What's your view on Paul Faulkner now?

[Toronto Villa]

There is no price that makes you feel good about a sale of a top player. And with 3 years left on his deal I assume the relationship would have needed to have completely broken down for us to have to sell him. If that's the case, then you do what is right for the club and get the most money possible. If a particular club has turned his head (see Stewart ****** Downing as Exhibit A) then you squeeze that club dry. For me that is a minimum of £30m just to start things off, and given that the market domestically is flush right now with the new TV deal, you settle around £37-40m.

As it is, it won't matter because I don't think for a second the relationship Benteke has with the manager or club is at that stage, so there is no reason to sell. I think he'll sign his new deal, play another year, hope he does just as well and he'll leave next summer following the WC. He gets his move, we get our fee which will likely be what would have demanded in the first place.

[Boz]

With money swilling around in the coming season, £35m is a minimum based on last season and his potential. If he wants to leave however, for whatever reason, he might still have 3 years on his contract, but if he's not happy, there isn't much point in having him hanging around the rest of the squad.

I hope though, Lambert's recent signings will convince Benteke he will play regularly in a side on the way up and in this way, cement his place in Belgium's WC squad.

[john e]

I'm with eastie on this one 25 mill minimum 30 mill hopefully

personally I wouldn't sell him if we don't have to, he is a rare talent,
 I have heard all the 'one season wonder' stuff, but lets face it he's not is he, we all know he's the real deal and will be around for a long time can only improve

in a couple or three seasons he'll be the best striker in the world in my view, he has it all

[KevinGage]

If Benteke does go - and realistically if he did want it, there's not much that could stop him - what fee would make you feel the board did as well as they could?

Jeeps Dave that is a can of worms / lob a grenade in to the mix comment.

I'd say £17m + good add ons (Apps/Success of team etc..). If it is cash mega-rich club (Cit-eh, PSG, Chavski or Monaco) then we'd get it up front and more of it.

£17m ? - no way would that be acceptable!

£17m + add ons (Rooney's amounted to £7m which I was thinking of). Should have been more 

'Acceptable' from a board point of view would be about that. Obviously from our perspective then only £150m would be acceptable if we are being silly.

Suarez is 'valued' at or around £40m and (although I can't stand in) is a proven consistent top class performer. 35m for Benteke is not realistic.

Just my opinion.

Forget the add ons , £30m would be a good price, £25m would be minimum acceptable - and payable on our terms not theirs .


As for bent , newcastle have a cheek saying villa need to lower the £6m asking price , after the way they skanked liverpool for £35m Carroll.
Can only see benteke going if he kicks up a fuss and forces the issue which I would hope he doesn't.

I wouldn't be totally against Bent remaining.    He still has a one in two ratio, and with the creative players we've brought in this summer, he might be a useful alternative should Benteke get injured (or move).    I get that we should be looking at making sure the top wages go to the players who are central to our plans.  But Bent is hardly a bad egg who needs to be bombed out ASAP.   We just can't afford to be carrying too many players on those sort of wages who aren't first team regulars. 

We shouldn't be making it easy for the likes of Newcastle and Fulham to sign good players.  If they're cribbng about paying £6 million, we should tell them to get facked on general principle. That said, I think he'll go.  Even if it's towards the end of the window.  Turkey or perhaps even Russia as an outside bet, if English clubs insist on playing poormouth.

[eastie]

I'd like to get benteke sorted contract wise before selling bent - certainly if benteke did go then bent would be worth keeping.

[Ads]

City may be richer and more successful right now. But there is no way in a million years they are a bigger club than us.

I shouldn't have got involved as I think the debate about which is a 'bigger' club is pointless and meaningless. All I'd add is that their money and success will go some way to ensuring their stature for a good while.

In 1913, Aston Villa were one of the biggest clubs in England. In 2013, Aston Villa are one of the biggest clubs in England. In 2113, Aston Villa will still be one of the biggest clubs in England.

Man City are a mere spec in the fabric of footballing history and cannot and do not compare with Aston Villa.

[olaftab]

I will withhold my verdict on PF until he had dealt with Benteke situation properly and that is staying firm on "you are contracted to us for 3 years and no amount of money will change that"!

[ktvillan]

Faulkner has done very well with recent commercial deals, arguably as well as anyone could have.  Credit for that is due.  However his and Lerner's combined lack of on the pitch nous has been there for all to see since O'Neill walked out.  Houllier ws a strange choice which could have worked, TSM was as wrong as it's possible to be on every level, which was obvious to everyone except PF and RL, and Lambert combined with the extreme cutbacks was a very high risk strategy which almost cost us our PL status.  It remains to be seen if it pays off in the future, but he got away with it by the skin of his teeth.   

My only other gripe is his failure to provide Macron with correct shades of claret and light blue for the kits - they are wrong for the second year in a row, except for the socks.

[Toronto Villa]

Rightly so Paul Lambert is getting plenty of praise, but I'll bring this up again, Paul Faulkner has also played a fucking blinder here. He's done his bit in little more than 6 or 7 weeks to re-sign every top prospect at the club, sign 5 new players and move out Given (albeit on loan) and Dunne. All that's left is shifting Bent, Ireland and Hutton (easier said than done I grant you) and top up the squad with 2 or 3 more new faces.

Well done sir.

[Mister E]

Rightly so Paul Lambert is getting plenty of praise, but I'll bring this up again, Paul Faulkner has also played a fucking blinder here. He's done his bit in little more than 6 or 7 weeks to re-sign every top prospect at the club, sign 5 new players and move out Given (albeit on loan) and Dunne. All that's left is shifting Bent, Ireland and Hutton (easier said than done I grant you) and top up the squad with 2 or 3 more new faces.

Well done sir.

Fair play and well done for bringing it up.

BtW, I'd personally add N'Zog to the list of detritus that needs needs clearig out. Just my opinion, like.

[Californian Villain]

Rightly so Paul Lambert is getting plenty of praise, but I'll bring this up again, Paul Faulkner has also played a fucking blinder here. He's done his bit in little more than 6 or 7 weeks to re-sign every top prospect at the club, sign 5 new players and move out Given (albeit on loan) and Dunne. All that's left is shifting Bent, Ireland and Hutton (easier said than done I grant you) and top up the squad with 2 or 3 more new faces.

Well done sir.

Fair comment....except that Dunne's contract expired; PF Not involved with that.

[TheSandman]

6 players, no? Tonev, Okore, Bacuna, Helenius, Luna and Steer.

[pauliewalnuts]

Toronto, I have noticed you often do that ironic "hurr hurr, isn't Faulkner shit?" thing.

I don't know why, I am pretty sure you too gave him/them plenty of shit when you thought they deserved it, too.

The reason lots of us gave him shit at the time was because they kept on making really shit decisions. It's good we're on the way to making more good decisions than bad ones, yes, but I'm not going to start berating anyone who criticised them in the recent past, mostly because they had a point, and I certainly wouldn't play the "how wrong were you?" card just yet.

For starters, I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd guesstimate that for me, the minimum period of time within which I can ever forgive someone appointing Alex McLeish to manage my club is at least 20 years, so there's a fair way to go yet.

In the case of Benteke, I'd imagine that Paul Lambert also had a lot to do with it - as he did with the convincing of the other young players that his way forward is worth persevering with.

An excellent appointment, and whoever chose him deserves respect, but let's not act like people didn't have a point raising their eyebrows at the previous two appointments.

[ozzjim]

He deserves much credit. He has taken pelters, but his relationship with Lambert seems to be working really well. Next test is getting Lambert a couple of the next level up players like Benteke last summer. Manages that this summer and we could be a hell of side.

[danlanza]

Jury still out at the moment.
Not sure to be honest. Give me until the January Transfer window shuts then we will see.
50-50 at the moment, tbh.