MX23RW : Thursday, December 19 17:07:00| >> :120:4285:4285:

Tim Sherwood: 'Christian Benteke sale similar to Luis Suarez departure'

Tim Sherwood believes that Aston Villa's loss of Christian Benteke was similar to the departures of Luis Suarez from Liverpool and Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur.

Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood has compared his side's sale of Christian Benteke to the loss of Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale.

The Villans were forced to sell the Belgium international to Liverpool when they received a bid of £32m for his services, which activated the release clause in his contract. The 46-year-old also lost skipper Fabian Delph and Tom Cleverley from his squad over the summer.

However, Sherwood feels that the loss of Benteke was akin to when the Reds sold Suarez to Barcelona and Bale moved from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid.

He told reporters: "Benteke leaving was absolutely the same as Suarez, or Gareth Bale. If he didn't have a clause in his contract then £100m wouldn't have taken him away from us.

"He wasn't worth selling for any money. No money can guarantee you Premier League survival – that player could. It's all relative but we scraped through relegation last season and were the worst team left in the Premier League. We lost our three best players and that should put it in perspective.

"You do drop, we can't afford to drop. We have to make sure we stay at least where we was, and higher. That's the size of the task ahead. We knew it wasn't going to be easy and I think all the decision-makers at the club appreciated that."

Villa face Chelsea in their Premier League clash on Saturday.

ID:252669: cacheID:252669:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:2706:
Written by
Simon Sinclair
Restore Data
Share this article now:
New Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp at Anfield on October 9, 2015
Read Next:
Preview: Tottenham Hotspur vs. Liverpool
>
rhs 2.0
Today's games header
Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Liverpool15113131131836
2Chelsea16104237191834
3Arsenal1686229151430
4Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest168442119228
5Manchester CityMan City168352823527
6Bournemouth167452421325
7Aston Villa167452425-125
8Fulham166642422224
9Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton166642625124
10Tottenham HotspurSpurs1672736191723
11Brentford167273230223
12Newcastle UnitedNewcastle166552321223
13Manchester UnitedMan Utd166462119222
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham165472129-819
15Crystal Palace163761721-416
16Everton153661421-715
17Leicester CityLeicester163582134-1314
18Ipswich TownIpswich162681628-1212
19Wolverhampton WanderersWolves1623112440-169
20Southampton1612131136-255


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!