Christian Benteke

[Amo69]

if we accept a bid and still want to keep him then we have to match the offer he is given right?

[MikeMcKenna]

if we accept a bid and still want to keep him then we have to match the offer he is given right?

Depends on his contract surely?

Personally I hope we do a "Barry" and say "you're under contract son! We will sell you when WE are ready."

[P3te]

if we accept a bid and still want to keep him then we have to match the offer he is given right?

If we wanted to keep him why would we accept an offer?

Ok so he is worth 40 million but his wages should not be more than 50K a week? I can see where many of you are coming from but it's not championship manager. It's a real person we're talking about so you can't just isolate him for wanting to leave and earn maybe double we can offer and win things.

If a decent offer comes in I can see a deal being done. Maybe 30 million or so. But I think for his World Cup chances he should give us another year.

You don't pay wages for potential, that's what you pay transfer fees for

[dont_do_it_doug.]

We have a wage structure and a wage limit. If Benteke feels this isn't adequate enough for him then we will sell him for a fee we deem appropriate. Until such a time it is up to the player as to whether he wants to be a part of this team or not.

His agent may be a word removed, but ultimately Benteke is a grown man who can make his own decisions. The days of this club being held over a barrel by players are long gone. I know that doesn't sit well with some of you, but it's fine by me.

If he's going to be an arse about it then I hear Stephen Ireland could use some company training with the reserves.

[Daholteend]

 

if we accept a bid and still want to keep him then we have to match the offer he is given right?

Depends on his contract surely?

Personally I hope we do a "Barry" and say "you're under contract son! We will sell you when WE are ready."

 

I agree with  you Mike!  What's the point of  signing a contract  for  four years  if  your  intention  was  to break it.

 

However, none of us  is privy  to all the facts and probably  only  Benteke, his Agent and the Management of AVFC know , or think they know, what the  situation is.

 

There is  no  onus on AVFC to  change  the   terms of  the  contract as it  stands. From a legal  standpoint  they can let it  run  the full four  years barring there being any terms in  the contract  that provide Benteke  with  a way  out.

 

However, if  AVFC did a  "Barry" then  it is  fairly certain  that  the player   will be gone  at the  end of the  3rd   year because  that is the last opportunity   to  get  significant money  for   him.

 

On the other hand from what we have already  seen of Benteke's   upside, here we have a player  who  IMHO is the most   significant   Striker   since  Gerry Hitchens   bar  none! If  Paul Lambert;s  belief  is that  success   can be built  on   Benteke's  broad   shoulders  then it is  easy  to see why  there is a  crack in the door  where  Lambert  and   the AVFC  board is willing to  sit  down and talk about Benteke's   long term  future with the  club.

 

If Benteke  shows that he is  100%  on board with  Villa's  future plans they will have a  contract improvement signed and  sealed.

 

If he    baulks  all bets are off!   It will be  an interesting  summer.  

[MikeMcKenna]

We have a wage structure and a wage limit. If Benteke feels this isn't adequate enough for him then we will sell him for a fee we deem appropriate. Until such a time it is up to the player as to whether he wants to be a part of this team or not.

His agent may be a word removed, but ultimately Benteke is a grown man who can make his own decisions. The days of this club being held over a barrel by players are long gone. I know that doesn't sit well with some of you, but it's fine by me.

If he's going to be an arse about it then I hear Stephen Ireland could use some company training with the reserves.

And if we are ever going to succeed again we need the Benteke's of this world. We play in the "bigs boys" league and occassionally we have to act like grown ups if we want to get anywhere. Players are out for all they can get and any moral stand on wages by Villa will not change that.

Whether his agent is a clearing in the woods or not the fact is that he works for Benteke's ( and his own) interest and not ours. If we want to compete we have to play the game. If we let Benteke go, all the great work so far this close season will be badly undermined.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

We're nowhere near this fabled "big boys league" yet, we simply don't have £110k a week to spare. For anyone. And frankly until such a time as we are competing at that level neither should we.

Under such circumstances we're not "letting him go", he's forcing a move by pushing for something we don't have to give.

Not that I think anybody aside from the guys in the thick of it actually knows anything at all. No idea how some knobhead on twitter would know his wage demands to be quite honest.

[supernova26]

The 110k rumour is nonsense imo. Arsenal don't even pay those wages to their highest earner. It's pie in the sky stuff.

 

A bid is yet to come in for him. I'll say it again, has anybody ever bid for Bale? So for the moment we don't have to give him anything. I think the biggest risks are PSG and Monaco though, him being a french speaker and all. Unless Moyes or Mourinhio fancy him, I can't see an Premier League bid.

[OutByEaster?]

 

 

 

I see what you're saying, but I suspect we only get one go at this - barring a miracle, I think we're talking about how much it costs to keep him happy in his last year here.

But it's not just about him. If we bow to the pressure, pay him what he wants, and then he leaves next summer, we've set the precedent that we WILL pay stupid money to players who have a good season. Wiemann hits 15-20 goals and he wants 100k. A couple of our mids have great season, they want 80k a pop and so on. It's bigger than Benteke tbh and unless we've got the resources to pay 3-4 players silly money down the line (which would then become 5-10 players, since everyone wants a cut of it, and we're back in MON-land), we can't pay it to Benteke

We don't have to give him anything. That's not what I'm arguing, just that his value on the open market would be a £100k a week wage - it seems we want the fee that goes with that but aren't prepared to accept that if we really wanted to keep him long term that's the wage we'd be looking at. I hope we don't offer him that sort of money this summer, for all the reasons you're stating, but we have to know that he and his agent will be very aware that he's very capable of earning it. It's going to get tricky and it's important we keep it all done the right way I think.

Scott

But what is the "right way"?

 

 

I dunno. Quietly I guess. And I think we're going to need to play nice with his agent - we've got all the cards, but that doesn't necessarily mean we have to play them, and a protracted argument with our star player has the potential to torpedo our season. I think there's going to be a game of give and take, a bit of push and pull, and I think that the less that the likes of you and I know about it the better. 

 

We can't afford a player like Christian Benteke - but we've tied one up on a contract, that's always going to get you to awkward. I think he'll stay for twelve months on improved terms then make us a small fortune after the world cup.

 

 

 

[samjp26]

When you see that Wet Spam are going to offer Andy Carroll £100k a week it just makes you realises how ridiculous our sport has become.

Genuinely want to know how Carroll has duped everybody?!

[Morpheus]

Yeah exactly. If we start handing out double/triple your money contracts to players who've had a single good season then we'll be back to square one in no time. 

Made this point at the tail end of last season.

 

Its ok saying that we are getting rid of the high wages earners but if buying young players who reach their potential early is the way we're going to go (and nothing wrong with that at all) then to keep those players, our wage structure is going to increase again to the levels it was before.

 

With the expectation at our club i really don't think we can keep our wage structure low, the chairman happy and expect success. 

Edited June 15, 2013 by Morpheus

[Big_John_10]

I made a similar point morpheous. When buying young potential to keep the wage bill down there is going to come a point when the wages need to increase.

I don't think we should bend over and give him ridiculous money but I do think someone like Benteke deserves a significant pay increase.

[Morpheus]

Agreed BJ10.

 

While we all crave success the chairman is going to have to except (unless in exceptional circumstances, Wigan, Swansea) that one doesn't come without the other. 

[Shaw_nuff]

When you see that Wet Spam are going to offer Andy Carroll £100k a week it just makes you realises how ridiculous our sport has become.

Genuinely want to know how Carroll has duped everybody?!

 

If this turns out to be true West Ham will end up in serious trouble. Their fans won't put up with Fat Sam's brand of football for very long. Then in comes a manager who 'plays' football and Carroll becomes superfluous. They will never be able to offload him on those wages.

[samjp26]

When you see that Wet Spam are going to offer Andy Carroll £100k a week it just makes you realises how ridiculous our sport has become.

Genuinely want to know how Carroll has duped everybody?!

If this turns out to be true West Ham will end up in serious trouble. Their fans won't put up with Fat Sam's brand of football for very long. Then in comes a manager who 'plays' football and Carroll becomes superfluous. They will never be able to offload him on those wages.

On a five year deal too if we believe what the papers are saying.

That kind of behaviour is what got us into trouble, I feel sorry for their fans, I know Benteke can play 100x better than Carroll but its a prime example of what we can't (and I'm sure we won't) do.

[Shaw_nuff]

I wonder sometimes if fans and players forget just how bad the economic situation is out there.

 

The US and UK are screwed. The UK can only cut it's deficit slightly which is adding each year to colossal debt. The US trade deficit actually grew the first quarter of this year!

 

There's an enormous banking crisis looming again (it was never actually fixed) in the UK which will probably be triggered by a house price collapse (once HTB fails and the london bubble bursts), Euro collapse or interest rates are forced up.

 

The point is Lerner won't/can't pay anything over what the club can sustain. I reckon 50k is the limit for the top players now and i am glad of that. If you can't live like a king on that then you don't deserve anything.

[TreeVillan]

I wonder sometimes if fans and players forget just how bad the economic situation is out there.

 

The US and UK are screwed. The UK can only cut it's deficit slightly which is adding each year to colossal debt. The US trade deficit actually grew the first quarter of this year!

 

There's an enormous banking crisis looming again (it was never actually fixed) in the UK which will probably be triggered by a house price collapse (once HTB fails and the london bubble bursts), Euro collapse or interest rates are forced up.

 

The point is Lerner won't/can't pay anything over what the club can sustain. I reckon 50k is the limit for the top players now and i am glad of that. If you can't live like a king on that then you don't deserve anything.

 

This cheered me up.

[neil3241]

I wonder sometimes if fans and players forget just how bad the economic situation is out there.

 

The US and UK are screwed. The UK can only cut it's deficit slightly which is adding each year to colossal debt. The US trade deficit actually grew the first quarter of this year!

 

There's an enormous banking crisis looming again (it was never actually fixed) in the UK which will probably be triggered by a house price collapse (once HTB fails and the london bubble bursts), Euro collapse or interest rates are forced up.

 

The point is Lerner won't/can't pay anything over what the club can sustain. I reckon 50k is the limit for the top players now and i am glad of that. If you can't live like a king on that then you don't deserve anything.

 

You sir are correct, 100% spot on.

[MagicMushroom]

Well its not exactly meltdown on here, but we are trying our best in getting there lol.

 

So all the fretting has been caused by someone on Twitter whom has "inside knowledge" and the word of Black Danny whom has more knowledge about organising ruck's than anything else!

 

Now these two individuals may know one or two associated at the club, but i very much doubt that they are Lambert, Fatman, the Agent and their respective lawyers so in essence im sure they know **** all.

 

Then there is that word negotiation, which means all sides sit down and make offers which at first get argued about until a compromise is reached that meets all parties satisfaction, which is usually between the two extremes. 110K????, well there's extreme and absolute bullshit, and even though his agent is a giant knob, hes not a colossus knob!

 

Bottom line is this.

 

The Agent and Player signed a 3/4 year contract with the current wage set in ink. We don't have to do naff all if we wish not to, and the Player will ruin his career if he throws a hissy fit after only 10 months,and his side know that. We hold all the cards and im still very confident this will be done and dusted once Benteke returns from holiday.

 

Incidently, going on his agents past form, why is he not shouting his mouth off to the media if things had broken down?
 

Chill pills guys

[regular_john]

Speaking of his holiday, there's a lad on the Villa fans FB group who's had his pic taken with Benteke in the Vegas Bellagio. He says he asked CB if he'd still be a Villa player next season, the response was 'I don't think so'.

Could be nothing (a trolling noser, for example), but I thought it was worth sharing.