Darren Bent

[Legion]

twitter going mad that bent is definitely off to Liverpool. aparantly lawrensen said on 5 live that it was a done deal??? did anyone hear him say it?

Twitter rumours are a load of shit.

[Villanation]

Carroll = Duncan Ferguson. A nutter who will never quite deliver. Avoid.

Not a Carroll fan by any means, but you can bet your last dollar on it that he has got a brilliant couple of seasons in him and someone will get that out of him, he's young enough and he's got that to come and it will happen, I would agree he will never be prolific and never be up there for the long term, the kids got way to much on his mind for that, but I would bet that's what Dalgliesh was edging his bets on when he splashed 34ML on him.....

[Villanation]

twitter going mad that bent is definitely off to Liverpool. aparantly lawrensen said on 5 live that it was a done deal??? did anyone hear him say it?

Mate just texted me, owns a footy bar on the Costa Blanca, massive Liverpool fan, going back generations.

" Benty belongs to Anfield"

Twat....

[dicedlam]

How does the next part go.. ' Aston Villa refuse Daren Bent transfer request'

To be followed by  Faulkner ''We did all we could to keep him, but the player wanted out''


I dont think Randy has the stubbornness or arrogance to care anymore in telling Liverpool to do one

what would you rather have them say so as not raise your level of anger or scepticism?

I would like for a start Lerner to come out and say the way it is.

[Toronto Villa]

How does the next part go.. ' Aston Villa refuse Daren Bent transfer request'

To be followed by  Faulkner ''We did all we could to keep him, but the player wanted out''


I dont think Randy has the stubbornness or arrogance to care anymore in telling Liverpool to do one

what would you rather have them say so as not raise your level of anger or scepticism?

I would like for a start Lerner to come out and say the way it is.

Which you'd still dismiss as spin, or "we've heard that before". Even if he was telling the truth, would you believe it, and more importantly would you want to hear it?

[kp5031]

Totally agree with the last comment there was no work rate closing the back for down making runs to give us a out ball when we were deep under pressure i would of liked to have seen some runs across the back four down the flanks just something to move there defenders around and give them something to worry about at the moment he looks like he doesnt wont to no and doesnt move from the centre of the pitch

[Monty]

The issue with losing Bent is that, although losing him would not be as damaging as others (Downing and Young are much better players, and Barry and Milner were much more important to how we played), he is the last truly saleable asset we acquired from someone else for a significant fee. It's a prestige issue, almost entirely (because, in my opinion, we play better with Gabby as the main striker than with Bent, though we hardly have the squad to be choosy).

For what it's worth, I actually think he'll be a bit of a failure at Liverpool should he go there: that club are caught in the conundrum that, although they create many chances and don't finish them, to sacrifice one player for a pure finisher who doesn't contribute to the build-up, like Bent, would result in fewer chances created - negating the point of playing Bent in the first place. It's a similar story with us - see Gabby's miss the other day - but if you create lots of chances you always have more chance of converting lots of them than if you hadn't created them at all. Regardless, Bent does actually miss half-chances more than he scores them, a constant source of frustration.

My fundamental problem may be that I don't trust McLeish to reinvest the money. One swallow does not make a summer, and though the Chelsea result (and performance) was great, you get the feeling that, had Heskey been fit, he'd have played and we'd have lost. The way we went to pieces and lost faith in our football when a bit down against Swansea may prove to be sadly indicative.

[PeterWithesShin]

I don't get why so many say they wouldn't trust AM with transfer money? He's only signed 4 players, not really enough to judge him on.

[Monty]

I don't get why so many say they wouldn't trust AM with transfer money? He's only signed 4 players, not really enough to judge him on.

Jenas, Hutton, Zog and Given. The latter was a good signing (if a little obvious), Zog's a good player but he's struggled to get the best out of him and doesn't seem to know quite how to use him, and the other two have been total catastrophes.

[PeterWithesShin]

So if we take that as a 50/50 strike rate in transfers it's probably the same as most managers.

[Monty]

So if we take that as a 50/50 strike rate in transfers it's probably the same as most managers.

I don't take it as a 50/50 though, as, in my opinion, the two relative successes are mitigated, whereas the failures are not.

[Somniloquism]

I don't get why so many say they wouldn't trust AM with transfer money? He's only signed 4 players, not really enough to judge him on.

Jenas, Hutton, Zog and Given. The latter was a good signing (if a little obvious), Zog's a good player but he's struggled to get the best out of him and doesn't seem to know quite how to use him, and the other two have been total catastrophes.

With Zog, most on here were planning him in for replacement of Young when we still thought we would be under Houllier. I wonder if the negotiations were under way before Alex even came in.

[PeterWithesShin]

So it's 2 good signings (regardless of whether he has got the best out of Zog yet) and 2 bad ones. Any way it's painted it's not enough to condemn him on his VP transfer record. And I say that as someone who isn't exactly enamored with AM.

[kp5031]

bent just didnt work hard enough against swansea to move defenders around he didnt make any runs across the back line into the flanks and basically looked like he didnt wna know stood inbetween there centre halfes offering nothing he also never bothered closing there defenders down if he plays like that were better of selling him and playing someone who when the game isnt going to plan knuckles down and works hard

[Monty]

I don't get why so many say they wouldn't trust AM with transfer money? He's only signed 4 players, not really enough to judge him on.

Jenas, Hutton, Zog and Given. The latter was a good signing (if a little obvious), Zog's a good player but he's struggled to get the best out of him and doesn't seem to know quite how to use him, and the other two have been total catastrophes.

With Zog, most on here were planning him in for replacement of Young when we still thought we would be under Houllier. I wonder if the negotiations were under way before Alex even came in.

Maybe, but without knowing the ins and outs of how our club worked, he certainly seemed to want to bring in Zog for Blues and, albeit within a different team (despite his best efforts to turn us into them), which seems to me for an awful lot of planning time for a player he doesn't seem to know how to use.