Lambert eyes transfer progress

29 August 2012 07:20
Paul Lambert will step up his bid to sign Christian Benteke and Joe Bennett after seeing Aston Villa reach Capital One Cup third round. Goals from Fabian Delph, Chris Herd and Darren Bent secured a comfortable 3-0 home success over Tranmere on Tuesday evening. But Lambert will now turn his attention to trying to bolster his squad before the transfer window shuts on Friday. Villa have already had one bid - believed to be around £5million - rejected for Belgium international Benteke while an offer is being lined up for England Under-21 defender Bennett. Lambert said: "It (the Benteke deal) is not something I've thought about because of the game. I'll wait and see. "There is no point in me talking about it until something happens. "Tomorrow we've just got to try and see where we are with Genk and they will probably throw the ball back in our court. "I will wait and see what happens between now and Friday. "With Joe Bennett, hopefully something might happen on that. Has a bid gone in? Near enough. "I won't talk about his qualities until I know (if a deal has gone through). It's unfair on Villa and Middlesbrough and unfair on the lad himself." Lambert is keen to strengthen his squad after the loss of the opening two Barclays Premier League games. He said: "We are trying with a few players. I just need to wait and see if anything happens. "If we can do something with a few people, we'd like to do something. There are three days to go and things go for you and against you. "It's been like that so I will wait and see." Lambert was happy with his side's performance against Rovers which produced only Villa's second home win in nine months. He said: "I know from experience those type of games can be tricky and really pleasing. "It is never easy to win a match, no matter what level you are up against. "Tranmere gave a really good account of themselves and Ronnie Moore (manager) has got them going well in their own league." Ronnie Moore was disappointed with his side's performance. He said: "We are better than we showed tonight. No-one expected us to win but we would have liked to have put in a better performance. "Even though Villa are struggling in the Premier League, they have got quality all over the place."

Source: team_talk