Thursday 28 May 2015 09:17, UK
Leandro Bacuna is trying to convince Christian Benteke to snub a big-money move and stay at Aston Villa.
The striker has been linked with Liverpool after a stunning end to the season as he fired Villa to safety in the Barclays Premier League and into the FA Cup final.
Benteke, who has 12 goals in his last 12 games, will lead the line when Villa face Arsenal at Wembley on Saturday.
Bacuna and Benteke are close and were neighbours until Bacuna recently moved and the Dutchman believes Benteke enjoys being the main man at Villa – which could change at another club.
"We had a small conversation and I said 'imagine you want to leave for a big club'. At Villa he's the big man," he said.
"Maybe if he goes somewhere else you are not going to turn into a big man. So it's going to be his opinion. Yes (I am trying to persuade him to stay).
"When he was injured (with a ruptured Achilles last year) he went to Belgium. I kept a connection with him, to speak to him, I was worried about how this operation was going so we talked.
"And when he came back he had a tough time, like with small pains, but when he got going he started to score goals.
“Fabian Delph helped him as well, saying 'keep moving, keep going', anything to give him confidence and as you can see when he got confidence he was scoring again.
"Together you can have a positive thing, you can go to the next one, you can do anything you want."
