First to the news that Jed Steer is joining Aston Villa. I'm not sure if he has ever played for Norwich as he's only 20 years old, but Lambert must like him or think he has some potential, because it was confirmed yesterday that he was coming.
No YouTube video and I literally know very little about him, but when I did a Google search and checked out the images, there were quite a few of him in an England shirt and according to Wikipedia, he has represented at U16, U17 and U19, so he must be fairly decent for his age.
But now onto something I really didn't want to get involved with this summer, but I'm going to.
Christian Benteke
Let us get a few things out of the way to begin with. Benteke is 22 years old and he has had one good season in the Premier League, but sure enough, in the madness that is the Premier League, he was always going to attract interest and huge amounts of speculation.
The thing is, a lot of players have one good season and then fail to impress again. Some have two or three and that's it. It isn't rare that a player is consistently good, but more often than not they only have a few.
You can argue this and point to individuals, but you get my point, I hope.
Also, there is every chance he has been offered a new contract on more money and even if he doesn't accept it, he's still only one year into a four year deal that he signed. And from what we all understand, there is no buyout clause.
I know it is tough to force a player to stay at the club these days, but you can and I have a feeling that Paul Lambert isn't going to want to be bullied into anything. I fancy he'll be offering two things; a contract extension on more money, probably with some incentives to get more the following season or stay at the club on your existing contract and if your season is as good next time, we will listen to offers.
It's a bit like how Sir Alex managed Ronaldo. We all know Ronaldo wanted to go a season before he did, but Sir Alex talked him into one more. That extra season increased his value and even though I'd image that Sir Alex wasn't happy at losing him, he won.
Where am I going with this; simple; I don't think Benteke will leave this summer and that is where I'm going to leave it because I'm fed up of all this speculation and talk that something might or might not happen when everything I've written above is actually where we are and where we are, we're holding all the cards.
Saying all that, Lerner might accept a £30mn offer because of the return, but I'm not sure Lambert will be too happy with that and I'm not sure he will like having football taken out of his hands, so again, I can't see it happening.
And that, unless we have something real happen, is all I'm going to write about Benteke this summer. And on that note, I think it's time for coffee.