Christian Benteke

[Shea]

I cannot believe that defoe has 12.9 passes per game

must be counting his little shift and shoot move as a sideways pass to himself

 

[Spurger King]

I really wish I could see what so many others do in Benteke. He looks strong, has a decent first touch, and an eye for goal, but then you could say that about a lot of strikers.

At the beginning of last season Villa fans were pissed off that he was getting into the team ahead of Bent, due to the amount of sitters he missed, and the general view that, overall, he was a poor player. Now here we are 12 months later set to make him our record signing.

Granted he stepped up his game and started scoring regularly, but you could have said the same thing about Andy Johnson a few years ago.

Maybe he'll continue to improve as a player. Maybe last season won't be his peak. Or maybe he'll end up at Sunderland in two or three seasons...

 

[AX-Spur]

I know that Suter is considered a WUM, but he just tweeted:

"Baldini is making the difference. Likely Benteke will be a Spurs player by the end of the week. 5 year deal plus option."

Maybe Suter is POTL??

 

[$hoguN]

I really wish I could see what so many others do in Benteke. He looks strong, has a decent first touch, and an eye for goal, but then you could say that about a lot of strikers.

At the beginning of last season Villa fans were pissed off that he was getting into the team ahead of Bent, due to the amount of sitters he missed, and the general view that, overall, he was a poor player. Now here we are 12 months later set to make him our record signing.

Granted he stepped up his game and started scoring regularly, but you could have said the same thing about Andy Johnson a few years ago.

Maybe he'll continue to improve as a player. Maybe last season won't be his peak. Or maybe he'll end up at Sunderland in two or three seasons...

Can you name some please, as out of all the PL strikers I would probably only describe Rooney, Van Persie, Berbatov, Lukaku and Benteke that way.

 

[spurs9]

That's very good, but you have to bear in mind that Michu was playing in a team that relied upon link-up play and passing, whereas Benteke was a lone target man on a side that played without an effective no. 10 or a strike partner. Villa spent rather a lot of time aiming at Benteke's head...

Very true.

 

[$hoguN]

I know that Suter is considered a WUM, but he just tweeted:

"Baldini is making the difference. Likely Benteke will be a Spurs player by the end of the week. 5 year deal plus option."

Maybe Suter is POTL??

Maybe Suter is just a wummy little ****. Wait scrap the maybe.

 

[spurs9]

I really wish I could see what so many others do in Benteke. He looks strong, has a decent first touch, and an eye for goal, but then you could say that about a lot of strikers.

At the beginning of last season Villa fans were pissed off that he was getting into the team ahead of Bent, due to the amount of sitters he missed, and the general view that, overall, he was a poor player. Now here we are 12 months later set to make him our record signing.

Granted he stepped up his game and started scoring regularly, but you could have said the same thing about Andy Johnson a few years ago.

Maybe he'll continue to improve as a player. Maybe last season won't be his peak. Or maybe he'll end up at Sunderland in two or three seasons...

To be fair he was adapting to a different league and still scored 8 in 17.

 

[Powder Keg]

I really wish I could see what so many others do in Benteke. He looks strong, has a decent first touch, and an eye for goal, but then you could say that about a lot of strikers.

At the beginning of last season Villa fans were pissed off that he was getting into the team ahead of Bent, due to the amount of sitters he missed, and the general view that, overall, he was a poor player. Now here we are 12 months later set to make him our record signing.

Granted he stepped up his game and started scoring regularly, but you could have said the same thing about Andy Johnson a few years ago.

Maybe he'll continue to improve as a player. Maybe last season won't be his peak. Or maybe he'll end up at Sunderland in two or three seasons...

Yep - I remember him missing a howler of a header after a Lloris mistake at home last season (to be fair to Lloris, it was his first home game for us) - but then again, in the same game I thought he was a complete beast who bossed Vertonghen (much like Lukaku had previously).

 

[Shea]

I really wish I could see what so many others do in Benteke. He looks strong, has a decent first touch, and an eye for goal, but then you could say that about a lot of strikers.

At the beginning of last season Villa fans were pissed off that he was getting into the team ahead of Bent, due to the amount of sitters he missed, and the general view that, overall, he was a poor player. Now here we are 12 months later set to make him our record signing.

Granted he stepped up his game and started scoring regularly, but you could have said the same thing about Andy Johnson a few years ago.

Maybe he'll continue to improve as a player. Maybe last season won't be his peak. Or maybe he'll end up at Sunderland in two or three seasons...

Do you remember what a running joke Drogba was in his first season at Chelsea? he was missing sitters -glaring sitters- on a regualr basis, I'm from West London and even Chelsea fans were laughing at him

That being said he still looked like he had something about him - as did Benteke at the start of the season

Both strong, fast and capable of scoring goals but looking raw and of course adjusting to a new team, new country and new life. Add to that that Drogba was considerbly older and more experienced than Benteke and playing for a better team that would create more chances for him and I think its impossible to use Benteke's relatively slow start as evidence against him

Villa fans wanted Bent to play because they were frustrated to have such an expensive and proven goalscorer rotting on the bench while this new kid was looking so raw and struggling to find his feet - that again isn't evidence against Benteke as its just naturally that a football fan would be frustrated when the team is not performing and theres such an expensive goalscorer on the sidelines

If anything its even more of a feather in Benteke's cap that he was able to overcome that slow start and lack of support from his fans to become such a beast in the second half of the season - let's face it he kept Villa up pretty much on his own once he got in full swing

So for a kid of 22 to be adjusting to a new country in a struggling team and ony take half a season to find his form when Drogba took at least a season I'd say that's impressive and all this one season wonder talk is prettty lazy, yes of course he could struggle in his second season but just because other players like Jelvaic and Cisse have recently doesn't mean Benteke will, for a start he's a very different type of player with different attributes, he has more to his game and presnets defences with a different set of problems

Not to mention that if he comes to us he'll be in a team where defences simply cannot make him their main focus (surely that has to be Bale) if they do Bale will rip them apart, if they try to double up on Bale and allow BEnteke space his pace and power will rip the a new one.

IF we keep Ade he'll have a good role model to learn from and play along side at times which will help develop different areas of his game - no matter how poor Ade was last season we all know what he has in his locker and some of his skill set can surely be passed on to the younger BEnteke (plus if Ade is on form Benteke won't need to have a second season as good as his first, they'll be rotation and team work between the two which will lower expectations and pressure and allow him to continue adjusting and developing)

I watched a lot of Benteke last season because he was a player I wanted us to sign before Villa picked him up (and I enjoyed being a smart arse to my Spurs mates when he was on fire) and I accept there's a risk of him not being worth the money Villa want but equally there's huge potential in this lad, he's no Heskey and he has much more to his game than just his physical attributes.

The more I think about us signing him the more positive I am about it

 

[degoose]

Yep - I remember him missing a howler of a header after a Lloris mistake at home last season (to be fair to Lloris, it was his first home game for us) - but then again, in the same game I thought he was a complete beast who bossed Vertonghen (much like Lukaku had previously).

i was at that game and benteke was the best player for villa and i couldn't believe he missed the sitter but i guess it was early in his villa career . He did though hassle the hell out of our defence and looked a handful. That also was the first game i got to watch dembele in the flesh and thought how awesome and strong on the ball he was .

 

[Spurger King]

Can you name some please, as out of all the PL strikers I would probably only describe Rooney, Van Persie, Berbatov, Lukaku and Benteke that way.

Do your own homework.

 

[spurs9]

Do you remember what a running joke Drogba was in his first season at Chelsea? he was missing sitters -glaring sitters- on a regualr basis, I'm from West London and even Chelsea fans were laughing at him

That being said he still looked like he had something about him - as did Benteke at the start of the season

Both strong, fast and capable of scoring goals but looking raw and of course adjusting to a new team, new country and new life. Add to that that Drogba was considerbly older and more experienced than Benteke and playing for a better team that would create more chances for him and I think its impossible to use Benteke's relatively slow start as evidence against him

Villa fans wanted Bent to play because they were frustrated to have such an expensive and proven goalscorer rotting on the bench while this new kid was looking so raw and struggling to find his feet - that again isn't evidence against Benteke as its just naturally that a football fan would be frustrated when the team is not performing and theres such an expensive goalscorer on the sidelines

If anything its even more of a feather in Benteke's cap that he was able to overcome that slow start and lack of support from his fans to become such a beast in the second half of the season - let's face it he kept Villa up pretty much on his own once he got in full swing

So for a kid of 22 to be adjusting to a new country in a struggling team and ony take half a season to find his form when Drogba took at least a season I'd say that's impressive and all this one season wonder talk is prettty lazy, yes of course he could struggle in his second season but just because other players like Jelvaic and Cisse have recently doesn't mean Benteke will, for a start he's a very different type of player with different attributes, he has more to his game and presnets defences with a different set of problems

Not to mention that if he comes to us he'll be in a team where defences simply cannot make him their main focus (surely that has to be Bale) if they do Bale will rip them apart, if they try to double up on Bale and allow BEnteke space his pace and power will rip the a new one.

IF we keep Ade he'll have a good role model to learn from and play along side at times which will help develop different areas of his game - no matter how poor Ade was last season we all know what he has in his locker and some of his skill set can surely be passed on to the younger BEnteke (plus if Ade is on form Benteke won't need to have a second season as good as his first, they'll be rotation and team work between the two which will lower expectations and pressure and allow him to continue adjusting and developing)

I watched a lot of Benteke last season because he was a player I wanted us to sign before Villa picked him up (and I enjoyed being a smart arse to my Spurs mates when he was on fire) and I accept there's a risk of him not being worth the money Villa want but equally there's huge potential in this lad, he's no Heskey and he has much more to his game than just his physical attributes.

The more I think about us signing him the more positive I am about it

I remember Mourinho had to come out and defend Drogba saying that he was the most important player in the link up play and didn't mind that he wasn't scoring, but hoped he would add some goals next year. or something like that.

 

[$hoguN]

Do your own homework.

I'm guessing you have given this response as you can't think of any others.

Arsenal: Podolski (no), Gervinho (no), Giroud (no)

Chelsea: Torres (no, not anymore), Ba (no), Lukaku (yes, going from last season)

Man City: Aguero (yes), Dzeko (not in my opinion)

Man Utd: Rooney (yes), Van Persie (yes), Wellbeck (no), Henandez (no, bad first touch, just a good finisher)

Us: Adebayor (not got an eye for goal), Defoe ( )

 

[spurs9]

Do your own homework.

I think he was after your opinion.

 

[PeeEyeEmPee]

why is it that we're always looking for reasons NOT to sign someone? it genuinely baffles me. so we shouldn't sign Benteke because he may prove to be a one-season wonder, we shouldn't sign Villa because he's too old, we shouldn't spend so much money on the Croatian kids, we shouldn't sign Eriksen....and on and on.

here are some reasons why we SHOULD sign Benteke

1) we desperately need a good-great striker, as we've had none since that very depressing transfer deadline day in August of 2008
2) he looks very good, with the potential and raw tools to possibly be great
3) he scored more than both our current strikers combined last season
4) of all the available strikers on the market, he's probably about as good as we can realistically afford/get

yes there are a load of things that could go wrong, but there are also a load of things that could go very right. I don't understand the problem. I get the feeling we could be linked to Messi and Iniesta, and people on here would still look for reasons why we shouldn't

 

[Spurger King]

I'm guessing you have given this response as you can't think of any others.

Arsenal: Podolski (no), Gervinho (no), Giroud (no)

Chelsea: Torres (no, not anymore), Ba (no), Lukaku (yes, going from last season)

Man City: Aguero (yes), Dzeko (not in my opinion)

Man Utd: Rooney (yes), Van Persie (yes), Wellbeck (no), Henandez (no, bad first touch, just a good finisher)

Us: Adebayor (not got an eye for goal), Defoe ( )

Interesting that you seem to think strikers only exist in the Premiership.

 

[kev1nxxx]

why is it that we're always looking for reasons NOT to sign someone? it genuinely baffles me. so we shouldn't sign Benteke because he may prove to be a one-season wonder, we shouldn't sign Villa because he's too old, we shouldn't spend so much money on the Croatian kids, we shouldn't sign Eriksen....and on and on.

here are some reasons why we SHOULD sign Benteke

1) we desperately need a good-great striker, as we've had none since that very depressing transfer deadline day in August of 2008
2) he looks very good, with the potential and raw tools to possibly be great
3) he scored more than both our current strikers combined last season
4) of all the available strikers on the market, he's probably about as good as we can realistically afford/get

yes there are a load of things that could go wrong, but there are also a load of things that could go very right. I don't understand the problem. I get the feeling we could be linked to Messi and Iniesta, and people on here would still look for reasons why we shouldn't

Messi is too short and Iniesta needs too many touches.

 

[Lilbaz]

Messi wants to steal the falklands and doesn't pay taxes.

 

[$hoguN]

Interesting that you seem to think strikers only exist in the Premiership.

So please start throwing out names then. Cavani? Falcao? Huguain? Benzema? Jackson Martinez? Manzukic? Lewandowski?

Can you actually name any that are obtainable?

I understand reservation about Benteke, hell I have a lot of my own. However, to say there are plenty of strikers who fulfil the description, of being strong and have both a decent first touch and an eye for goal, is not true, otherwise we would have fixed the striker situation as soon as Berbatov left. It is also a good idea to bear in mind that we are looking for a striker who is yet to reach the pinnacle of their talent as it makes them both more affordable and attainable, and gives us a bigger sale margin.

 

[THOWIG]

If we do sign him I'd like to see a front 3 of Adebayor, Benteke, Bale.