Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Benteke open to Arsenal move

Christian Benteke has said he’d be open to a move to Arsenal as speculation about his future increases.

The Aston Villa striker, one of the real success stories of last season’s transfers, scored 23 goals in all competitions in England last season and after signing from Genk for £7m, Villa could make a serious profit if they decided to sell.

Their reluctance to do so, however, won’t have been aided by comments made by Benteke while away on international duty with Belgium.

Asked about his future, he said, “If Aston Villa say I must stay, I won’t necessarily accept that. I do not in any way want to feel I didn’t get the most out of my career.”

“Of course playing the World Cup in Rio is in my head. But I have no fear of falling out of the team. There is no point in me getting into a tug-of-war with Villa.

“If the chance comes up for me to join a club like Arsenal, I’m convinced we can reach a compromise where everyone comes out a winner.”

The player’s agent, wisely, has moved to downplay the comments, but it will be interesting to see if Arsene Wenger is willing to go after a player he admitted was on his radar last summer.

Instead, he plumped for the more established and experienced Olivier Giroud, but in the absence of any real alternative to the Frenchman the Gunners are on the look out for a striker this summer and Benteke, established now in the Premier League, is likely to be an option.

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Jamie

OH FUCK YES!

AGunner

He said he wanted to come during the January transfer window too.. While I think he’d be a great addition, I really hope we go for another known striker too and one that’s hopefully pacy like an Aguero type of player.. *cough* Falcao…

Goon

I agree. We need a player with dexterity. Benteke would be great cover for Giroud though, I like Benteke, 12 mil is the most I can see us pay. Falcao would be great but it’ll never happen and spending 50 million+ is too much to spend on any player.

shanthDK

I would rather say “Giroud would be great cover for Benteke.” Benteke has got that nose and ability for scoring goals.

Alex Cutter

If AV paid $7 million, he would surely cost us more than $12 million?

VictoriaConcordiaCrescit

Falcao is not pacy by any means

Harsh

i don’t know, he is a very good player but aside from his dsire to join arsenal, his attitute, playing style, and overal nature doesn’t seem arsenal type……… he is also a bit self-centered……. he said himself, he wants to get the max out of his career……… what if realises his max. potential at arsenal and becomes a real success and then after a season or two, he says he wants to go to manchester or barca, or real madrid ?……. what if there were more reasons than just expereience and establishment as to why arsene went for giroud rather… Read more »

Unyoke The Ox

I see what you mean, but: 1. Most players want to get the most out of their career 2. He’s at a team that are going to be in a relegation dog fight every year 3. Playing as a striker for a team that is struggling as badly as they did, means his chances to score are fewer and further between, which will have affect his chances to be Belgium’s top striker. I like him as a player and he would undoubtedly be a great addition. I’d also like Romelu Lukaku, if for no other reason that his name sounds… Read more »

Moobs

Completely agree with Harsh here. Benteke’s comments, while flattering for Arsenal, show a complete lack of respect to his employers. And if he’s that self centered, it’ll pan out one of two ways if he joins:

1: becomes a world class striker who winds down his deal with us and leaves for a fraction of what he’s worth to someone like Barcelona, while saying things like ‘you guys.’

2: Does an Arshavin/Chamakh/Squillacci, because he’s had a good enough season do demand a fat pay packet from us.

thw14

Or, or, or we could think of this being the year we capitalise on instability at other clubs, invest fast and wisely and blow the top off that oil laden glass ceiling. In which case players may not be such ‘glory-hunters’ since, you know, there’s plenty of glory (and delicious banoffee pie) to be had here.

….

Ahahahaha, I know, I know…. full week into the window and we’ve gone from “omgggzzzzzzzz HIGUAIN!!!” to “Benteke…. hmmm…. not a bad option.”

Oh, Arsenal, Arsenal. *sob*

Lomas

Personally I have no problem with that level of ambition, lets face it few players could have the season he’s had and not want to leave a villa team having the season they had. As for worries of him leaving after becoming ‘too good’ for arsenal, few players become that good. Plus if arsenal do what they should do over the next few years, and he’s still to good for us then that would be one hell of a combination, but If we’re were still in the same boat in 3-4 years and he’s that good, I don’t blame him… Read more »

Moobs

@Lomas I’m can understand your point of view, and obviously it’s absurd to worry that a player is too good. But on a selfish level I just don’t want to deal with another arrogant player using the club. Even though Van Persie and Adebayor and Nasri were great business for Arsenal, if I could go back and stop them from signing I would, because their behaviour chips away at the reasons I support the club. I feel like a complete knob for singing songs supporting Van Persie last season, when the whole time he knew what he was going to… Read more »

New Guy

Not to mention that benteke is an animal and too good for villa. He may not come here but he’ll be leaving there soon enough.

SeepiaGooner

Self-centered or self-aware. He may be a bit cocky, but he’s got skills to back it up with. Show me a good striker who’s not a bit “self-centered”.
On the original topic: I think he’d make a great addition.

Rooks

I apologise for down voting. I agree!

Rooks

Moobs

@SeepiaGooner

Ever seen Dennis Bergkamp play?

And obviously being self-centered on the pitch can be a plus, take that off the pitch and you have an Adebayor/Na$ri type player.

You know a player is a bad egg when his money-hungry agent is the voice of reason.

Harsh

Podolski, he didn’t leave his old club, whatever it was called when so many better clubs were making offers until he came at arsenal…. He says he would prefer to play striker but hasn’t thrown tantrums for playing left wing for Germany and arsenal……. And with the kind of finishing we have seen from him, don’t tell me he is not a good striker.
Giroud, not exactly an amazing striker but an amazing false-9….. And his team play seems unselfish but we are yet to see many years from him…..

Frank de Boer

Thierry Henry is a complete egomaniac and that worked out for us.

mjb

I just hope he doesn’t end up like Ade-boo-yor. Just after another step up the ladder for as long as it takes to get mega rich regardless.

AssShavin

Actually he’s an Arsenal fan. About 9 months ago, i saw a interview with him, where he said how much an Arsenal fan he is.

Harsh

Are you sure? If you are, then that’s great…… We should try to sign him up….. That is, if being an arsenal makes him immune to the hlebovirus…..

Cele

I’d prefer to have the kind of player that could do well enough to ‘jump ship’ to a bigger club rather than all these stagnant fucks sucking up our wage bill.

James vagaBond

That’s actually a Good point if you think about it

Heh

Now watch chelsea bid £20 million…..

Only for wenger to come in with a counter offer of ===> £8million.

Only in Arsenal….

Fergie the Gooner

I don’t know, not exactly a great display of loyalty to his club. No doubt he’s a decent player, but do we really need someone who looks to jump ship as soon as an opportunity comes up?

Cescmachine

Well I dont know mate, RVP had one outstanding season and at the first oppertunity jumped ship and won the league, I agree with your sentiment however there are not many Jack Wilshere’s in football these days. I suggest if we can’t beat em sign em!

tomdotcom

Indeed. Exactly the kind of player we should be signing.

If the £70M that Weger supposedly has to spend is true, then we should definitely sign Benteke. The figures don’t like. He has scored a load of Premier League goals.

Although knowing Arsene, we will end up signing nobody except a 14 year-old Angolan who we have never heard of.

Runcorn Gooner

The trouble is we are going to have stories involving every possible player from Messi at the top end to Carlos Kickaball at the bottom
end for the next 2 plus months.AW is no mug he will weigh it all up and come up with the right signings while we all discuss it .
I hate this time of year because its all lies and conjecture and ridicolous stories like Misery Mark Hughes taking over the Orc Army.
One of Aw least favourite Managers being replaced by another.

guna

Yes indeed. Have you guys noticed the way he resemble Mike Tyson?

mat

Interesting. Glad to see a player like Benteke shows his wilingness to join us. Good player, and for 7m Villa really had a decent catch last season. However, didn’t the type of striker that I personally prefer right now, settling for more proven, experienced goalscorer.

Brown

Well to be fair, having scored 27 goals last season, he is a ‘proven’ premier league striker. He may not be experienced but he did score all those goals in the PL. So this signing could be ace.

Highbury

…..and in a weak team too……with the chances we could be creating next year – more so with additional investment – he would be devastating!

Harish

Add to that, for a big guy he has some great movement, pace, a sharp eye for a clever pass, strength, and he’s young – there’s a lot of good about him.

I doubt it will happen though, but who knows…

Johnnnycakes

What if we sign him and he has a great season,and suddenly he gets Barca d.n.a,by these comments he seems the type.

joelio

@johnnycakes – then we sell him for a profit and move on the richer for it

James vagaBond

@joelio and hopefully a few trophies to boot

Arseshavin'

No, he actually scored 19 of them in the PL.

DenverGooner

…which is 5 more than our top scorer.

lordgunner

well he has one great season ,we all agree , but i have seen so many one season wonder,its a little gamble on a raw young striker

Mongolian Gooner

I hear he’s very good and his Premier League experience is a plus. I think we can do better though (Higuain for example). What irks me is the way Benteke is behaving. After just one season in a new club, he’s trying to force his way out (if these comments weren’t actually taken out of context in a bad way). Apparently he did the same to Genk when he left for England. If that’s anything to go by, I wouldn’t want him. We don’t need players anymore who won’t commit to their club if they smell an opportunity elsewhere, like… Read more »

walter the goon

you’ll end up with respectable individuals who win nothing but 4th place trophy I’m afraid

Brown

Way to go walter the goon. That’s the kind of optimism we need heading for a new season!

German Gunner

Think Walter the Goon has a point, Bet every one will be wondering how we can get the likes or Ramsey off the payroll this time next year,

A twat with a keyboard

So you’re saying only cunts win you trophies? Or that respectable players don’t win you trophies?

I don’t understand your logic please explain it to me. I imagine you have lots of facts and stats to back up your argument.

what will eleven Ramsey deliver compared to eleven van Persie?

I don’t recall van Persie delivering us anything when he was here.

gunner_expat

What bout 11 zidanes or 11 messis, or 11 thierry…your hole is getting deeper..

although this concept of respectable footballers is hard to understand. Was cesc respectable? What about Viera?
Simply put if a team is winning everyone seems very respectable…
IMO if we had won in 07 or 09 we might still have had some of the now deemed “cunts” in our team.

Dr Baptiste

“what will eleven Ramsey deliver compared to eleven van Persie?” I’ve never seen him in goal but I doubt he’s very good

Eurazian

In fairness, how do we really know who is “respectable” and who is an egomaniac or somewhere in between? We thought we knew who RVP was until this time last season. Paddy Vieira tried to force moves out of Arsenal, we managed to keep him a bit longer to our benefit, and we conveniently forget his occasionally shaky loyalty and regard him as a club legend. This is the way of the modern footballer. A lot depends on whether the club can match a player’s ambitions, be it money, titles, or adulation. If we don’t continually strengthen our team and… Read more »

Juice

11 Ramseys is far more balanced team compared to 11 VPs.. I dare to say a better team given Ramsey can do a job as defender and giving 100%, winger the same and im sure hed run his socks off as a striker. Also passing to himself we might see some sick understanding and vision.

So id bet on Ramseys on that one.

James vagaBond

Eleven Ramseys? Well, last season Ramsey had spells in defence, attack and midfield…he fared better in some positions than others, but the Skunk is just an attacker and a scorer of offside goals…so yea, eleven Ramseys seems more logical tbh

Zorro in the box

There’s an extent to which he has a point though. Wiltord wasn’t exactly Arsenal-blood but we won with him in the side. In addition to that run-through-walls Jenkinson/Ramsey types, we need someone who comes for a couple of seasons, wins a few medals and then leaves.

Also, in fairness Benteke had shown interest in coming to Arsenal before he went to Villa.

Si in Galway

+1 for the moderate middle ground. we want players with ambition. we want players with loyalty. to a certain extent they’re exclusive. The hope is that our past problems are no longer the case, namely that the club’s ambitions (to stay in champs league for the money while paying off stadium w/o going bust) don’t align with hungry players ambitions (win trophies). So if Benteke does super-well at Genk (little club) and agitates for a move to Villa (medium club) and does super-well and agitates for a move to Arsenal (big club), and does well, he stays, because Arsenal finally… Read more »

Harsh

walter the goon
what you must understand that with a team like chelsea, manager like fergie and layers like the dutch cunt, only cunts seem to be coming out winners…….
but beleve it or not, there are still players out there who are not cunts and wonderful footballers at the same time, many players in our team are an example, and we can go out and buy them, so have a liittle patience and stop jumping on others for saying what is clearly the truth, whether you like it or not………..

kos

I think one of the reasons came out was he was actually a gooner and moved to villa thinking it was close to emirates so he could watch us play.

Gearoid

I think you can be reasonably sure that most comments like his are taken out of context, to make a story as sensational as possible.
Buying a bigger name like Higuain arent necessarily going to be better signings.
And for most of our signings, aren’t we depending on players looking to further their careers? Giroud, Cazorla, Podolski, Arteta, Koscielney, Monreal, Sagna, Ramsey and so on…

Mikel Artekkers

I heard Higuain to Juventus is nearly a done deal unfortunately.

Heh

He’s obviously too ambitious he’s talking about how he does not want to waste his career and let a move to a bigger club slip yet he’s only 22. What he did to genk is what any other perfectly normal footballer would do. Loyalty? Wtf is that?

Out of the window mate. Sign him up!

TV5

sign him up, sign him up, sign him up……..sign him up, sign him up, sign him up,………sign him up, sign him up, sign him up,……sign him up,……..SIGN HIM UP!

You know the tune…sing along now…

SickOfThisPuffyCoat

I don’t see how Higuain would be a better buy than Benteke. Benteke is already a better striker and is still young, so he can improve. Never been a huge fan of Higuain…

Matt

I’m sure he has stated he is an Arsenal supporter too

Davonewzealand

RVP scored 30 goals for Arsenal last season and was the main reason Arsenal stayed in the Champions league.
By the way big congratulations to RVP for winning the golden boot award two years running. Proud to think an ex Gunner is doing so well in a Premiership winning team.

ckmma

Erm U mad! as the saying goes. He does not deserve any credit other than putting a knife in the back of us and the team last summer. Also, Judas was very lucky to win this year as he had a terrible goal drought for 2 months and all of a sudden Suarez got a 10 match ban meaning he couldn’t be able to add to his 23, then Van Judas gets 3 offside goals against Villa! You don’t congratulate traitors, especially when they go 6 1/2 years injured may I remind you and only turning up for 18 months,… Read more »

Davonewzealand

Actually I think we should buy Suarez. He would add bite to our attack 🙂

gunner_expat

good for him! im sure the little boy inside is happy as well.

So did you go to another browser and give yourself the thumb up?

Davonewzealand

No I just thought there were nine other intelligent people reading my comment. Is that how you get your thumbs up..ha ha ha..lighten up brother its all opinion 🙂

podgygooner

so did robbing van pillock!

Jamie

…also, I wish we could have Lukaku as well. With a fit midfield of Jack, Santi, Ramsey and Arteta bossing it, and then Lukaku and Benteke just monstering defenders ahead of them.

Neeeeeever going to happen, though.

Edu's Braces

I’m always suspicious of signing a player after one good season. The PL is littered with strikers with them, doing fuck all after their customary season with Sprus/Liverpool.

I can’t see Wenger changing his ways, Frannie Jeffers still haunts his dreams.

Pires fly-trap

We might bust our Belgian quota by then…. seems like TV5 will get more belgian waffle/choc love next season

walter the goon

ohh ..wenger again. going for a bargain. I want Falcao or Cavani at Arsenal nothing less

kkc

How can you forget Messi?

Ben

Good luck with that buddy

walter the goon

got you arseblog.sarcasm at its best.I’m amused noone got it

Progman07

Ahh it was sarcasm, lol!

Jean-Christian

Football Manager doesn’t directly correlate to real-life possibilities? Damn, I was hoping Arsene could replicate my Cavani / Falcao / Lewandowski / Jovetic strike force.

ChrisM

Hey that’s not entirely true. In Sensible Soccer you can rename the players, so there’s that option too.

Jammathon

Benteke will cost upwards of 20 million. Hardly a ‘bargain’.

Progman07

Walter – where did Wenger say anything about our targets? Wenger has his faults, but one thing people shouldn’t blame him for is the media sh*t stirring that goes on every aummer. Quite possibly we aren’t even after Jovetic, yet people already blame him for not not getting him according to the rumours…

Nick

I suspect he’s got some traces of Arsenal DNA

Giroud's abs

He’d be a great addition to the team. Like we keep saying, competition within the squad is generally a healthy thing. If something like a Giroud suspension (no matter how twatish the decision) happens again, I’d gladly see this gentleman slip into the ranks.

Peter Lavelle

We wont sign him, if he’s not good enough for a second division French team, then he’s not good enough for us!

Zorro in the box

He’s not at Newcastle!

Dr Baptiste

I may have missed something but aren’t Genk from Belgium?

Kenyangoon

If we get just one of any of the strikers we have been linked with, i will be extremely happy.

Jammathon

A hypothetical for you: if Dennis Bergkamp was snapped up from Inter Milan in this day and age, by Arsenal, having ‘failed’ in a few struggling seasons at the San Siro, would it have the same excitement as it did back in ’96? My initial thoughts are “no” and the internet would find some way of showing how we were a second-class club making “unambitious” signings. I’m not comparing the two ability wise, but Lukas Podolski, who I thought was very useful for us (at least for 70 minutes a match) was met with a lot of “shmeh” from a… Read more »

Progman07

I’m not sure you can compare Bergkamp with anyone around. Just because someone is out of favour it doesnt make him Dennis… That’s distorted logic, there are very few players out of favour nowadays who have the right quality, and its not worth the gamble.

Anon

In hindsight you can’t look at that transfer as anything but a stroke of genius, but at that moment there was just positive energy around it despite the fact that he flopped at least once in a ‘big club’. Fast forward now and with all the cynicism in the media and even fanbase, you can’t really expect any signing to be initially met with excitement unless it was some huge household name. Skepticism is part and parcel of football now, not even Cazorla was spared by the twitter onslaught of ‘WHAT ARE THESE NAMES I HAVE NEVER SEEN THEY MIGHT… Read more »

Eddie

I can totally agree with what you are saying. I see them same thing happen with underground music everyday. One person thinks a certain band is mediocre and many more follow suit by reading what may be a cynical review. I may sound like a sheep but honestly we have no option but to trust in our manager that he will bring quality signings. I really think that now is the time to spend a bit more money and bring in some quality and Arsene Wenger would be a fool to not recognize it….and Obviously we all know that he… Read more »

feygooner

I think you have a good point, but there’s a lot of difference between Podolski and Bergkamp. Podolski’s best years were as a precocious teenager who basically had 2-3 good, but not great, seasons in his early career. Then he went to Bayern and seems to have failed badly. He returned to a relegation threatened club, did pathetic in his first season, okay in his second and really good in his third. He had a brilliant appearance and goals record for Germany, but his goals for them were slowing down. He was never a truly world class player. Bergkamp, in… Read more »

_

@feygooner: well, podolski has in his 6 years at koln the goal average .45 per game, not exactly far from the .5 you are talking about for bergkamp, especially when you take into account what kind of club is ajax and what kind of club is koln…

DoubleDoubleDouble

Bergkamp – flop at Inter.
Henry – flop at Juventus.
Vieira – flop at AC Milan, slightly over exaggerating, but he couldn’t get into the team.

I could go on – actually I couldn’t, as they are the only ones that spring to mind – but we should keep on buying the floppers.

Tee

Do it already, and bring in Bony too. We’d be scoring goals for fun.

emob

Yeah, just like Alfonso Alves, Kezman and others. The Dutch league is a striker’s league, I’d be cautious.

Gearoid

Alfonso Alves, ha!
Dont forget Kuyt!

lordgunner

dont forget the greek ronaldo Samaras

gandalf

He is just putting it out there to Arsenal to come get him.

Although he looks desperate to join here, I don’t like such attitude one bit, putting it out in the open is just disrespectful to Aston Villa. How is he different to Aston Villa than what Nasri/van Persie is to us?

North Bank Gooner

I love The Sun’s spin on it, we were last mentioned in a list of clubs “chasing him”, Enfield were top. You had to get a way through the article before the Arsenal quote. The guy is waving his hands and shouting come and get me Arsene!

Would love to see him as an Arsenal player, but i think he may end up too pricey. As much as i would also like to see Lukaku i think the same applies, Che£$ki wont want to strengthen us without hitting us in the pocket. Both great players though.

truj

according to his wiki bio:
Benteke Scored Villa’s only goal in a 1–2 loss to Chelsea but in the second half he was sent off after receiving his second yellow card for
A HIGH BOOT On john terry

Gary

Well, thats good enough for me. Sign him up!

paulos

Might be good in one way, but Villa were a goal and a man up before that sending off, and cruising to a victory which would have put us 3rd at the end of the season.

TeeCee

“A HIGH BOOT On john terry..”

A real gooner would have gone with a low boot and kicked him firmly in the bollocks.

p..

he reminds me of drogba but better…very direct, big and powerful with bags of pace. good in the air and on he deck and with two great feet! look what he did in a poor team…imagine what he could do in a good one?

Frog

He’s not better than Drogba.

James vagaBond

Not yet

Joeos

The word bargepole comes to mind. He is behaving in the same way as Adebayor.

Hass

That’s because he wants to play for us. If he supports Arsenal why wouldn’t he try to push a move for us?

Joeos

Replace Arsenal with Milan in his statement and you have Adebayor.

walter the goon

according to goal.com. we have signed Ashley Williams .The most reliable site ever TMRSE

North Bank Gooner

Hmmm, I think I will wait for confirmation from a more reliable source, I’ll go and put talksport on……… 😉

Edu's Braces

1/3 that he will sign at BetVictor, that’s a nice indication

Comedian

Add bendtner to benteke deal that should lower down the asking price. And if we do sign him and play him aalongside giroud imagine the amount of goals scored from the crosses and setpieces.

goonero

Bit of a mercenary dick if you ask me, and I think we’ve had enough of that sort soil our squads in the past. Pass. Also 15+ million? Fuck that noise.

KingKolo

Totally agreed…stinks of Adebayor if you ask me. Lambert gives him his chance and he bad mouths them, idiot. Didn’t he think Villa were in London when he joined, bit dense and as soon as City or Chelsea come calling he’d leave us no problem based on this… steer clear!

goonerinbath

P.. possibly one of the most ridiculous statements made on this blog ever. You cannot compare benteke yo drogba, as yet he has done nothibg. He had 1 good season, 10 months in england. He’s had his first season wiyh no injuries and no suspensions other than the last game, as we know all too well, that is rare. Once he’s had 3 seasons scoring 19+ premier league goals then he’ll be proven premier league class…

Tommy

The fact benteke can score 23 at villa and cause mayhem against most teams is good enough for me, next drogba!

@HeloEngineer

Good player! However, it sounds like he has the wrong attitude for arsenal fc.

Another Adebayor?

Ninad Kuchekar

I agree…looks like a player who thinks he is too big for his current club.

Merde Bag

Agreed, one good season and he thinks he’s made it – sounds familiar..

It Is What It Is

He got signed on deadline day, probably by default. Any player or manager in the Belgian league would jump at the chance to do the same job in the PL. He must know that he could score 40 goals a season for villa and would still have less chance of getting European football than at Genk. Villa are going anywhere fast, I don’t blame him. He looks seasoned and his physicality isn’t going away, he’s only going to get better. Like Mirallas. And Lukaku. Now, here comes the flight or fight type decision. You go to a team that you… Read more »

Goontang

Was interesting to read the article in the early stages of the season where benteke openly confessed he was a gooner. Higuin or benteke if I had to choose would be a real tough one. (Not that we will definitely get either) but I did watch alot of aston villa this season and the boy does seem to be destined for bigger things.

CALIPYGIAN

Plenty of players smash it in their first season and then go off the radar the season after. No doubt Benteke’s goal return this campaign impressive, but I fear he COULD suffer ‘second season syndrome’.

The lure of a big name like Higuain is what we should be after, whether or not we are a viable option for him remains to be seen but this is the kind of signing we should be aiming for.

Oberon

I hope this doesn’t happen largely because I’m not convinced he’s that good (there is a distinct whiff of Emile Heskey about him) and he seems to consistently agitate for moves away from clubs. Also to pay 20 mil + would represent a real gamble.

Ninad Kuchekar

Please get Wayne Rooney, and not only because it will make Arsenal title contenders on the paper, but that give us a chance to say.. “Now, we are even!”

THEO

no and hell no. i hate the fat swamp dwelling scouse twat.

Ninad Kuchekar

u know people said the same thing about Sol Campbell..

anonymous

“fat”?
“swamp-dwelling”?
“scouse”?

Only in your head.

ireke

Ii wish we could sign Rooney

Oberon

Not going to happen even if we could afford him (which we can’t). If it did then at least we wouldn’t have to worry about him scoring against us all the bloody time.

Bee

the only united player i would want is hernandez

lordgunner

we give them the best striker in the league and they give us an has- been fat cunt…… what part of this deal is even

Red Fred

“The player’s agent, wisely, has moved to downplay the comments”
Why don’t our players get agents like this :o)

the only sam is nelson

Well the agent is talking down the comments so his player doesn’t get sued for breach of contract; so that Benteke doesn’t deflate his potential transfer value by alerting interested clubs to the fact that he wants to go, forcing Villa into a cheap sale; so that interested clubs aren’t put off by his stinking attitude/slagging off his existing club; so that any wage negotiations (ie the agent’s income base) in a potential move are based on the player’s ability, rather than his understandable desire to get the fuck out of Birmingham; and more reasons. I think he’s got a… Read more »

Davonewzealand

The Premier league history is littered with massive prices paid for strikers many of whom were abject failures.
If we score another twenty premier league goals a season we will be serious contenders. I don’t mind where the goals come from. A new striker maybe, more goals from our present strike force, goals from a new attacking midfielder better overall team strategy or all of the above.

mike

depth. he’d add depth to the squad, debt is not what we want more of!!!

Per's Nimble Footwork

Do you owe your pusher?

Louie

Giroud, Benteke & Jovetic.

Would make for a pretty, pretty good mix of forward options.

THEO

ashley williams+christian benteke+ cesc fabregas= end of trophy drought

Merlin's Panini

What is it with this Ashley Williams nonsense? He is not the answer. I would be happy to be proved wrong but I just don’t see it at the moment. I would be happy with Benteke although one season isn’t enough to really go on to spend a massive amount on him. I mean, look at Adebayor. One awesome 30 goal season and then nothing much to write home about since after thinking he was the muts nuts, as well as also being a total bell end anyway. That said, I guess it might be worth the gamble that he’s… Read more »

diaby

We’re being linked with Williams / centre back because squid is out of contract and djourou our most sellable loanee. We need 4. On that note, I’ll eat my hat if vermarlen leaves this summer – that is class A newspaper bullshit

maduforo uche

Thanks mike..

Le_Dooner

We lacked that bit of bite and depth upfront last season which could’ve had us finish closer to first rather than fourth. However I see little reason in getting a short term quick fix of a striker who’ll score you 15+ goals for a season or too, then start fluttering his eyes and our rivals for a better wage packet. Two players im sure who have gone on record saying they’d like a move hear are Loic Remy and Christian Benteke. The pair of them wouldn’t cost anymore than £30 million tops and I think would provide the adequate firepower… Read more »

i want to boff giroud and im not even gay

I’d steer well clear to be honest, he comes across as a bit Adebaycuntor. Good player but I don’t see adding Benny Tekky to Giroud as ,making a splash’. And let me tell you, I did swimming at school so I know all about making a splash, WMCO!!

Hass

This would actually be the perfect signing for us. The guy is only 22 years old, moves to Premier League and scores 23 goals. How’s that for adaptation? And he does it in a team like Villa, a team that was struggling against relegation. If he can score that many in a relatively poor team, imagine how he’d do when he has guys like Santi, Jack and Theo feeding him in balls. The reason I’m really up for this one is because of his age. I know Jovetic is also young but Benteke has scored more goals than him and… Read more »

Hass

Funnily enough when he signed for Villa he thought they were a London based club. Anything to be close to Arsenal haha. He idolises Theirry Henry as well… Just saying.

nii amartey

It seems people are more concerned about us spending on names… whats the guarantee that the so called names being bandied about will definitely score those goals. I like Benteke but i think he is too similar in style to Giroud..i’ll rather we have a someone with another style of play.

Double98

Tips for a sane summer: 1/ Delete your bookmarked newsnow aggregator 2/ If nothing happens by next friday then Wenger will be on holidays, sliding on water slides, bungy jumping and asking puma to put buttons rather than zipson their subs jackets. so he won’t be buying anyone til the end of June 3/ We are not going to buy Falcao, Cavani, Lewandowski so get over it 4/ in fact we will not buy any player WORTH more than 25m 5/ We will not buy Fabregas 6/ We will not MISS OUT on Jovetic, Higuain etc we will either not… Read more »

the only sam is nelson

you win the internets, sir

oh, and 18) the ashes

Double98

girls are so much different than professional footballers – as a uyoung scut i introduced my then new girlfriend, Olivia to my friends and described her as the “New Carmel”…

i don’t remember much of 1995 after that

mach iii

Sign him up!

ChrisGoona

He has proved a handful for most teams Villa have played this season, I just wonder whether his playing style is what we need. We have Giroud who is quite similar and if it was a straight choice between them last summer would Wenger want another similar striker? Going by our past squads, Wenger likes a variation of striking styles in his forward men. I’d prefer to get a more cultured striker in. Someone who can play, can score, and can come in with no fuss like Cazorla did. Benteke will probably face the same issues Giroud did at first… Read more »

The Ox, The Ram, Willy and Wally

I don’t think we’ll get him. Firstly, when was the last time we played a 4-4-2? We don’t play that formation anymore, and interestingly, neither do Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City, Bayern Munich, Dortmund, Real Madrid, Barca, any Italian team (but they all play stupid formations), Ajax. My guess is that it’s a tactically outdated formation. So, I think we’ll either get a striker who is happy to play second string to Giroud. I don’t think Giroud will play second string because I think he’ll have a good season next season. It took Koscielny a season to be ready, and… Read more »

Heh

Has anyone seen this guy infront of goal? Such.a cool head. The guy makes giant leaps to head in corners, create chances etc contrasting to giroud he actually pulls them off so maaaaaaaaany times. Hold up play, now this here is the king of it. For a big strong guy he’s actually super fast. I shudder to think the kind of patnership he and walcott would have upfront. As @ox, ram earlier said. 4_4_2 will be the way to go if we do sign him up. He can also play on the wings! So a 4_4_3 might still be sensible… Read more »

the only sam is nelson

4_4_3 would not be particularly sensible as it wouldn’t take opposition teams long to work out how to play against a side with no goalkeeper. plus marks for revolutionary thinking, mind

Heh

You enjoyed that. Huh?. U twat.

Touched Your Mother

Scored more goals than Higuain did last year, and is in the mould of Giroud. If people care to remember all the games we could have put away when Giroud missed a sitter, Benteke would seem to be the solution to that. If he wants to come and the price is right, we should pull the trigger. I have a feeling if we don’t do so, it will be a regret that will be a thorn in our side in the years to come.

Brian wallace