New Contracts?

[Toronto Villa]

Lambert suggested not long ago upon the appointment of Fox that essentially he was acting CEO along with being manager. One of the tasks that would have put on the back burner so to speak would have contracts negotiations. You have to think that the players and agents have all been at least kept informed of that. Now with Fox in place one would hope the negotiations for Delph, Vlaar, Grealish and Gabby are high on his agenda.

[Villafirst]

To be fair we don't know what the club have offered these players and there's no reason why we should. Contracts are personal matters between the player and club.
They will only get reported on as a PR exercise by the club or if the player's agent is trying to stir things up a little. Or by the press in pure speculation.

Supposing the players have been offered new deals and rejected them with the intention of seeing out their current ones it wouldn't be in anyone's interests to make this public knowledge.

At the end of the day though whatever Villa offer can be trumped by any club that can offer the incentive of Champions League football, or at the very least the possibility of winning medals.

Exactly, will Delph, Vlaar etc. see any chance of silverware staying at Villa Park? Things won't really change until Lerner sells up and, hopefully, new AMBITIOUS owners takeover. The longer Lerner is in charge, the more this type of thing is likely to happen.

[john e]

To be fair we don't know what the club have offered these players and there's no reason why we should. Contracts are personal matters between the player and club.
They will only get reported on as a PR exercise by the club or if the player's agent is trying to stir things up a little. Or by the press in pure speculation.

Supposing the players have been offered new deals and rejected them with the intention of seeing out their current ones it wouldn't be in anyone's interests to make this public knowledge.

At the end of the day though whatever Villa offer can be trumped by any club that can offer the incentive of Champions League football, or at the very least the possibility of winning medals.

When you have valuable players it's best to get it sorted and discussed way before the last season of their contracts,
 if they want to let the contract run out so we get nothing for them when they leave, you sell them on, reinvesting the money

Delph,Vlaar, Grealish there's approximately 30 million worth of talent we are potentially going to throw down the drain, it's a lot of money to waste

So all this ' we don't know what we have offered them' is a load of balls, it's a fuck up from start to finish

[Risso]

Spot on John.  I don't expect that any of them will be here next season.  Still, at least we'll have saved the wages.

[PaulWinch again]

It is vital in particular that we sign Delph and Grealish to new deals asap.

[basavfc]

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/398748/EXCLUSIVE-Chelsea-eye-up-Jack-Grealish-as-Aston-Villa-contract-talks-stall

London rag unsettling Villa youngster !
Does any one still believe any thing they read in these shit red tops ?

[SoccerHQ]

We need to get Delph and Grealish done asap. Hopefully with Fox starting this week in the next couple there will be positive movement.

We definitely do, and to a lesser extent Vlaar. It should be the most pressing business at Villa at the moment.

Worth considering how much it would cost to adequately replace Delph and Vlaar, a lot more than just giving those two decent pay rises.

[eamonn]

To be fair we don't know what the club have offered these players and there's no reason why we should. Contracts are personal matters between the player and club.
They will only get reported on as a PR exercise by the club or if the player's agent is trying to stir things up a little. Or by the press in pure speculation.

Supposing the players have been offered new deals and rejected them with the intention of seeing out their current ones it wouldn't be in anyone's interests to make this public knowledge.

At the end of the day though whatever Villa offer can be trumped by any club that can offer the incentive of Champions League football, or at the very least the possibility of winning medals.

When you have valuable players it's best to get it sorted and discussed way before the last season of their contracts,
 if they want to let the contract run out so we get nothing for them when they leave, you sell them on, reinvesting the money

Delph,Vlaar, Grealish there's approximately 30 million worth of talent we are potentially going to throw down the drain, it's a lot of money to waste

So all this ' we don't know what we have offered them' is a load of balls, it's a fuck up from start to finish

A bit harsh when the club had Delph on the payroll while injured or not up to it for the first three years of his time year. He fully deserves a new deal after last season, but up to that point most fans would have agreed that he still had to earn a new one.
 Vlaar has had a mixed time at Villa and it's only after his fine World Cup that his stock is high. The only one I wouldn't cut the club much slack over is Grealish. We clearly saw him as one for the future when loaning him out to Notts County for much of last season so why we didn't do it then I don't know.

[PeterWithesShin]

To be fair we don't know what the club have offered these players and there's no reason why we should. Contracts are personal matters between the player and club.
They will only get reported on as a PR exercise by the club or if the player's agent is trying to stir things up a little. Or by the press in pure speculation.

Supposing the players have been offered new deals and rejected them with the intention of seeing out their current ones it wouldn't be in anyone's interests to make this public knowledge.

At the end of the day though whatever Villa offer can be trumped by any club that can offer the incentive of Champions League football, or at the very least the possibility of winning medals.

When you have valuable players it's best to get it sorted and discussed way before the last season of their contracts,
 if they want to let the contract run out so we get nothing for them when they leave, you sell them on, reinvesting the money

Delph,Vlaar, Grealish there's approximately 30 million worth of talent we are potentially going to throw down the drain, it's a lot of money to waste

So all this ' we don't know what we have offered them' is a load of balls, it's a fuck up from start to finish

When would you have offered Delph and Vlaar new contracts?

Delph 2 years ago? When one person rated him the worst player to play for us and there was a Delph thread on here with the vast majority wanting him gone and would have snatched the hand off anyone offering a couple of mill?
How about a year ago? When after years at the club on big(ish) wages he'd finally played well for 6 months. I can just imagine this place if it had been a flash in the pan 6 months and we'd stuck him on a new 4 year deal on big wages. That would have been labeled "typical Villa" etc for lumbering themselves with him for years.
So until this year there wasn't really a time he deserved one. And I say that as one of the few who said there was a player there and stood up for him, but at the same time i'm not going to pretend he deserved a new contract until recently.

Vlaar. Last summer after a shambles of a season defensively and a player with an injury history had missed a over a quarter of the season injured? Vlaar had plenty of stick his first season and most on here would have shit a brick if we'd given him a new contract last summer. Then last season when he was out injured again? Or before he went to the World Cup when we were conceding 3 or 4 most games? It's only the World Cup that has really changed opinion on Ron from 'decent (but nothing more) and injury prone defender but far from irreplaceable' to us stressing over him going.

Hindsight is wonderful, but until recently neither player has deserved a new contract, and the club aren't blessed with hindsight. Having said that, they had better be busting their balls to get them signed up now.

As for Grealish, that is a fuck up as it must have been obvious to everyone on the coaching staff that he had "it". So letting him hit his last year when he was at an age to have a 'breakout' season was fecking stupid.

[eamonn]

PWS, we have concurrence.

[pauliewalnuts]

Delph 2 years ago? When one person rated him the worst player to play for us and there was a Delph thread on here with the vast majority wanting him gone and would have snatched the hand off anyone offering a couple of mill?
How about a year ago? When after years at the club on big(ish) wages he'd finally played well for 6 months. I can just imagine this place if it had been a flash in the pan 6 months and we'd stuck him on a new 4 year deal on big wages. That would have been labeled "typical Villa" etc for lumbering themselves with him for years.

Frankly, for Delph, last season, yes, then.

Or, alternatively, I'd have thought about finding the time to talk to him about it between May and September. He was excellent for us last season. We've arsed about and let him get picked for England and every week that passes puts us in a more difficult situation.

[pauliewalnuts]

Lambert suggested not long ago upon the appointment of Fox that essentially he was acting CEO along with being manager. One of the tasks that would have put on the back burner so to speak would have contracts negotiations. You have to think that the players and agents have all been at least kept informed of that.

Yes, but why should we expect the players to reduce or temper their expectations just because we've been appointing a new CEO? And how long was the gap between Faulkner going and Fox arriving in any case?

You make it sound like a case of we "inform" them, and they just fit in with our plans. That's not how it works, the players have the power, not the clubs.

We should have been talking to Delph by the end of last season. Lambert said this week "we'll talk to him towards the end of the month".

I am not the type to automatically look for fault in everything they do, but that to me sounds more than a little bit half-arsed and unhurried.

[PeterWithesShin]

Ideally we would have nailed him down at season's end when it was obvious he could sustain that form. I have no idea why we didn't, that's assuming we haven't offered him anything yet, apart from guessing that the behind the scenes stuff may have got in the way? But we are still in the realms of my original point that he didn't deserve a new contract until recently.

[pauliewalnuts]

Isn't the salient point that we should have talked to him months ago - he quite clearly was one of our best players pretty much right through last season. It's not like he's started to look worth a new deal in the last few weeks.

Why didn't we sort this in August? Or over the summer?

He played well for England last night, which is - if anything - just going to make the negotiations harder.

[Toronto Villa]

Lambert suggested not long ago upon the appointment of Fox that essentially he was acting CEO along with being manager. One of the tasks that would have put on the back burner so to speak would have contracts negotiations. You have to think that the players and agents have all been at least kept informed of that.

Yes, but why should we expect the players to reduce or temper their expectations just because we've been appointing a new CEO? And how long was the gap between Faulkner going and Fox arriving in any case?

You make it sound like a case of we "inform" them, and they just fit in with our plans. That's not how it works, the players have the power, not the clubs.

We should have been talking to Delph by the end of last season. Lambert said this week "we'll talk to him towards the end of the month".

I am not the type to automatically look for fault in everything they do, but that to me sounds more than a little bit half-arsed and unhurried.

I don't disagree that this should have been dealt with before but I also don't just buy into what is said in public as 100% gospel. We're not past the point of no return in any of these cases and with a CEO now actually in place it allows him to concentrate on these matters as opposed to having the manager do it. It's not like it can't be resolved.

And as for who holds the power, if it is always the player as you are suggesting then Benteke would no longer be here, Barry would be at Liverpool and every player we ever had would have found a way to walk out on us for pastures new. No doubt players have a lot of power but while under contract the club has a say in the matter. Until such time that the players can talk to other clubs the ball remains in our court. I don't think Vlaar will be here next season as at 30 he'll want a go at CL football, and I don't could blame him. The other three I expect to sign new deals. I'm neither wrong or right in my opinion. Pretty much like everyone else who has an opinion on how this will play out.