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Aston Villa braced for a summer thriller

By on July 19, 2015

“‘Cause this is [Aston] Villa, Villa fright, and no one’s going to save you from the spending of the might.”

Michael Jackson’s songs could have easily been adapted to describe Aston Villa’s summer. Villa are having a thriller of a transfer window in terms of departures, with multiple big name clubs triggering the release clauses of Villa’s star players. Liverpool and Manchester City lurked like sharks on an Australian surfer in South Africa to activate Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph’s respective £32.5m and £8m release clauses. Granted, even Michael Jackson couldn’t be as “bad” as Delph now is in the eyes of Villa supporters after a sensational double-U-turn.

It has been a crazy nine days for 25-year-old English midfielder Delph, who went back on his words not once, but twice. It first appeared that Delph was going to City before the Villa man had a change of heart and confirmed he would be staying at Villa for the long term. Delphi flew out to Villa’s preseason training camp in Portugal and even appeared on promotional ads for the club’s new kit with the captain’s arm-band. At least, however, Aston Villa reinvested some of the money with the additions of Micah Richards and France under-21 international defender Jordan Amavi. Richard Lewis runs down the transfer happenings at the club.

Rodgers puts his faith in a Christian!

Brendan Rodgers is putting a lot of his faith into a Christian, as Liverpool have bid £32.5m to trigger the release clause of Villa striker Christian Benteke. Liverpool are going to the market with the funds from their £49m sale of Raheem Sterling and they are now seemingly prepared to meet the huge asking price for Benteke. The 24-year-old Belgian international scored twelve goals in twelve games at the end of 2014/2015 season to help keep Villa in the Premier League, earning him a value equivalent to Liverpool’s second biggest signing of all time, behind only Andy Carroll.

Benteke joined Aston Villa from Genk in August 2012 for £7m and has scored forty-nine goals in one-hundred-and-one appearances for the Midlands club, earning interest from Tottenham Hotspur in recent years. However, with a medical scheduled with Liverpool, it looks like Benteke will instead become the Reds seventh signing of the transfer window, taking their summer outlay to around £80 million. The twenty-four-year-old will add another forward to their ranks to cover and compete with injury-prone Daniel Sturridge.

Heroes or Villains?

Football is in the business of turning heroes into villains overnight, and Benteke and Delph will be no different than any other “Villains” who have deserted clubs for the big boys. Both Fabian Delph and Christian Benteke helped send the struggling club to the FA Cup Final against Arsenal last season, sharing the two goals in their semifinal defeat of Liverpoo. As aforementioned, Benteke’s goals kept Tim Sherwood’s side in the Premier League towards the end of last season, with crucial winners against sides like Tottenham. Fans rushed to Delph during the club’s pitch invasion following their FA Cup quarterfinal win over local rivals West Bromwich Albion after the winger got a goal. But nonetheless, the way the transfer sagas have gone down, Delph in particular won’t likely see a friendly return to Villa park.

Man City’s shopping list!

With the UEFA financial fair play restrictions relaxed this summer, the Sky Blues have been able to role out the Monopoly money once more on a mixture of young and English talent. The club have needed to freshen the squad and add more English talent to their ranks and so far this summer, they’ve recruited young striker Enes Unal from Turkish side Bursaspor for £2 million and brought Raheem Sterling from Liverpool for a record transfer fee. Fulham’s 18-year-old midfielder Patrick Roberts joined Manuel Pellegrini’s side for an undisclosed fee, not a year after Roberts made his Fulham debut at none other than the Etihad Stadium and has since amassed twenty-two first-team appearances. Villa only become the latest victims of City’s spending spree; Fabian Delph has signed a five-year contract at the club and will wear the number eighteen shirt which Frank Lampard, now at New York City FC, wore last season in Eastlands.

Photo credit: Ian Wilson, via Wikipedia Commons

About Richard Lewis

Richard Lewis can relate almost anything to football and quite often does! You may have seen Richard's previous ideas and work in the BBC Match of the Day Magazine, from 2011 to present. He is a Manchester United and England fan, but has gone to see Leyton Orient play with his O's season ticket in the 2013/14 campaign. Aside from football, Richard has written articles on Doctor Who and studies English Language and Linguistics at the University of Westminster. Aspiring sports journalist.