Concrete Ron

[eamonn]

Unlike Baker, Senderos or the vast majority of centre-backs, he's comfortable on the ball so he'll be hard to replace. I don't want another ''stopper'', they're ten a penny.

[Boz]

I think it might be that this recurring calf problem he's got is the reason no one has made any offers for him.  Do we even want to offer him a lucrative 4 year contract with us having far more knowledge about the extent of this injury/on going problem?  Assuming he doesn't get an offer from others we should only be looking at a roll on 12 month contract.

This would make financial sense, but can't see him accepting this  unless there's no other options available, but then again Villa are a bit prone to offering players long contracts, e.g. Given against all common sense.

[ChicagoLion]

He's missed pretty much bang on 25% of league games since he signed for us. That's a concern when thinking of a new contract for a player approaching 30.

Agree and that Stat is unlikely to improve with age.

[silhillvilla]

He's missed 19 league games in 2 seasons + whatever he's missed so far this season. I think those stats will only get worse as he ages .

[N'ZMAV]

Cardboard Ron.

[Villa in Denmark]

Unlike Baker, Senderos or the vast majority of centre-backs, he's comfortable on the ball so he'll be hard to replace. I don't want another ''stopper'', they're ten a penny.

Nail on head for me there.

It's the "stopper" mentality that encourages pressure straight back onto us. The Man City game being a case in point.

The last 15 minutes felt like attack v defence, as soon as we we'd snuffed out one attack, hoof to Hart or Kompany and start allover again.

[cdbearsfan]

Nice to know it's not just us that looks rubbish when Vlaar is out.

[themossman]

Whilst I appreciate loyalty in football departed a long time ago, I'd be somewhat disappointed if Vlaar opted to bail out now considering how long we've stood by him through injuries. That's assuming we've made him a decent offer of course.

How long we've stood by him?

What exactly have we done, other than pay him the wages that his contract says that we owe him?

I completely agree with this. The idea that a club has 'stood by' an injured player or that they owe us anything is ridiculous. All we've done is, as Dave says, what was required by their contract. When it comes down to brass tacks by rehabilitating a player we're just looking after an asset. Same with delph and downing.

[SoccerHQ]

He's missed a handful of games compared to what Delph has down the years so yeah the stand by him comment is a bit out of context on this thread.

[ozzjim]

Delph we did by offering him a new deal at a time when he was injured and unproven. Vlaar we know is a quality player when fit, and bought him knowing he has injury issues. Hardly standing by him in that context. I think he will go in January for about 5 million and Senderos and Okore will end up as the pairing with Baker and AN other as backup with Clark shipping out too at some point.

[PeterWithesShin]

We are sniffing around Porto defender Rolando, apparently. Available cheap in Jan as his contract is up in the summer and he's pissed Porto off. Although so are Inter, possibly, so I can guess where he will end up. Maybe.

[dave.woodhall]

If we can get £5 million for an injury-prone 30 year old defender with six months left on his contract then we should be snatching hands off.

[not3bad]

We are sniffing around Porto defender Rolando, apparently. Available cheap in Jan as his contract is up in the summer and he's pissed Porto off. Although so are Inter, possibly, so I can guess where he will end up. Maybe.

We'll need to convince him we just want to help.

[Malandro]

really hard one to decide on. He obviously improves us enormously when he is fit but does the disruption when he's injured negate that?

[themossman]

For me it comes down to the fact that you want a settled back 4, especially the CB pair. If you've got a good player who's first choice when fit but misses a lot of games it disrupts the ability of other players to form an understanding and play with confidence.