Joe Bennett

[eastie]

Interesting clampy, i wouldn't mind keeping Bertrand another season on loan and spending the transfer money elsewhere in all honesty.

By which time I'd guess Bertrand's contract could be getting quite low resulting in a cheaper price if we were to buy him. 
On the flip side, good form would bring him to the attention of liverpool (who were linked before we got him) and others.  We would be powerless to control the sale and obviously get no fee.

Fingers crossed we can afford the £5m or so to get him plus have money spare (and some) to improve the midfield.

I'd be very surprised if Chelsea wanted as little as £5m for him.

[pauliewalnuts]

Where is Luna? Has he been given time off? Did he even make the squad the weekend?

Neither Luna or Tonev have made the squad for a while now.  Leads me to suspect that Lambert has made his mind up about them and Bowery.

I don't think tonev has been written off yet , lambert was saying last week how he needs to be given time to find his feet .

And he's right.

I am not going to argue that Tonev hasn't looked out of his depth - he has - but I don't see the point in writing him off already. He deserves at least another season.

The issue with signing young players like him isn't so much that they're not showing enough, in my opinion, it's that too often they get asked to do too much, too soon.

With both Tonev and Helenius, there was something in the highlight reels where they both showed they have skills, (albeit in lower league levels). However, as proven with better players then them, sometimes the pace and physicality of the English game takes some getting used to and some players can't get used to it.

The writing off of Helenius seems nuts.

Has barely had a chance, yet has scored for us.

[not3bad]

In the brief glimpses of Helenius I've seen he has a good touch and uses the ball well.  Definitely a potential 'No. 10'.

[nigel]

Best situation would be to have both Bertrand and Bennett to rotate them both, as young players naturally needs games off occasionally to recover physically and mentally from games.

I'm not too keen on rotating players in that way, whoever is in possession of the shirt keeps it as long as they perform well for me.

Agree, eastie. The defence shouldn't be messed about with too much.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Where is Luna? Has he been given time off? Did he even make the squad the weekend?

Neither Luna or Tonev have made the squad for a while now.  Leads me to suspect that Lambert has made his mind up about them and Bowery.

Luna was tweeting photos of himself with his family in Spain yesterday.

Is he injured?

Yeah that's what I saw, that's why I asked?

[robbo1874]

Interesting clampy, i wouldn't mind keeping Bertrand another season on loan and spending the transfer money elsewhere in all honesty.

By which time I'd guess Bertrand's contract could be getting quite low resulting in a cheaper price if we were to buy him. 
On the flip side, good form would bring him to the attention of liverpool (who were linked before we got him) and others.  We would be powerless to control the sale and obviously get no fee.

Fingers crossed we can afford the £5m or so to get him plus have money spare (and some) to improve the midfield.

the problem is (as always with loans) if Bertrand finishes the season well for us Chelsea will realise his worth to us and the price to us to pay for a permanent move will reflect that. Either we'll pay it like we did to newcastle with Milner, or he'll go back like walker did to spurs. Can't see him being allowed to play for us on loan again next season, unfortunately. It will be pay the money or he's coming back to us. I've been impressed with him, but would be hesitant to pay stupid money which is likely what they'll be asking.

Plus, there'd be his wages to consider- imagine he'd be on a few quid at Chelsea?

[curiousorange]

Interesting clampy, i wouldn't mind keeping Bertrand another season on loan and spending the transfer money elsewhere in all honesty.

By which time I'd guess Bertrand's contract could be getting quite low resulting in a cheaper price if we were to buy him. 
On the flip side, good form would bring him to the attention of liverpool (who were linked before we got him) and others.  We would be powerless to control the sale and obviously get no fee.

Fingers crossed we can afford the £5m or so to get him plus have money spare (and some) to improve the midfield.

the problem is (as always with loans) if Bertrand finishes the season well for us Chelsea will realise his worth to us and the price to us to pay for a permanent move will reflect that. Either we'll pay it like we did to newcastle with Milner, or he'll go back like walker did to spurs. Can't see him being allowed to play for us on loan again next season, unfortunately. It will be pay the money or he's coming back to us. I've been impressed with him, but would be hesitant to pay stupid money which is likely what they'll be asking.

I honestly haven't been that impressed with Walker at Tottenham.

[robbo1874]

Interesting clampy, i wouldn't mind keeping Bertrand another season on loan and spending the transfer money elsewhere in all honesty.

By which time I'd guess Bertrand's contract could be getting quite low resulting in a cheaper price if we were to buy him. 
On the flip side, good form would bring him to the attention of liverpool (who were linked before we got him) and others.  We would be powerless to control the sale and obviously get no fee.

Fingers crossed we can afford the £5m or so to get him plus have money spare (and some) to improve the midfield.

the problem is (as always with loans) if Bertrand finishes the season well for us Chelsea will realise his worth to us and the price to us to pay for a permanent move will reflect that. Either we'll pay it like we did to newcastle with Milner, or he'll go back like walker did to spurs. Can't see him being allowed to play for us on loan again next season, unfortunately. It will be pay the money or he's coming back to us. I've been impressed with him, but would be hesitant to pay stupid money which is likely what they'll be asking.

was very impressed with him whilst he was at villa and he seemed to do well when he first went back to spuds. Haven't seen that much of him recently, admittedly.

I honestly haven't been that impressed with Walker at Tottenham.

sorry fkd that quote up- was replying to the quote above

[curiousorange]

Interesting clampy, i wouldn't mind keeping Bertrand another season on loan and spending the transfer money elsewhere in all honesty.

By which time I'd guess Bertrand's contract could be getting quite low resulting in a cheaper price if we were to buy him. 
On the flip side, good form would bring him to the attention of liverpool (who were linked before we got him) and others.  We would be powerless to control the sale and obviously get no fee.

Fingers crossed we can afford the £5m or so to get him plus have money spare (and some) to improve the midfield.

the problem is (as always with loans) if Bertrand finishes the season well for us Chelsea will realise his worth to us and the price to us to pay for a permanent move will reflect that. Either we'll pay it like we did to newcastle with Milner, or he'll go back like walker did to spurs. Can't see him being allowed to play for us on loan again next season, unfortunately. It will be pay the money or he's coming back to us. I've been impressed with him, but would be hesitant to pay stupid money which is likely what they'll be asking.

was very impressed with him whilst he was at villa and he seemed to do well when he first went back to spuds. Haven't seen that much of him recently, admittedly.

I honestly haven't been that impressed with Walker at Tottenham.

Walker was decent at Villa, and I would have liked him to have stayed here, but I think he's gone backwards at Tottenham. Seemed to get used to the team getting bailed out every week by another Bale masterclass.

[robbo1874]

Interesting clampy, i wouldn't mind keeping Bertrand another season on loan and spending the transfer money elsewhere in all honesty.

By which time I'd guess Bertrand's contract could be getting quite low resulting in a cheaper price if we were to buy him. 
On the flip side, good form would bring him to the attention of liverpool (who were linked before we got him) and others.  We would be powerless to control the sale and obviously get no fee.

Fingers crossed we can afford the £5m or so to get him plus have money spare (and some) to improve the midfield.

the problem is (as always with loans) if Bertrand finishes the season well for us Chelsea will realise his worth to us and the price to us to pay for a permanent move will reflect that. Either we'll pay it like we did to newcastle with Milner, or he'll go back like walker did to spurs. Can't see him being allowed to play for us on loan again next season, unfortunately. It will be pay the money or he's coming back to us. I've been impressed with him, but would be hesitant to pay stupid money which is likely what they'll be asking.

was very impressed with him whilst he was at villa and he seemed to do well when he first went back to spuds. Haven't seen that much of him recently, admittedly.

I honestly haven't been that impressed with Walker at Tottenham.

Walker was decent at Villa, and I would have liked him to have stayed here, but I think he's gone backwards at Tottenham. Seemed to get used to the team getting bailed out every week by another Bale masterclass.

spurs did and do still have a very handy side. You could argue that it was because they had quality like walker at the back that allowed bale to do his stuff? Probably not worth debating too much, as the thread's on Bennett! Top game on Saturday and hope he has a few more like that to the end of the season

[pauliewalnuts]

Interesting clampy, i wouldn't mind keeping Bertrand another season on loan and spending the transfer money elsewhere in all honesty.

By which time I'd guess Bertrand's contract could be getting quite low resulting in a cheaper price if we were to buy him. 
On the flip side, good form would bring him to the attention of liverpool (who were linked before we got him) and others.  We would be powerless to control the sale and obviously get no fee.

Fingers crossed we can afford the £5m or so to get him plus have money spare (and some) to improve the midfield.

the problem is (as always with loans) if Bertrand finishes the season well for us Chelsea will realise his worth to us and the price to us to pay for a permanent move will reflect that. Either we'll pay it like we did to newcastle with Milner, or he'll go back like walker did to spurs. Can't see him being allowed to play for us on loan again next season, unfortunately. It will be pay the money or he's coming back to us. I've been impressed with him, but would be hesitant to pay stupid money which is likely what they'll be asking.

Plus, there'd be his wages to consider- imagine he'd be on a few quid at Chelsea?

Ultimately, we're going to find ourselves having to pay the going rate for good players

[Concrete John]

Ultimately, we're going to find ourselves having to pay the going rate for good players

Yep.

It's been pretty much universally agreed we need quality over quantity this summer, so that means upping our game financially as well.

[Ads]

It doesn't always work out of course, but if you're spending say £24 million on 8 players compared to the same on 3 players, then the difference in quality and what you might expect those players to produce should be significant.

[Toronto Villa]

It doesn't always work out of course, but if you're spending say £24 million on 8 players compared to the same on 3 players, then the difference in quality and what you might expect those players to produce should be significant.

which I think is the direction we will go in. The current crop are developing. Some will naturally get sold, others will be a given a bit more time to come through. But most of these players will be a year older and wiser and if you then add some genuine ready made talent it will not only help us as a club to push on faster but help those at the club already develop and improve. We don't need a load of help to make the jump to Newcastle/Southampton in 8th or 9th in my opinion, but with some key additions there is no reason why we couldn't be challenging in the 6th/7th spot with Everton/Spurs/Man U. Every year needs to see us push on and this year is better than the last. When we seth our goals at the start of the season most people said mid table would a solid next step. Next year we're going to want a bit more, and 7th/8th and a good run at the cups, a spot in the Europa shouldn't be asking too much. If we add any kind of consistency at Villa Park those goals are very achievable.

[DrGonzo]

Europa League is the last place we need to be.  The volume of games in that competition is ridiculous, and playing Thurs/Sun/Thurs is going to run our squad ragged.