Is it just me or is about time Gabby wasn't automatic first XI anymore

It isn't just you.

You'd think this is our second string though to be fair, excluding Delph and maybe Weimann. Senderos looks ok.