Villa boss keen to tie striker down to new deal.
Check in to Wigan Athletic vs Aston Villa
Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert will sit down with star striker Christian Benteke over the coming weeks to thrash out a new and improved deal to keep him at the club, Sky Sports reports.
The 22-year-old’s goals have been crucial to the club’s survival this season and the manager plans to reward him for a fine debut campaign after shrugging off fresh speculation linking him with Borussia Dortmund.
“Who has he been linked with now?” he said. “I always knew it would happen. Christian and a few other lads are in my thinking.”
“I don’t know how much he’s on, I leave the finances to other people. No, I know everything that’s going on and exactly what’s happening, everybody’s finances.”
“Christian is one of a few who have been brilliant for us, collectively as a team and individuals they’ve been great. We’re coming to the end of the season and yes, we’ll sit them down and try to get things done.”
“Every one of the players have helped us stay up, it’s not just one player. Every one of the lads contributed something and they’re the ones that have done it, we got ourselves over the line.””
Villa’s safety was guaranteed on Tuesday night when Arsenal overcame Wigan, but the Scot insists that the club saved themselves, and the Gunners 4-1 had nothing to do with it.
“People say we were relying on Arsenal to get us a result but we weren’t,” he said. “It’s because we did the job ourselves.”
“We’ve won all the games that counted, only the top four have beaten us. There are no celebrations yet, the job’s not done yet. But the crowd is special here.”
“I knew how tight the league always was, even teams in mid-table had to have one eye behind them.”
“We’re going to have a fantastic following up at Wigan on Sunday and we have to try to win it and not slack off and let it become one of those games where it’s like a festival.”
“We’ve got a job to do and we’ve got to go and try and win it.”