Christian Benteke was placed on Aston Villa’s scouting database by Alex McLeish, BirminghamLive can reveal.Paul Lambert signed the Belgian striker in 2012 for £6million from Genk - but it was actually his fellow Scot McLeish who identified Benteke.Benteke, who now plies his trade for Crystal Palace after his £30m switch to Liverpool backfired, spent three years at Villa Park and scored the goals to preserve their top flight status under Lambert and, latterly, Tim Sherwood.But it wasn’t Lambert or scout Paddy Riley who pinpointed Benteke as a potential target. McLeish marked him out as one to watch shortly after he made the ill-fated move across the Second City from Birmingham City.McLeish, now manager of Scotland, was bemused to arrive at Villa and discover the club hadn’t implemented a scouting database to keep tabs on targets from across the globe.Benteke, who scored 49 goals in 101 appearances in claret and blue, was put forward to McLeish by scout Arthur Numan.Numan watched Benteke regularly whilst he was playing for Genk - a club McLeish would later manage - and thought Villa could grab themselves a bargain.McLeish’s appointment at Villa Park came at a time when owner Randy Lerner was reining in the spending. Previous managers Martin O’Neill and Gerard Houllier had been backed heavily in the transfer market and Lerner demanded cuts were made.McLeish was asked to reduce the wage bill and decided to expand Villa’s scouting horizons in the hope of snaring a few gems.The decision to include Benteke’s name on the database he installed and ensure Numan and other scouts continued to watch the 6ft 4in frontman was key in the club’s decision to sign him.Papiss Cisse, who eventually joined Newcastle United and fired them to a fifth-placed finish, was another player on the database, as was Gylfi Sigurdsson.
I have no doubt in my mind about that. That day, that one solitary day, if we'd held on for the win, we'd have stayed up, and Leicester wouldn't even have troubled the top four, let alone won the frickin league.
I think Sherwood would have been better off with a different transfer policy. He'd have got a tune out of that nutter Adebayor and then a few over priced ex-Spurs like Townsend and Huddlestone would have done the meat and veg 442 trick.He didn't know how to handle the foreign players, it was clear they'd been signed without a thought of blending them in. He ok'd everyone, I don't believe otherwise, but equally I don't think he knew a thing about them either. But at the same time, it's clear Reilly didn't do his homework on them.I liked Sherwood. He didn't have the nous and would have benefited from somebody very tactically astute alongside him. But his ego wouldnt allow for that and his Machiavellian way of stabbing AVB in the back to secure the Spurs job is evidence of it.I will always have a bit of time for the charlatan though, as football is about fun and for a few brief months in half a decade of shite, Villa were back.If we'd won at Leicester I think confidence would have seen us through perhaps and they wouldn't have won the title.
Quote from: Lastfootstamper on May 10, 2018, 08:02:28 PMI have no doubt in my mind about that. That day, that one solitary day, if we'd held on for the win, we'd have stayed up, and Leicester wouldn't even have troubled the top four, let alone won the frickin league.I can't say I agree. I don't think the common theory that both club's seasons hinged on that day stands up. Particularly as it came so early in the season.As for Sherwood he deserves great credit for keeping us up and getting us to the final. As for 'surrendering' the final Arsenal were quite simply a far better team than us. Unlike the Chelsea final when the teams were more evenly matched. I was slightly surprised that Sherwood was sacked so early in the season. Obviously in hindsight we ended up being so bad you suspect he couldn't have done any worse than Garde and Black, but that doesn't necessarily mean he would have done much better. His time at Spurs and Villa suggest he is a short term impact manager but not one for the medium to long term.
Quote from: Damo70 on May 10, 2018, 09:05:01 PMQuote from: Lastfootstamper on May 10, 2018, 08:02:28 PMI have no doubt in my mind about that. That day, that one solitary day, if we'd held on for the win, we'd have stayed up, and Leicester wouldn't even have troubled the top four, let alone won the frickin league.I can't say I agree. I don't think the common theory that both club's seasons hinged on that day stands up. Particularly as it came so early in the season.As for Sherwood he deserves great credit for keeping us up and getting us to the final. As for 'surrendering' the final Arsenal were quite simply a far better team than us. Unlike the Chelsea final when the teams were more evenly matched. I was slightly surprised that Sherwood was sacked so early in the season. Obviously in hindsight we ended up being so bad you suspect he couldn't have done any worse than Garde and Black, but that doesn't necessarily mean he would have done much better. His time at Spurs and Villa suggest he is a short term impact manager but not one for the medium to long term.Of course Arsenal were always going to win but we didn't have a shot or a corner which said it all for our approach or lack of it. 12 months before Hull took largely the same 11 to extra time before losing....wonder which dinosaur manager was in charge that day....
Yes we stood off Arsenal but they were also fantastic that day.For us to have won, we needed to be brilliant and they needed to have an off day - in reality, the opposite happened.
Quote from: Ad@m on May 11, 2018, 12:32:11 PMYes we stood off Arsenal but they were also fantastic that day.For us to have won, we needed to be brilliant and they needed to have an off day - in reality, the opposite happened.Arsenal were fantastic because we put up no resistance what so ever, Arsenal are are good team I'm not denying that but are famous for not coping with resistance (see why they hate stoke so much). For us to have had a chance to beat them we'd have had to put up a fight, The team was capable if it as it wasn't long previously that we'd beaten them 3:1 in there own backyard. Instead we just embarrassed ourselves.If i'm honest I'd have taken a heavier defeat if it had meant we'd have had a few attempts at goal. I'll never understand what happened with Sherwood that day he was an attacking manager but we didn't bother attacking that day. It was a final where we were huge underdogs we had nothing to lose so why didn't he just throw caution to the wind.