It seems like players are leaving on a fairly regular basis at the moment, but the truth is that Yacouba Sylla and Matthew Lowton have both left today, one going to France to play for Rennes, the other joining Burnley. Both should be thanked, they did very little wrong.
But for one reason or another Paul Lambert brought both to the club and fell out of love quite quickly with them. It's a strange thing, bringing players to a club and then not playing them, but that was the Paul Lambert way. It was almost as if he saw the transfer window and set himself a target of mass distraction and to achieve that he had to make as many changes as he could.
But joking aside, they were gambles that didn't pay off, although after his first season, Lowton looked like an absolute gem. Maybe he was what Sherwood was referring to when he said he only wanted winners at the club. Although I suspect he was also referring to Weimann when he said that.
But this is just me talking. Or actually writing, although I always talk out first in my own head. The thing is today, it's easy to to make so much money and just fall into your comfort zone. It takes a mental aptitude to still want to win. It's not something easily identified but there are tests you can perform. However, I think Sherwood figured it out quite quickly.
Is it tick tock for Lerner or all stop?
But this is all sort of expected. And I think it's fair to say that we all sort of expect to see Benteke leave for Chelsea and Aston Villa to be sold, but neither have happened. I did write something the other day about Lerner maybe putting a deadline on the sale of the club to either force a hand or show them that he means business and we will never know, but if there was someone serious about buying the club, you'd have thought it would have happened by now.
And I know some might spout due diligence, but if the prospective new owner has to perform this to buy the club, we're in more trouble than we know. But I do sense that Benteke is off and I do think it will be Chelsea, but I've written that before too. But I just keep thinking about Lerner and it baffles me that the deal hasn't been done yet.
I don't blame Lerner or the bank or anyone at the club, it's not as if it's not known that the club is for sale. What baffles me is that nobody has come in for us with the clout to get the deal done. The longer this goes on the more worrying it becomes for me. But I'm trying to look at it from a very high place.
But more change is coming
But there is also something else to look forward to as Aston Villa fans; players coming in. If we include Vlaar in the numbers, it's safe to say that we've saved something in the region of £12,000,000 (nobody knows for sure, but think about how much Weimann, Lowton, Sylla, Bent and Cleverley were all earning each week and then add what Vlaar is probably earning and now that I think about it, it could also be more) a year in salaries the past few weeks and while we are also having to pay Micah Richards, he's not getting anything close to that much and it does mean we have a bit of change to spend.
So with all these players leaving, it's the manager making room for players to come in. I for one am anticipating something of a surprise or two. I'm just hoping it's not Benteke and Delph leaving. But I think if Chelsea come knocking it will be hard to turn down and I think Delph has painted himself into atleast one more season with us after his comments earlier this season.
But now I'm starting to waffle. I have to get up early, so I'm going to take a book to bed with a warm glass of milk. But before I do...