New Contracts?

[PeterWithesShin]

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.

And that falls into the recently category. And to be honest, after years of pissing money away on players who weren't worth it, i'd rather we had harder negotiations on a player that we now know is worth it than have spunked millions more on a new contract too soon on a player who hadn't done much for the first 3 and half years he was at the club and may have just hit a purple patch that he couldn't sustain.

The Vlaar and Delph situations are from ideal, but that's how it is at times in football without the benefit of hindsight.

[Concrete John]

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.

I think the most likely scenario is we did, or at least tried to, but the player isn't in any rush.  We always seem to blame the club when these things aren't done, yet forget the gap between trying and doing.  Ultimately, you have a player whose stock is rising at a relegation threatened club that's up for sale.  If it was your career, would you sign or wait?

As soon as either player is ready to sign, I'm sure you won 't see the club hanging about.

[Weedy]

DM says we've offered Grealish an four year contract

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2749846/Fabian-Delph-set-new-Aston-Villa-contract-making-England-debut.html

[The Left Side]

The Star is saying Fabian will get a bumper contract shortly thanks to Randy and him being pals!

[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

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.

Delph's been our best  midfielder player for the last two seasons, Vlaar our best defender
And your taking notice of some nutty on here that didn't rate him,

They might not have been the world beaters they are today but the pair of them were the best we had, no doubt
Revisionism isn't all one way

[Clampy]

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.

PWS has a point with what he says. He even went back to Leeds on loan and no-one batted an eyelid. That said, i hope we get a deal sorted for him.

[Mister E]

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

An understatement there, Mr Nuts.
If - as I read in the online torygraph yesterday - the club are going to offer an extra £5k a week to Delph (from £40 to 45k) I suspect he will say: "thanks for the support over the last 3-4 years, but I'm off".
If the club get serious with him then I think he'll stay.

Either way, this should have happened over the close season.
Mad.

[AV82EC]

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

An understatement there, Mr Nuts.
If - as I read in the online torygraph yesterday - the club are going to offer an extra £5k a week to Delph (from £40 to 45k) I suspect he will say: "thanks for the support over the last 3-4 years, but I'm off".
If the club get serious with him then I think he'll stay.

Either way, this should have happened over the close season.
Mad.

How on earth would the torygraph have that level of detail. Do people believe this bollocks?

However the point does stand that the club will struggle to get him into a new deal without putting him into the Upper bracket level of wages for the clubs better players.

[SoccerHQ]

He's already in the upper bracket of wages at the club given the info from elsewhere last season for the sadly missed Mysteryman.

I found that hard to believe but remember when we signed him Man. City wanted him aswell so we must've offered him an attractive deal and he then got a new one during Houllier's time when the austerity measures had yet to kick in.

To me he needs to be kept as after years in neglect our midfield is starting to look decent again. Delph, Westwood, Sanchez, Grealish and possibly Cleverley could be our options for the next few seasons.

[RussellC]

I really don't buy into this claim that it's only since the World Cup that anyone has deemed Vlaar worthy of a new contract. It was obvious at the end of the season before last that he was by far and away our best centre-back and that we were a much better side with him in it. Yes, he's quite injury-prone, but he played 28 games that season and 34 last. It's not like he was AWOL. Regardless of how highly anyone rated him, you'd have to have been blind not to understand how important he was/is for us in our current predicament.

The same goes for Delph. His lack of form for the first few years was largely due to his injuries. Yes, it wasn't until last season that he really excelled. but it was clear in the previous year that he was an important player and, pertinently, one that we should be looking to keep long-term. I can't think of any reasonable justification for the club allowing it to get to the stage where he's in the process of establishing himself in the England set-up before offering him a new deal. It's just a massive lack of foresight. 

[Lastfootstamper]

Didn't we dish out improved contracts to all those we deemed were worthy of such at the end the season before last? Who got them? I recall Benteke, Westwood and Lowton. Were there any others?

[paul_e]

Didn't we dish out improved contracts to all those we deemed were worthy of such at the end the season before last? Who got them? I recall Benteke, Westwood and Lowton. Were there any others?

Weimann and Baker as well I think.

As I've said before there's a number of factors that you have to consider here.

1. discussing contracts during a relegation battle is a bad idea, you run the risk of undesirable clauses and higher than reasonable wages being required and if you don't bow to it you could end up with a pissed of player in a key position.

2. with the world cup Vlaar wouldn't have been in any position to discuss things between the season ending and joining the dutch squad.

3. the takeover rumours started around the time that contracts could have been discussed before the run-in, the players would be aware of these.

4. our CEO left during the summer and we clearly needed signings to fill out the squad, they were given priority over new contracts given the limted staffing.

5. When the sale signs went up no one knew how long it would take, discussing new contracts with a takeover looming wouldn't be simple.

6. The performance comments made by PWS.

Add all this together and whilst not being happy about it it's clear to see that the circumstances haven't helped us here and I have sympathy over the Vlaar and Delph contracts.  I have no sympathy over Grealish though, it should be a top priority to get him on a safer contract as soon as possible.

[Toronto Villa]

Looks like Gabby might the first of the bunch to sign a new deal which I suppose is somewhat expected. I never got the impression Gabby ever wants to leave and will probably play for the club or have some role long into his 50's! At least these deals are starting to be addressed and while we all have our opinions on Gabby I hope after the Hull game he is starting to rediscover his form and appetite for the game.

Gabby to sign new deal linky

[JUAN PABLO]

skynews peteO  ( who ever the f**k he is )  reporting their is some good news for villa fans


maybe delphs contract

[PaulWinch again]

Well if it's Gabby I'm not too fussed at the moment. I'd like him to sign a new deal, but Delph, Grealish and Vlaar are much bigger priorities.