January Transfer Speculation (or lack of) Thread

[Shrek]

But we can't sell our best players just becuase our manager is clueless, can we?...
I just cannot get my head around how much of a shambles we've become, it's not right!
Next we'll be bringing in Jason Roberts on loan!

to be fair to the guy, you've got a team weaker by young and downing from last season and no money to replace the defence even if he wanted to, so playing a game that would suit bent would probably be pretty suicidal all told

But last week against Arsenal we did play a game to suit Bent & if we could match that level of performance every week, Bent would get us the goals & into europe.
We've proved we can play well albeit one game, Stoke was ok, but the signs are we could be getting there.
Selling him imo would be a massive mistake, as massive a mistake as the board made in the summer.

The problem is, we played that well because we replaced an anonymous Bent with a very creative player in Ireland then Bannan.

Take that creative hard working player out and replace with Bent we are back to square one in theory.

What we need to do is recreate our performance first half at Bolton playing 442.

[glasses]

Bent is a very one dimensional and limited footballer and contributes very little. The issue is when Bent misses its a bigger problem because his only attribute is scoring. He should look at Andy Cole who was very similar but improved the rest of his game. He worked on his upper body strength and became more effective, he was however playing with great players.

I cant see him staying long term.

while i agree he's one dimensional and limited i'd rather say thats the point of him. Your original lazy bastard goal hanging, shit for 89 minutes and gets a hattrick striker. As i said when he signed he can be utter bobbins as long as he keeps scoring.

He isn't scoring enough though. He has played 14 league games this season, and scored 5 goals. Gabby has managed the same in 13 games. Gabby has been more important for us this season all round, has 7 assists and to be honest, I think we have looked better in the last two games without Bent in the team and Gabs up front.

[Greg N'Ash]

Bent is a very one dimensional and limited footballer and contributes very little. The issue is when Bent misses its a bigger problem because his only attribute is scoring. He should look at Andy Cole who was very similar but improved the rest of his game. He worked on his upper body strength and became more effective, he was however playing with great players.

I cant see him staying long term.

while i agree he's one dimensional and limited i'd rather say thats the point of him. Your original lazy bastard goal hanging, shit for 89 minutes and gets a hattrick striker. As i said when he signed he can be utter bobbins as long as he keeps scoring.

He isn't scoring enough though. He has played 14 league games this season, and scored 5 goals. Gabby has managed the same in 13 games. Gabby has been more important for us this season all round, has 7 assists and to be honest, I think we have looked better in the last two games without Bent in the team and Gabs up front.

He's not scoring because we don't play to his strengths and its pointless comparing Gabby to Bent. Bent will always come a poor 2nd to gabby in effort, assists and all round influence on a game. Even when Bent was keeping us up last season he was never a dominant figure apart from the goals. The big difference is bent was capable of keeping us up by his goals, or in better circumstances getting us into Europe or the CL. Gabby will never be that player

[Clampy]

Bent is a very one dimensional and limited footballer and contributes very little. The issue is when Bent misses its a bigger problem because his only attribute is scoring. He should look at Andy Cole who was very similar but improved the rest of his game. He worked on his upper body strength and became more effective, he was however playing with great players.

I cant see him staying long term.

while i agree he's one dimensional and limited i'd rather say thats the point of him. Your original lazy bastard goal hanging, shit for 89 minutes and gets a hattrick striker. As i said when he signed he can be utter bobbins as long as he keeps scoring.

He isn't scoring enough though. He has played 14 league games this season, and scored 5 goals.

But last season, he scored something like 11 in 16.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'm pretty sure it was 9 last season Clampy. I'm sure he's 14 in 30 in the league for us so far.

[pauliewalnuts]

He's not scoring because we never give him the ball.

Talking of not scoring, as a team we have a problem with that. Selling a reliable finisher strikes me as approaching the problem from the wrong end.

[glasses]

Bent is a very one dimensional and limited footballer and contributes very little. The issue is when Bent misses its a bigger problem because his only attribute is scoring. He should look at Andy Cole who was very similar but improved the rest of his game. He worked on his upper body strength and became more effective, he was however playing with great players.

I cant see him staying long term.

while i agree he's one dimensional and limited i'd rather say thats the point of him. Your original lazy bastard goal hanging, shit for 89 minutes and gets a hattrick striker. As i said when he signed he can be utter bobbins as long as he keeps scoring.

He isn't scoring enough though. He has played 14 league games this season, and scored 5 goals.

But last season, he scored something like 11 in 16.

But this season, he isn't scoring enough. I'm in agreement that the issue is service. We don't create anywhere near enough chances.

[ozzjim]

He is not as bad an all round player as some make out either, in fairness we were pleasantly surprised when he first came at his touch etc, but he has struggled this season in a long ball team up front for large periods alone with very little support from the midfield. His record is still brilliant for us, and with confidence will remain easily 1 in 2 for us while here. Gabby, and no other striker for what we would replace him with, is going to get close to that.

They showed a snapshot of his workrate in the Liverpool game too, how much running he did etc, and it was phenomenal, just totally useless. He works hard, but people have very pre-set views on him. He is a difference player, and 9 in 14 saved us last season.

[glasses]

He's not scoring because we never give him the ball.

Talking of not scoring, as a team we have a problem with that. Selling a reliable finisher strikes me as approaching the problem from the wrong end.

In my point made to Greg, I feel we have looked better with Gabby as the lone striker and a creative presence behind him. The last two games we have looked like a team, instead of trying to accommodate Bent. Personally, if we could sell Bent, and improve the supply line with the proceeds (along with a cheap decent striker) Id be happy enough.

[Matt C]

Only we could convince ourselves that Darren Bent isn't any good. Don't tell me, we don't miss Ashley either, he was rubbish too.

[glasses]

We do miss Ashley, because he was a big part of why Bent scored so many last season.

[PaulWinch again]

We will not be better off if Bent leaves, he is a top class Premier League striker. The bottom line is we should be finding a way to best utilise him, he's a brilliant asset.

[Mazrim]

Correct.

[Pete3206]

He's not scoring because we never give him the ball.

Talking of not scoring, as a team we have a problem with that. Selling a reliable finisher strikes me as approaching the problem from the wrong end.

In my point made to Greg, I feel we have looked better with Gabby as the lone striker and a creative presence behind him. The last two games we have looked like a team, instead of trying to accommodate Bent. Personally, if we could sell Bent, and improve the supply line with the proceeds (along with a cheap decent striker) Id be happy enough.

How many decent strikers are cheap? We should be trying to accommodate Bent. If we were more successful at doing that, he'd get more goals. Goals win games. At the very worst, you can avoid defeat. Selling Bent and replacing him with cart horses is a one way trip to the bottom 3. Sadly, I can see that coming anyway.

[ROBBO]

Perhaps we could get AY back on loan, he's only a bit player at United.