Yep finally a paper has gone with the story we would all expect.
The Star made the totally logical leap that Benteke would like to leave. (thanks to Imran on Twitter)
(you will have to enlarge the photo)
This is no shock at all, Whether we stay up or go IMHO he will go, What point is there for him to stay now. We will not pay the wages he could command elsewhere and Randy will want to sell for the profit. That is all we are now, a feeder club and which is why we should simply enjoy him whilst he is here.
I do not hold it against Benteke if he wants to go and no Villa fan should, that is modern football for you.
I also have a good feeling about the hammers game,i cant see what your point is about the negativity about rumours.there either true or bollox.
I have no issue with discussing ‘rumours’ or such like.
Just the Mail this week have had a lot of interesting articles, the one on corners, and others, and Brian Little was on the radio speaking sense (as ever) but what do we get on here from Robo ?
Oh, Benteke wants to leave as we’re a shit selling club.
Even coverage of news and views ?
Amen! Ianrobo has issues.
And whatever is going on in Benteke’s head I bet the DAILY FUCKING STAR HAVE NO IDEA.
Bullshit hysteria by the man who loves it, ianrobo.
Nothing we havnt all thiught of and This is from the daily star as well ..according to the paper he is Zaire born? I thought he was Congolese born?
Honestly if the journalist is not even arsed looking up that.
Fish and chips wrapper material
And if it’s the Star, it’s bollox.
Would be nice to hear benteke could out and put the rumours to bed but the main thing is 3 points on Sunday because games like west ham are going to define our season, anything else can wait until the summer.
Vaze we wont mention 18 goals against in 5 games will we, Robo for once is right piss poor player’s we have on the pitch. We will not hold on to any player that looking for fame in 10 years of his life in football, if Villa has a policy to make money by selling young propositional gifted talents, then our club is going backwards in the game. The way Lerner is looking is using us to make money out of the game for himself, as for the star take that with a pinch of salt, just paper talk. me I would like to see a miracle in Lerner investing for the future of the club and letting fans know he’s is a Villa fan and not just a Yank out for a quick buck. I love that club and will stand by it till the day I die,
I was asked to name positives, goals conceded didn’t tick that box for me.
How on earth has Randy Lerner made a quick buck out of Villa ?
He has put a great deal of money in, and is left with a relegation scrap.
And he should have put even more money in ? Would you have in his situation ???
I think he is a sport investor who has made money from sport investments and :
1. wanted a 5 year return on his investment,
2. having failed to do that with Plan A (speculate to build a global brand which can get global merchandising),
3. he is now going for cut the players’ wages below gate money to guarantee annual profits AND
4. just see TV money as a bonus (just in case Ondigital and Setanta apply to BT and Sky in a falling economy), AND
5. buy young and cheap, sell on for significant profit if the right deal comes along AND
6. field a succession of ever cheaper frontmen managers whose annual job is halve the wage bill yet again this season.
I think Randy understands that customers matter but that he also has decided that they will only get what they can pay for (gate money).
The idea he was ever any of the below is just a joke.
He was never an Abramovich – who has spent more than Randy’s entire wealth on his hobby –
or Man City oil multi-multi-billionaires (spending on buying prestige, PR and soft political power as a bulwark against the West supporting an Arab Spring regime change in their country) -who have spent more than Randy’s entire wealth-
or even the Manchester United owners (borrow more than Randy’s entire wealth to spend big every year to maintain global brand which drives merchandising income which pays off loan interest payments and possible sale to an Abramovich or Arab country in the future).
Villa have always been a selling club while in The Premier League (if the right price was on offer) but also a buying club. It is the latter part of the equation which has changed. Sell Benteke for £15 million, buy a 4th division 19 year old for train fare and YTS wages.
Jonathan, thanks you put that better than me, that’s the way I see things now, our days have gone with a American business man like Lerner. our only hope is to stop him dead in his tracks, it will hurt, but we must save our club from profiteering people like Lerner.
He is under contract, I’d tell him you can stay here one more season and have another year of first team football or ill stick you in the reserves for a year which could potentially cripple his career.
I don’t think we have an odemwiengie here, just a load of shite from a paper desperate for a story, there isn’t a single quote in there just hear say. I can’t see him leaving this summer, if he does, well that’s the end of me giving Lerner my money, I’m sick of watching talent leave so quickly to line his fucking pockets.
As for the 16mill, where the fuck did that valuation come from, he is easily worth 20mill, clearly a proven goal scorer at the young age of 22 and has 2 and half years left, young went for 20 so I don’t see why benteke shouldn’t
I don’t think that we’ll lose any players we want to keep if we stay up.
If we are relegated I doubt that Benteke would play in the Championship. Don’t forget that he went on strike at Genk to engineer his move to us.
He just needs to get his head down and score the goals that will see us right.
Markham, say the same Vaze, Lerner is waiting to sell, at the right price, He will make a quick buck when he doe’s, again its at our expense, how much would you say he would lose if he sold ? the way he’s working it out is getting money back now on sales, player’s are being groomed now for the end of the season, young up and coming, just look around the major clubs now, how many are our ex player’s , the guy is a business man using the club for money, he’s a Yank thinking the American way, get in get out, he’s not a footballing person, he as no liability to Aston Villa he will go when it suits him.
2 and half years? – We signed him for 7m on a 3 year deal? if so, that is ludicrous!
If we stay up need to get him on a new contract in summer?
He signed a 4 year deal so he has 3 1/2 years left actually. Much more room to negotiate.
Get real. If he wants to go, and there is an offer, then he goes.
The real point is whether ALL the money gets re-invested in buying a replacement. The fact it will not is the real issue.
Lambert’s best chance of getting Bent off the wage bill was play him every week and keep Benteke on the bench to ease him in. As it is he has still got Bent having reduced his value by £2 million every month he was not played, and will get low wage Bentke off the wage bill.
Lambert does not even get the hang of reducing the wage bill.
Don’t blame him , there is no ambition at the club , Lerner has no interest other than recouping his £££££££ Benteke is a huge talent that could play at the top level , I won’t bear a grudge under this regime !
It makes me laugh when supporters come on saying things like ‘great, another negative article, just what the players need’. How an earth does an article on here effect the players?
What effects the players is the simple fact that they are crap and are unable to win a game of football.
Most on here need to wake up and realise we are in serious trouble.
The problem with Lambert is that almost all young player policies end up like Notts Forest in late 1990s early 2000s, and Middlesborough more recently. Building a team for the future just ends up with the players being headhunted and after the first few exit with the relegation, the rest go for a song as the team gets stuck in the Championship with young players having tasted (albeit briefly) the Premiership and getting in a miserable mood unless allowed to go ‘home’ to the Premiership Promised Land.
People who develop youth, become feeder clubs. This is fine if it matches the fans expectations. If not….!!!
Vaze even if it was a positive article guaranteed someone will find a negative so i will agree to disagree remember mate were batting from the same team if you get my drift.utv
Of course Benteke is leaving, he is far too good for the championship and with the World Cup coming up in 2014, he will want top level football. Nobody should hold it against him, players want to stay at the club if it matches their ambitions and as Lerner has none, it is hardly a big shock to hear this.
Moreover, his two biggest games this season are for Belgium in March to make sure they get to Brazil.
He wants a London club for the London life ( which the BBC markets to the globe as being England), and fast train to his family in Belgium.
He will probably get 4 times the wages once he moves.
It can buy big estates in Belgium.
I have had a season ticket at the Villa since 1979. and not missed a home game for 12 years, the Club have lost any respect I had for them, they treat us fans with utter contempt and I hate them for it, and I will not be at Villa Park tomorrow as going on the piss in Spain for 3 days way hey…. They will sell Benteke in the summer as soon as we are relegated…… Disgraceful !
saddened, your are not the only one. I too used to be in regular attendance, but now I don’t bother any more and tbh I’ve never felt this disconnected and fed up with the club and game in general. The club has treated the fans with utter contempt and we all know Benteke and Weimann will leave the sinking ship come relegation. Its all so predictable.
I feel its time to turn my back completely on the whole game, plenty of other interests out there rather than watching a lifeless, unambitious club move from one humiliation to another.
here here Villian1 – why should we turn up, when even our owner cant be arsed !
an interesting article from one of the countrys leading newspapers, tomorrow look out for the piece about bears shitting in the woods and popes being catholic. piss poor lazy journalism from a paper i wouldn’t wipe my arse with!
Metro
It is believed Aston Villa will demand £16m before they allow their summer find to leave the Midlands.
If there is the slightest bit of truth in that then RL PF and PL want fucking. If he is/ might/ will be up for sale (and come on RL sells anyone if he can turn a buck) why would you even suggest a figure? And £16m when AC Milan have just paid £22m for the clown Mario Balotelli?
Arsend Wanger and his Gooners are seriously taking the piss.
Mario is bigger than Beckham in Italy and for merchandise alone they got a steal at £22 million. Many think he has played for a move home since the summer.
When City were winning every game at the start of 2011-2012, it was him winning them.
It may be Benteke is as good as Mario but just it is hidden by being in a rubbish team.
In any event he looks a goal every other game player but just like Bent, only if the team is set up around his strengths.
I am surprised he did not go to Man City in the window.
He will need to catch Abramovich’s eye to get to Chelsea.
Arsenal should buy him but won’t even though he speaks French.
Spurs will not pay the going rate for him (because they look to get big sell on value), so he will have to pray West Ham do or that QPR stay up.
He will not love the North-East, Liverpool will not go for him, Stoke is further from London, Reading will not give him the wages….
Why not just stay at Villa….maybe Lambert will get him a day pass to Star City cinemas to take his mind off London.
BWS I posted a few days back there were apparently two Arsenal scouts at the Newcastle game, there to watch Benteke… he is a gonner or should I say Gooner come the summer.
I heard there were two scouts from scunthorpe there. Probably a deal iminent
Fear not Lambert is looking at Rooney. Yes Rooney. The 22 year old who has played for Macclesfield, MLS team and almost on the bench at Barnsley (below Wolves if lower part of The Championship is still a dense mist for premiership pedigree fans).
There is no truth to this rumour – except what police call m.o. of the manager.
Couple differences. Balotelli was bought for a lot more, so City were going to ask for a lot more.
Balotelli’s a very good player still, despite his clown-esque reputation.
Ian,
I have read a few of your posts on this website recently, and I think you represent the worst kind of fans. Constantly downbeat with the ‘we are stuffed, we are rubbish, we are relegated’ rhetoric that I would expect from the laziest tabloid journalist or rival supporter.
This story about Benteke is utter rubbish, and you writing about it gives the lazy Star journalist more credibility than he deserves.
What you need to understand is that journalists are targetted, like salesmen, and when there is nothing to write about they’ll just make something up.
Have you not noticed a continual villa-bashing rhetoric in the press? That is because a Villa relegtion would give them something to write about. The ‘big club going down’ is more interesting than the inevitability of a QPR, Reading, etc, They are trying to derail Villa’s season.
The Star reporter has made the story up, and not only have you repeated it and given it more attention, but you actually believe it (your use of the word speculation does not excuse your downbeat comments).
If all you can do is repeat rubbish, made-up stories, then why bother running a website?
Matt, with the greatest of respect mate, i think the Villa are doing a fantastic job of ‘derailing’ themselves. The Board are clueless and make stupid decisions, the owner treats his customers with complete contempt and the managers tactics are at best disastrous….. We have the worst goal difference in the entire football league, second only to Hartlepool and refuse to add to positions where every fan knows we are weak. The Club mention wage cuts, but we are only in this mess due to our owner purchasing shit players on huge contracts which in turn have added massive debt to our club. They messed up and are penalising us fans for their cock ups, they didnt learn from MON as they then went out and bought Hutton and Given on massive salaries, which is best described is incompetent
The press want us to go down because our Manager is aloof and rude and our owner does not communicate and they know we are a disgraceful calamity.
I have had a season ticket since 1979 and will probably never go to Villa park to watch a game again, probably the same as our owner, which says everything about our once great club.
The club is in crisis and I think Ian is only commenting on what is happening and not burying his head in the sand !!!
can someone explain what has happened the last month and why are second from bottom, crowds dropping like a stone and everyone is very unhappy. According to some we should not comment on things because somehow the little darlings who play for us may be reading this.
Some utter nonsense people spout.
Because if it appears the club have given up hope where the incentive for fans to carry on.
exactly and it defies reality that people think we should not comment.
It’s all about the balance of your comments Ianrobo, you know that.
Couldn’t agree more.
Reading the posts above i agree with those who have lost interest in the game, its difficult to say anymore that investing so much time and money following a club that has very little if any chance of even winning a cup let alone the league in which they are competing. These new fair play laws will also mean that fewer and fewer clubs will have any feeling at the start of each season that they can achieve anything yet still ask there fans to fork out large sums of money. I was a season ticket holder for 14 years and now very rarely go, i pay for Sky and that money indirectly goes to the club, but my excitement when Villa win or despair when they lose is no longer there, even watching us lose 8-0 to Chelsea i didn`t really care at the final whistle whereas in the past it would have been hard to take. the game is dead who really cares in Man Utd or Man City win the league or if Chelsea finish third, once the season ends the same boring cherade will continue into the following season. the premier league is now has no soul and is just a cash cow for the chosen few who make a fortune out of the game.
Nobody can really know how much truth there is in this article at this stage, but let’s be honest, how many of us would be in the least surprised if Benteke goes in the summer, relegation or not?
I think that to a player like Benteke, we’re simply a “stepping stone” club into the Premier League. Cut the mustard, and one of the Scum 4 will be on your tail pronto. Give Benteke the merest whiff of a move to the Arse or ManUre, and you won’t see him for dust I reckon. As for his contractual obligations to the Villa, we all know that a contract ain’t worth the paper it’s written on.
As for the club, well, in an attempt to placate the long suffering supporters, we’ll no doubt get the usual smokescreen “not for sale at any price” guff a week or two before the sale goes through. Then we’ll move into the “we moved heaven and earth to keep him” routine, and finally, Lerner will cash in for £20 mill, and give the manager (whoever that may be) a quarter of that back to find a replacement.
Cynical? Of course, but that’s football these days, and I suppose that cynicism is why so many people are falling out of love with the game these days. It’s hard to blame them when I feel that way myself.
Absolute disgrace. We are in the middle of a relegation battle and all i’ve been hearing this week from El Almede and Lambert is how much Benteke is worth. 6 months ago Lambert was saying we are trying to build something here which means not letting our best players go. Benteke will probably clear off in the summer and who could honestly blame him. It appears to me that our graet club has given up and have settled for relegation.
Kea has been saying how much he’s improved this season I hate to have seen him before he came here as he’s still shit now. Lambert in one newspaper was fielding questions on Benteke and said if anyone came in for him in the summer it would cost them at least double. If that was fergie he would have said not for sale at any price. Fuckin disgrace
so obvious a ploy and start to suggest it and get a quick sale
Worried they may loose value between now and end of season?
Can I direct everyone to the BBC Sport website article on their Management performance chart. It makes dreadful reading and shows Lerner and Faulkner up as the idiots they are.
106th place, we have Roberto Martinez who we failed to get,
107th place, we have Paul Lambert, who the board backed in their ‘young and vibrant’ spin and in 108th place its Alex McLeish, no need to say anything.
Says it all really doesn’t it.
And people wonder why there is so much negativity written about Villa.
We should get Eddie Howe in, a promising young manager who is delivering in the lower leagues.
Oh, hang on…
Hi all UTV.I heard on twitter that benteke story is a load of bollix and has no substance.