Which Club Had The Better Deal?

[JJ-AV]

If he gets penalties, scores 'em and stays fit, I reckon Bent could nab 20 league goals next year.

[Drummond]

IF we keep Young A. and Downing then he'll certainly bag a few. That said, Albrighton having a run in the side might help a bit! Perhaps Joe Cole wouldn't be a bad buy either.

Bent is perfect for us. He's a Centre Forward that scores goals; he's scored them pretty much everywhere he's been for a number of years. Let's hope he's with us for a few years and keeps going at the rate he is so far.

[WikiVilla]

GED did what the short irish fellow should have done 3 years ago
full credit due

[Mac]

I don't think you can call Houllier a genius for signing a striker any manager (except Meltface) would have.

Or Martin O'Neill.  So give him some credit.

[jembob]

I wouldn't buy Torres as he need to be 100% right and a system suit him, but when it is right, he is very good. Chelsea can afford to spend silly money unlike us.

Torres can't seem to get through a full season without injury and this is his real problem. If Chelsea decide to build a system around him and he is out for 3 months of the season then it won't look very good.

[TheSandman]

Torres has suffered a few injuries and he has played pretty much non-stop for the past two seasons apart from when he has been injured. He had become such an important player for Liverpool that after every injury he was rushed back furthering his fatigue. Add to this fatigue (it is perhaps a consequence of the fatigue) the fact that the gaps between each goal have become longer. Even before his Chelsea move he wasn't in the most prolific of form and as such an important player for the Liverpool cause that there was intense pressure upon him. Then he moved to Chelsea with the burden of a £50million price tag. This ratcheted up the pressure upon him and combined with the fatigue lead to his drought. If you watched him he was almost trying too hard. With his goal on Saturday the pressure has lifted but even then I think we will only see a few more Torres goals this season. He will get a rest over the summer and will really hit the ground running next season. Well it is either that or he is completely shot.

As a nasty sadistic person who has an intense dislike of all but a handful of football clubs I tend to hope that every big money signing by most clubs would fail. I would love it if Torres and Caroll don't score another goal ever but that is a completely unrealistic wish. They are good enough to get goals. Imagine if we had picked up Caroll when he was available for a few million and Mazrim was championing him? An instant improvement upon Heskey and Carew and in him, Bent and Gabby we would find ourselves with three forwards each with different skills who could complement each other.

That said I struggle to see Caroll being worth nearly two Darren Bents and Torres being worth more than 2 and a half. I probably wouldn't swap him for either due to the issues I've mentioned with Torres and the fact that Caroll would not deliver as many goals. We needed someone who would hit the ground running with goals and in that Bent has delivered handsomely and it is that we must thank for our still being a premier league side.

[Villa'Zawg]

GED did what the short irish fellow should have done 3 years ago
full credit due

In keeping with the theme of this thread of who got the best deal.

John Carew (swap) started 105 games whilst at Villa plus 28 sub appearances and scored 52 goals (includes 6 starts, 4 subs, 0 goals under Houllier)

Darren Bent (£18m-£24m) started 106 games whilst at Spurs/Sunderland plus 35 sub appearances and scored 61 goals.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

GED did what the short irish fellow should have done 3 years ago
full credit due

In keeping with the theme of this thread of who got the best deal.

John Carew (swap) started 105 games whilst at Villa plus 28 sub appearances and scored 52 goals (includes 6 starts, 4 subs, 0 goals under Houllier)

Darren Bent (£18m-£24m) started 106 games whilst at Spurs/Sunderland plus 35 sub appearances and scored 61 goals.

Carew did well, but the reluctance to sign a partner for him was odd, not to mention needing to somebody to fill in when he was having his injury niggles.

We got Heskey - A Carew type that doesn't score.

[KevinGage]

If he gets penalties, scores 'em and stays fit, I reckon Bent could nab 20 league goals next year.

He'd probably be close to that figure now, had he been on penalty duty with us since Jan, not had a few goals ruled out due to borderline calls and so on.

[WikiVilla]

He'd be in double figures that's for sure

[Ads]

Be interesting to see if the thickos at Chelsea let Sturridge go.

A top player in front of their noses and they don't seem to realise it.

Bent, Gabby and Sturridge would make a very nice triumvirate of forwards.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Be interesting to see if the thickos at Chelsea let Sturridge go.

A top player in front of their noses and they don't seem to realise it.

Bent, Gabby and Sturridge would make a very nice triumvirate of forwards.

Sturridge really does look good.

I wonder if Chelsea will let him go?

[not3bad]

I don't think you can call Houllier a genius for signing a striker any manager (except Meltface) would have.

Martin O'Neill is meltface?

[pauliewalnuts]

GED did what the short irish fellow should have done 3 years ago
full credit due

In keeping with the theme of this thread of who got the best deal.

John Carew (swap) started 105 games whilst at Villa plus 28 sub appearances and scored 52 goals (includes 6 starts, 4 subs, 0 goals under Houllier)

Darren Bent (£18m-£24m) started 106 games whilst at Spurs/Sunderland plus 35 sub appearances and scored 61 goals.

Carew did well, but the reluctance to sign a partner for him was odd, not to mention needing to somebody to fill in when he was having his injury niggles.

We got Heskey - A Carew type that doesn't score.

The infuriating thing with Carew is that he has all the attributes to be one of the most effective strikers in the world, as we saw when he was "in the mood" for it.

The problems started when he wasn't quite so up for it, and that was quite often.

[Risso]

It's been said before Paulie, that if Carew was "up for it" all of the time, he wouldn't ever have ended up at Villa in the first place.