Christian Benteke

[Mumorn]

Benteke, Lukaku, Ba, Torres
--

Benteke or Lukaku will play rock, paper, scissors to decide who goes out on loan.

 

[braineclipse]

BBC Sport ‏@BBCSport 2m

Aston Villa confirm striker Christian Benteke has submitted a transfer request and not travelled on the club's pre-season tour to Germany

A transfer request is one thing, not going on a pre-season tour a step further. As we've seen with several players in recent years that is very often followed by a transfer actually happening.

Headline in tuesdays telegraph:

“Mourinho wants Benteke after missing Cavani.”

I suck at predictions, but really? Duncan Castles (Times journo) said this earlier today on twitter too. It just seems like a strange one when they already have Lukaku.

That being said, I'm sure there is a flowchart somewhere in Abramovich's office that has an arrow tagged 'if in doubt' pointing towards a box with 'sign him up' written in it.

 

[NWND]

Headline in tuesdays telegraph:

“Mourinho wants Benteke after missing Cavani.”

Can we have Lukaku then?

 

[NaijaSpurs]

I would have loved him at Spurs

 

[Mumorn]

Sky Sports reporting it will take a minimum bid of 25 million to land Aston Villa's Christian Benteke.

 

[braineclipse]

So Villa are saying that they had already given him extra time off so he wasn't supposed to be in the squad going to Germany anyway.

"In response to reports that Christian Benteke has not travelled to Germany with the club and has made a transfer request, we can confirm that both are accurate.

"For clarity's sake, however, he had already been given extra time off until July 18 and was reminded that there are three years remaining on his contract.

"We consider him to be a Villa player and expect that he will be with us for the 2013-14 season.

"Having received his transfer request, we have also informed him that should we receive an offer within an appropriate timeframe during pre-season which meets our valuation we would act upon it. But he will remain a Villa player should this not happen."

 

[Rossi22]

Sky Sports reporting it will take a minimum bid of 25 million to land Aston Villa's Christian Benteke.

Think that was just the opinion of one reporter. Either way I can't see us being able to afford him, perhaps could've stretched to it if we hadn't just spent £17m on a midfielder.

 

[Kingdawson]

Defoe and 12m.

 

[NWND]

Think that was just the opinion of one reporter. Either way I can't see us being able to afford him, perhaps could've stretched to it if we hadn't just spent £17m on a midfielder.

Certainly seems a tall order! To break our transfer record twice in one window would be pretty insane

 

[Kingdawson]

Meh he's chelski bound anyway.

 

[braineclipse]

Think that was just the opinion of one reporter. Either way I can't see us being able to afford him, perhaps could've stretched to it if we hadn't just spent £17m on a midfielder.

Will depend on who we sell and for how much.

Levy let Redknapp spend close to £45m in his first (January) transfer window and another £20 in the following summer window iirc. So far under AVB we're just about break even, we have the added tv-money coming in and quite a few squad players we can sell.

Although £25m being speculation is a good point, far from certain that will be the fee if he does move this summer.

The problem, again, will be which other clubs want him. If Chelsea seriously want him now then we pretty much don't stand a chance.

 

[NWND]

Yep if Chelsea are really interested game over - if they are just monitoring him and he's i option 4 or 5 for them on a list then we have a chance if we move quickly

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

Will depend on who we sell and for how much.

Levy let Redknapp spend close to £45m in his first (January) transfer window and another £20 in the following summer window iirc. So far under AVB we're just about break even, we have the added tv-money coming in and quite a few squad players we can sell.

Although £25m being speculation is a good point, far from certain that will be the fee if he does move this summer.

The problem, again, will be which other clubs want him. If Chelsea seriously want him now then we pretty much don't stand a chance.

That tends to be the key with us. Redknapp's initial splurge was funded by the money we still had in the pot from the Berbatov/Keane sales. He then had money to spend in the Summer but we actually made a net profit on transfers that year due to the sales of Darren Bent and Zokora primarily.

Redknapp's final year with us saw us net a massive net profit and we haven't really spent that cash, but I'd imagine due to recent consistent success our wage bill has gone up a lot. The money we spent last year was covered by the Modric sale. So hopefully this season we really do have £30m+ to play with in addition to any money clawed back from sales.

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

Yep if Chelsea are really interested game over - if they are just monitoring him and he's i option 4 or 5 for them on a list then we have a chance if we move quickly

I don't think he is proven enough for us to push the boat out for him. He could well be a one season wonder.

 

[Rossi22]

I don't think he is proven enough for us to push the boat out for him. He could well be a one season wonder.

Maybe he is, or maybe he's not. Would you rather we took the risk or sat twiddling our thumbs and started next season with Defoe and Ade again? I hope we go for it, I can't see an abundance of striking talent out there just waiting to be signed. If he flops, oh well, we lose money, it's not my money and we won't fold over it.

 

[THFC6061]

I don't think he is proven enough for us to push the boat out for him. He could well be a one season wonder.

Looking at his chance conversion rate, I would say he's the real deal.

If he can score 19 goals in 34 appearances for a Villa side who looked like the would be relegated, just imagine what he could do for a team like Spurs.

 

[Jordinho]

A transfer request simply means he won't get his loyalty bonuses for the remainder of his contract. Could shave a few million of his asking price or Villa could still stand firm. Unless they've got someone in mind to replace him I think they'll try to do a Levy.

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

Maybe he is, or maybe he's not. Would you rather we took the risk or sat twiddling our thumbs and started next season with Defoe and Ade again? I hope we go for it, I can't see an abundance of striking talent out there just waiting to be signed. If he flops, oh well, we lose money, it's not my money and we won't fold over it.

It depends on your definition of pushing the boat out. Up to £15m and him willing to play for £80K a week I'd say he is worth a punt. £20m and if he wanted £100K a week? I'd say he wasn't.

 

[Rossi22]

It depends on your definition of pushing the boat out. Up to £15m and him willing to play for £80K a week I'd say he is worth a punt. £20m and if he wanted £100K a week? I'd say he wasn't.

But at the end of the day, what does it matter to you whether he costs £15m or £20m?

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

Looking at his chance conversion rate, I would say he's the real deal.

If he can score 19 goals in 34 appearances for a Villa side who looked like the would be relegated, just imagine what he could do for a team like Spurs.

They are impressive stats, but I've seen average players have blinding seasons before (not saying he is average), or maybe have good stats rather than actual blinding seasons.. Grant Holt scored 15 Premiership goals for Norwich a couple of seasons ago, Rickie Lambert scored 15 this time around.

Perhaps the biggest example of all is our very own Clive Allen. Top bloke, but never a top striker and the season he scored 49 goals will go down in our folklore but if he had scored even a third of the routine chances he missed that year he would have probably had twice that figure. Despite scoring 49 goals he wasn't in the top five Spurs players that season, let alone the top 5 of the league.

Maybe Benteke is the real deal, but I am not convinced yet and I am not sure in our current position we can afford to spend big to speculate.