Former Villa boss Paul Lambert has tipped Christian Benteke to leave Aston Villa this summer. Benteke has been linked with Liverpool and boss Tim Sherwood, who replaced Lambert in February, has confirmed he has a "substantial" release fee clause in his contract.

Lambert, speaking at the Tesco Bank Football Challenge at Hampden Park, said: "It looks like if he is going to go, it will be this year.

"But I had it every year I was there that he probably wanted to go, because he was playing that well, you can't stop teams coming in with that level of money.

"It depends how Aston Villa want to view it now. If Christian goes maybe they will get money to buy someone. But as a goalscorer and a player, he's top class.

"I saw it a few years ago. In his first year at Villa he was only behind Cristiano Ronaldo and (Lionel) Messi in terms of goalscoring ratio, which was an incredible achievement.

"He's certainly good enough. He's only 24, he's got years ahead of him. Okay he didn't have a good game on Saturday but he is a top, top player."

The Belgium international is expected to command a fee of around £30million but Lambert believes he will be value for money.

He said: "What is anybody worth now? You don't know. Transfer fees are ridiculous for players you would never think would move for that amount of money.

"But if you go by what Benteke brings in terms of his goalscoring ratio, he's certainly up there if you are going by modern day values."