Darren Bent - worth every penny

[Phil from the upper holte]

Darren Bent, Villa legend already in my opinion, he's kept us up and the control and finish for the first was world class.

Worth every penny

[Concrete John]

We have to (re)build a team around this guy now and we can still trouble the top spots.

Totally agree, but I think attacking wise we're almost there already.

Presuming Ash leaves, I can see us therefore having Downing left and Marc right of him.  Then it's a three man central midfield of Delph getting forward to support and Makoun playing that deeper creative roll.  We'd then want a genuine holding player, which is part of the defensive sort out we badly need.

[Mazrim]

We have to (re)build a team around this guy now and we can still trouble the top spots.

Totally agree, but I think attacking wise we're almost there already.

Presuming Ash leaves, I can see us therefore having Downing left and Marc right of him.  Then it's a three man central midfield of Delph getting forward to support and Makoun playing that deeper creative roll.  We'd then want a genuine holding player, which is part of the defensive sort out we badly need.

Indeed. Parker, Makoun and Delph sounds about right. And retaining NRC as back up (if his demands are reasonable).

[Meanwood Villa]

I would much rather have Bent than the other big money strikers transferred in Jan, ie Carroll and Torres but when I say this to some folks the old Sky 4 bias kicks in and they disagree. Well sod them I reckon we've got just about the best striker in the league and if the top teams aren't interested that suits us fine.

[Brend'Watkins]

We have to (re)build a team around this guy now and we can still trouble the top spots.

Totally agree, but I think attacking wise we're almost there already.

Presuming Ash leaves, I can see us therefore having Downing left and Marc right of him.  Then it's a three man central midfield of Delph getting forward to support and Makoun playing that deeper creative roll.  We'd then want a genuine holding player, which is part of the defensive sort out we badly need.

Indeed. Parker, Makoun and Delph sounds about right. And retaining NRC as back up (if his demands are reasonable).

Get Parker to replace Petrov, N'Zogbia to replace Young, Hangeland to replace Dunne, keep Walker and get a new keeper.  That would be a good summer.

[Concrete John]

We have to (re)build a team around this guy now and we can still trouble the top spots.

Totally agree, but I think attacking wise we're almost there already.

Presuming Ash leaves, I can see us therefore having Downing left and Marc right of him.  Then it's a three man central midfield of Delph getting forward to support and Makoun playing that deeper creative roll.  We'd then want a genuine holding player, which is part of the defensive sort out we badly need.

Indeed. Parker, Makoun and Delph sounds about right. And retaining NRC as back up (if his demands are reasonable).

Get Parker to replace Petrov, N'Zogbia to replace Young, Hangeland to replace Dunne, keep Walker and get a new keeper.  That would be a good summer.

Apart from leftback, that would represent a comprehensive sort out of what we need.

[Damo70]

Two criticisms I kept hearing were - too much money (that one soon died down after Torres and Carroll) and he only scores penalties. Well, that's nine penalties in fifteen games that have made a huge difference to our season and the first one yesterday has to be the best penalty i've ever seen.

[Somniloquism]

Bent is in his Prime but has always been a goalscorer. If we had him a couple of years ago (and it could have been easily funded buy not having to buy a defence twice over and not buying Heskey) the results would still have meant the goals to secure top 4 and perhaps silverware.

I think if MON had gone to Randy at the time Spurs were looking to offload and said "look, this guy will make the difference and take us where we need to go", it would have been funded regardless.
But that's all by the by now. We have to (re)build a team around this guy now and we can still trouble the top spots.

Has I mentioned earlier, we had spent £41mill that summer (Dunne and Collins were signed the season after.) I doubt even Randy would have then spent another £10m at the time when we were scoring still (it dried up in Feb) and Heskey was brought in for cover for Carew. I'm not absolving MON on the money overspent but there were not many dissenters on signing Davies, Young, Carlos, Sidwell and Milner at the time apart from a couple of queries on the price.

I'm not saying MON asked and was rejected by Randy or I wouldn't have liked him myself then but I doubt the money was there to sign him at that point after he had already over spent in the summer.

[Mazrim]

Depends what you mean by the money not being there. Randy being fabulously wealthy. Randy's also no fool when it comes to football, he would have had an idea what was needed. To that point MON had only bought Harewood as a striker, with Carew being a swap and Gabby coming through the ranks. So instead of buying Heskey, he should have gone for Bent. You can never know for sure but I think Randy would have justified it as he hadn't had to lay out for a forward to that point, Harewood aside.

You can slice it and dice it however you like but MON had something like £150m (guess) to spend over his tenure and failed to get the striker we needed and in my opinion, failed to get a top 4 finish as a result.
Two complete defences purchased and no prolific striker = big mistake.
Especially when one of the best finishers in the land becomes available for a very reasonable price.

But like I said. Its all done now. There's very little value in raking over the coals again. Onwards and upwards.

[andyh]

I tell you what...bollox to £18m
He's worth every penny of the £24m.

[Chris Smith]

Depends what you mean by the money not being there. Randy being fabulously wealthy. Randy's also no fool when it comes to football, he would have had an idea what was needed.

There was no more money without selling as we found out the following January and last summer.

[villa_cads]

We have to (re)build a team around this guy now and we can still trouble the top spots.

Totally agree, but I think attacking wise we're almost there already.

Presuming Ash leaves, I can see us therefore having Downing left and Marc right of him.  Then it's a three man central midfield of Delph getting forward to support and Makoun playing that deeper creative roll.  We'd then want a genuine holding player, which is part of the defensive sort out we badly need.

Indeed. Parker, Makoun and Delph sounds about right. And retaining NRC as back up (if his demands are reasonable).

Get Parker to replace Petrov, N'Zogbia to replace Young, Hangeland to replace Dunne, keep Walker and get a new keeper.  That would be a good summer.

Apart from leftback, that would represent a comprehensive sort out of what we need.

Yep, sounds good to me. I'd be tempted to try for Shawcross too, although a Collins-Hangeland combination would suite just fine. Parker strikes me as a barry replacement, which is just what we need.

[Mazrim]

Depends what you mean by the money not being there. Randy being fabulously wealthy. Randy's also no fool when it comes to football, he would have had an idea what was needed.

There was no more money without selling as we found out the following January and last summer.

We know that there was an issue with salaries, not transfer fees. In any case this was after MON had spent a lot of money already. Some of it poorly.
But my argument is that we should have bought Bent before Sunderland did. When he'd fallen out with Redknapp.
Instead of buying players we didn't desperately need, we should have bought Bent. Instead we bought Heskey. Big mistake. It cost us.

[Concrete John]

I'm afraid it's just not that simple:-
1.  We bought Heskey 6 months before Bent went to Sunderland - was he available then?
2.  He left Spurs to play regularly, so would he have come to a club with an established partnership like Gabby and Carew?
3.  Would the lack of defensive reinforcements we would presumably not have then bought have seen us leak enough goals to negate Bent's impact?

This isn't a defence of MON as much as it is saying that things aren't always as black and white as we try to make out.  Plus, all clubs have similar regrets:-
1.  Man Utd are relatively weak in central midfield, so do their fans think they should have bought Milner when he left Newcastle?
2.  Liverpool have similar issues out wide, do should they have gone for Ash from Watford?   

[Nicka]

I cringe every time a Villa player has a good game as he automatically becomes a transfer target for the mega rich clubs. Even last night on MOTD the talk was that Bent would be a good signing for Arsenal. It is a fact his goals have saved us from relegation but we need to look after him in the future and show improvement as well as commitment and ambition.