PieFacE Posted May 6, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted May 6, 2013 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swerbs Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Downing even said on a Twitter #askdowning session that he wanted to leave Villa and has not regretted it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Okay, your spelling out of things still doesn't change my mind at all. There's absolutely no proof that Downing was touted to 3 clubs. Unless you can provide some? What is fact is that Downing handed in a transfer request. Which to me, indicates that the club didn't want to sell him, but he wanted to go. Otherwise, why the need to hand in transfer request? And like Downing, Young, Barry and Milner... I don't expect the club will want to sell Benteke. They will want to sell Given, Bent, Ireland, Hutton etc etc... Handing in a transfer request means you forego your cut of the transfer fee too - so there's no way he'd have done that if he didn't want to leave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goalGary Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Just to respond to an earlier question about wages in the Jupiler Pro League, less than ten players I would say earn a salary of €1m and I doubt Benteke was among the top earners at the time of his departure. Anderlecht pay the best wages - the likes of Jovanovic, Mbokani, De Sutter and Biglia earn €1m+, a couple of players at Club Brugge and maybe the odd one at Standard or Genk. Back to Benteke, I'd still go with him against Serbia next month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanAVFC Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 He's hilarious on Twitter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Well, Downing standing with Caroll holding up that scarf wasn't really telling that he wanted to stay, was it? Yorke also once said that he'd be fine staying at Villa if we didn't wanna sell him. The rest is history. There are plenty of examples of players saying they want to stay just shortly before they leave. I really doubt Downing was forced out. In fact, this is the first time I've heard anyone suggest it. That's great-I really don't doubt that Downing was forced out so we'll have to agree to disagree won't we? As for Yorke-The Mirror ran a back page headline that United were in for him around 8 months before he eventualy joined them.I don't ever recall Yorke pledging his loyalty to Villa in those 8 months-In fact he was banging down Ellis's door begging to be allowed to leave. It was reported in the tabloids when Gregory asked Yorke did he want to leave and got the affirmative, Gregory then said that he felt like shooting him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butterfingers Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 For those who think that selling Benteke for £20mil will improve the team,Sunderland paid £10mil for Graham-That's exactly what £10mil gets you. There is no sense in replacing a top quality striker with 3 average replacements.We should have money available to improve the team without having to sell our best assets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 He's hilarious on Twitter. He's mental! I'm not entirely sure he's of this planet. Love him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 For those who think that selling Benteke for £20mil will improve the team,Sunderland paid £10mil for Graham-That's exactly what £10mil gets you. There is no sense in replacing a top quality striker with 3 average replacements.We should have money available to improve the team without having to sell our best assets Logic fail. See if you can spot it yourself. Not that I want to sell Benteke, not in the least. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samjp26 Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 (edited) For what its worth, I think contract talks may begin tomorrow , from Twitter: Howard Hodgson: "good luck tomorrow. I speak to p faulkner and he told me that it is possible to talk with you and other money players tomorrow." Benteke (in reply): "thank you friend." Howard is an agent. Edited May 6, 2013 by samjp26 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butterfingers Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 For those who think that selling Benteke for £20mil will improve the team,Sunderland paid £10mil for Graham-That's exactly what £10mil gets you. There is no sense in replacing a top quality striker with 3 average replacements.We should have money available to improve the team without having to sell our best assets Logic fail. See if you can spot it yourself. Not that I want to sell Benteke, not in the least. Oh right-Benteke only cost us £7mil You've cracked it-We sell Benteke for £20mil & then simply go out & unearth another gem for £7mil-Easy Why didn't I think of that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted May 6, 2013 Share Posted May 6, 2013 Missed the point but sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozvillafan Posted May 7, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted May 7, 2013 Let me see if I get the recent posts in this thread. - Downing wanted to stay? He handed in a transfer request. He wanted to see how comfortable the Liverpool bench was. Ditto Young, Barry and Milner - albeit with different clubs and varying degrees of bench time. - Selling Benteke for 20mill is good business? How, exactly? The last player that scored 20+ goals in all competitions for us was Angel in 2003-04. If it was that easy to replace quality strikers, why did we wait almost 10 years for Benteke? We need to build the team around him, not sell him and hope for another diamond in the rough. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 He'll want a taste of Europe sooner rather than later, meaning even if we stay up and he stays with us he'll be gone within another year or two. Not much of a window to build a team around him... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozvillafan Posted May 7, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted May 7, 2013 He'll want a taste of Europe sooner rather than later, meaning even if we stay up and he stays with us he'll be gone within another year or two. Not much of a window to build a team around him... But enough time for us to get to Europe, which may see him stay. Big ask, yes - especially as we are not technically safe yet - but there is no reason why we should not aim for that. If we take the view that making a quick quid on our best players is the way forward, we will never be anything but an also-ran in the Premier League. A selling club that can look forward to perpetual mid-table finishes. I think we deserve better - lets start by keeping Benteke. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diehardvillan Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 (edited) For what its worth, I think contract talks may begin tomorrow , from Twitter: Howard Hodgson: "good luck tomorrow. I speak to p faulkner and he told me that it is possible to talk with you and other money players tomorrow." Benteke (in reply): "thank you friend." Howard is an agent. Howard isn't a football agent. He is a managing director for a catering firm that has connections with AVFC. He has a close relationship with Paul Faulker, but I don't think contracts will be being discussed, unless it is whether to add some Benteke Fried Chicken to the menu. Edited May 7, 2013 by diehardvillan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samjp26 Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 For what its worth, I think contract talks may begin tomorrow , from Twitter: Howard Hodgson: "good luck tomorrow. I speak to p faulkner and he told me that it is possible to talk with you and other money players tomorrow." Benteke (in reply): "thank you friend." Howard is an agent. Howard isn't a football agent. He is a managing director for a catering firm that has connections with AVFC. He has a close relationship with Paul Faulker, but I don't think contracts will be being discussed, unless it is whether to add some Benteke Fried Chicken to the menu. His Twitter bio reads that he's an agent (not for football, another sport can't remember off the top of my head). I'm not sure what else Faulkner needs to talk to anybody about, I'd hope he would have as little communication as possible with our players the dim wit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan_007 Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 For those who think that selling Benteke for £20mil will improve the team,Sunderland paid £10mil for Graham-That's exactly what £10mil gets you. There is no sense in replacing a top quality striker with 3 average replacements.We should have money available to improve the team without having to sell our best assets They didn't pay 10 mill they paid 5mill - so that's what 5 mill gets you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butterfingers Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 For those who think that selling Benteke for £20mil will improve the team,Sunderland paid £10mil for Graham-That's exactly what £10mil gets you. There is no sense in replacing a top quality striker with 3 average replacements.We should have money available to improve the team without having to sell our best assets They didn't pay 10 mill they paid 5mill - so that's what 5 mill gets you! Well we'll be fine then-Sell Benteke for £20mil,have a whole £10 mil to sign someone twice the value of Graham & still have plenty of change to slip a few quid into Lerners bank account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted May 7, 2013 Share Posted May 7, 2013 I think talk of moving on is too early to say. He is only 22 and think people forget this. He would be best advised to stay here and develop his game maybe even 2 more seasons than benchwarm for them at a United or Chelsea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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