Ron Vlaar

[Stevo985]

Just to mention something I noticed when I saw he had tweeted congratulations to Delph on last night.

 

Whereas last season he ended every Villa related tweet with #UTV or suchlike. He seems to have stopped since the end of last season. Is this a sign of him edging away from Villa?

Yeah.

 

I heard an interview with him and he said "erm" an average of 8 times every 2 minutes.

Last season he only averaged 7 times every 2 minutes.

 

Is this a sign of him being more uncertain about his future?

[Rob182]

I don't think he will sign either. When it gets to this stage of a contract, and with the club and managers position very much in limbo, why would he sign a new contract? This will be his last chance at a nice big contract so He will wait and see what happens, and I imagine his agent has already been contacted by numerous clubs throughout Europe looking to get him on a free next summer. I know this is not supposed to happen, but you have o be very naive if you think it doesn't.

I was very naive when I said that Benteke might sign a new contract for us if Spurs didn't bid what we wanted, last summer. Look what happened.

[NeilS]

 

I don't think he will sign either. When it gets to this stage of a contract, and with the club and managers position very much in limbo, why would he sign a new contract? This will be his last chance at a nice big contract so He will wait and see what happens, and I imagine his agent has already been contacted by numerous clubs throughout Europe looking to get him on a free next summer. I know this is not supposed to happen, but you have o be very naive if you think it doesn't.

I was very naive when I said that Benteke might sign a new contract for us if Spurs didn't bid what we wanted, last summer. Look what happened.

 

??? I was saying that he was likely to be getting offers from all over Europe? I was saying if you don't think tapping up goes on then you are being naive. He may well sign a new deal, but if you don't think the vultures are circling, and speaking of big contracts for Vlaar on a freebie then you are naive. This situation is different from the Benteke situation due to the points in my first post.

[AValon]

Vlaar had an immense World Cup, thats the problem. He went from being another great Villa center back in the tradition, to an asset, overnight.

[Ulver]

Just to mention something I noticed when I saw he had tweeted congratulations to Delph on last night.

 

Whereas last season he ended every Villa related tweet with #UTV or suchlike. He seems to have stopped since the end of last season. Is this a sign of him edging away from Villa?

 

[Djemba_Villan]

I should point out, my comment was said in half-jest. I'm not honestly sat here calculating the proportion of pro-villa tweets of our key players.

[Panto_Villan]

Personally I think he'll stick around provided we don't implode this season. I imagine we'll be willing to offer him big wages given his importance to us and I'm not sure he'll be a big enough name (or young enough) for any of the really big clubs to come in for him, and even if they do he won't be getting first-team football there.

 

I hope the experience of playing alongside the other competent defenders we're putting out this season might be enough to make him feel like he needs to move.

[StanBalaban]

In 6 years at Feyenoord, Vlaar played just over twice the amount of games he's managed for us since 2012. Come the summer he'll be past 30. The risk Vlaar faces is that he can only sign a pre-contract agreement with 6 months remaining on his contract. One bad injury before then could see him without the bumper deal he may otherwise get, so there's a lot for the player to consider too.

 

In a perverse way, we may have gotten the best out of Vlaar in his time here and it could work well for both parties to part at the end of the season. He'll be looking for (and justifiably so) big wages and at least a 3 year deal - taking him to a few months shy of 34 years old. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Vlaar fan and I wish his contract was another 24 months longer, but I can also envisage us having another player on huge wages not playing much if he were to stay. Again, I'd be absolutely delighted, but I have a feeling that that delight would last for another 18 months or so.

 

Our achilles heel has always been in replacing the quality we've had. Young, Milner, Laursen, Barry, Petrov, Downing we're either replaced poorly or not at all. If Lambert can convince Randy (or whomever) that replacing the club captain (again) is pivotal to the team, and he uses his time and funds wisely, then I'm happy to see Vlaar leave on a high knowing we've had probably the best 3 years of his career here at Villa. 

Edited September 4, 2014 by StanBalaban

[lapal_fan]

Great post Stan.

 

I agree.  At Villa, we always want our best players to stick around, even if it means their performance dropping.

 

I think its because we're used to seeing our better players leave. 

 

We'll have had Ron until he's 31 if we let his contract run down, he'll be happy he'll be somewhere on £40,000+ a week because of who he is and he's a free agent, we should be happy we've seen the best of him in his career.

 

It doesn't really matter if we see him leave on a free.  I think it would be silly on our part, to give a 31 year old player who will never play 38 games a season a 3 year deal on £50,000 a week.

 

We've been down that road before.

 

I do wish however, that last summer, we offered him a 18 month extension, because I think a 33 year old Ron will be ready to just about retire whilst he's still fairly good.

 

In the end though, I'm happy to see him leave, knowing we've had the best of his career

 

Go Ron!

[dont_do_it_doug.]

In 6 years at Feyenoord, Vlaar played just over twice the amount of games he's managed for us since 2012. Come the summer he'll be past 30. The risk Vlaar faces is that he can only sign a pre-contract agreement with 6 months remaining on his contract. One bad injury before then could see him without the bumper deal he may otherwise get, so there's a lot for the player to consider too.

In a perverse way, we may have gotten the best out of Vlaar in his time here and it could work well for both parties to part at the end of the season. He'll be looking for (and justifiably so) big wages and at least a 3 year deal - taking him to a few months shy of 34 years old. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Vlaar fan and I wish his contract was another 24 months longer, but I can also envisage us having another player on huge wages not playing much if he were to stay. Again, I'd be absolutely delighted, but I have a feeling that that delight would last for another 18 months or so.

Our achilles heel has always been in replacing the quality we've had. Young, Milner, Laursen, Barry, Petrov, Downing we're either replaced poorly or not at all. If Lambert can convince Randy (or whomever) that replacing the club captain (again) is pivotal to the team, and he uses his time and funds wisely, then I'm happy to see Vlaar leave on a high knowing we've had probably the best 3 years of his career here at Villa.

Bostin post that. I too am fine if he leaves at the end of the season, we'd have gotten great value for him and as you rightly point out the *likely* trajectory for his ability from that point is downwards. I'm sure he'd be good enough to give us another year or two, but that's the mistake we made 3 years ago and there not much point arguing that particular toss now.

Another player who when he joined there were many reports saying that he wasn't all he was billed as. Our scouting network is top class right now.

[Kingman]

Sendros & Vlaar will both be 30 on 14&16th Feb next year respectively, I think he will be offered a 12 month deal with the option of another 12 months pending game time and fitness levels.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Kingman

[The_Steve]

Say what you will about Lambert, but he signed Vlaar for just £3m. That's a fantastic bit of business and we've probably gotten his best years out of him (assuming no more long term injuries). You do not often find that international quality for so cheap.

[lapal_fan]

Laursen = £3m

 

Mellberg = £5.6m

 

Vlaar = £3.5m

 

We haven't done too badly in the last few years have we?

 

Could do with another Scandinavian doing well for a couple of million quid

[StanBalaban]

Laursen = £3m

 

Mellberg = £5.6m

 

Vlaar = £3.5m

 

We haven't done too badly in the last few years have we?

 

Could do with another Scandinavian doing well for a couple of million quid

Perhaps that man is already here and working on his fitness? 

[StanBalaban]

Sendros & Vlaar will both be 30 on 14&16th Feb next year respectively, I think he will be offered a 12 month deal with the option of another 12 months pending game time and fitness levels.

He'd be mad to take that IMO. He'll be looking for as long a contract as he can to preserve his family's financial future.

[Mantis]

Laursen = £3m

 

Mellberg = £5.6m

 

Vlaar = £3.5m

 

We haven't done too badly in the last few years have we?

 

Could do with another Scandinavian doing well for a couple of million quid

The more expensive a defender gets the worse he seems to do.

 

Dunne - £6m

Warnock - £8/9m

Davies - £10m (!)

Cuellar - £8m

 

Just goes to show that you can get excellent value on the continent - the ones that don't work out are usually cheap.

[Djemba_Villan]

 

Laursen = £3m

 

Mellberg = £5.6m

 

Vlaar = £3.5m

 

We haven't done too badly in the last few years have we?

 

Could do with another Scandinavian doing well for a couple of million quid

The more expensive a defender gets the worse he seems to do.

 

Dunne - £6m

Warnock - £8/9m

Davies - £10m (!)

Cuellar - £8m

 

Just goes to show that you can get excellent value on the continent - the ones that don't work out are usually cheap.

 

 

I'd argue it's unfair to knock Dunne. £6m isn't a great deal and he was fantastic for us for 2 years.

 

The rest though...spot on.

[Mantis]

 

 

Laursen = £3m

 

Mellberg = £5.6m

 

Vlaar = £3.5m

 

We haven't done too badly in the last few years have we?

 

Could do with another Scandinavian doing well for a couple of million quid

The more expensive a defender gets the worse he seems to do.

 

Dunne - £6m

Warnock - £8/9m

Davies - £10m (!)

Cuellar - £8m

 

Just goes to show that you can get excellent value on the continent - the ones that don't work out are usually cheap.

 

 

I'd argue it's unfair to knock Dunne. £6m isn't a great deal and he was fantastic for us for 2 years.

 

The rest though...spot on.

 

I'm not knocking him per se - he was better than all those listed but I still think we overpaid (especially on wages).

 

2 years? I can only think of one season where he was actually good, and even then he tailed off towards the end.

[Vive_La_Villa]

With the club up for sale we can only look at short term objectives really which is staying up. The club can worry about Vlaar's replacement next summer if he doesn't sign a new contract.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Laursen = £3m

Mellberg = £5.6m

Vlaar = £3.5m

We haven't done too badly in the last few years have we?

Could do with another Scandinavian doing well for a couple of million quid

The more expensive a defender gets the worse he seems to do.

Dunne - £6m

Warnock - £8/9m

Davies - £10m (!)

Cuellar - £8m

Just goes to show that you can get excellent value on the continent - the ones that don't work out are usually cheap.

I'd argue it's unfair to knock Dunne. £6m isn't a great deal and he was fantastic for us for 2 years.

The rest though...spot on.

I'm not knocking him per se - he was better than all those listed but I still think we overpaid (especially on wages).

2 years? I can only think of one season where he was actually good, and even then he tailed off towards the end.

Off topic now a little but I credit Dunne with keeping us up under McLeish. He was a very, very good player in his prime. Worth the money at the time IMO.