Darren Bent

[PeterWithesShin]

Makoun.

[dave.woodhall]

Jeans wasn't a bad signing... just an unlucky one. He was certainly worth taking a punt on, given the circumstances.

I disagree, seeing as he had an injury history which read like a casualty list from the battle of Agincourt.

A bit like Paul McGrath & Ronny Johnsen. They worked out.

One world class and one excellent defender, well worth taking a punt on.  Jenas is an average midfielder at best.  So not exactly 'a bit like' and more 'nothing like'.

We're talking about injury records, not ability. Jenas was the sort of player our manager believed we needed, and was therefore worth the lesser gamble than the two players mentioned.

[Somniloquism]

We didn't pay for him... just covered his wages for a couple of months. Worth a punt... As I said.

We have paid him since August, I don't think we have had 500 mins from him.

If we'd paid £5M for him I'd have been annoyed... but as we didn't I'm not too bothered. We've paid out a great deal more for bigger crocks over the years.

I understand, but we had to loan out another midfielder to be able to get Jenas in. So we could have done without gambling on a crock for that.

The one we still haven't given a first team game to, you mean?

Makoun?

[Risso]

Jeans wasn't a bad signing... just an unlucky one. He was certainly worth taking a punt on, given the circumstances.

I disagree, seeing as he had an injury history which read like a casualty list from the battle of Agincourt.

A bit like Paul McGrath & Ronny Johnsen. They worked out.

One world class and one excellent defender, well worth taking a punt on.  Jenas is an average midfielder at best.  So not exactly 'a bit like' and more 'nothing like'.

We're talking about injury records, not ability. Jenas was the sort of player our manager believed we needed, and was therefore worth the lesser gamble than the two players mentioned.

Were either of those two actually injured when we signed them?

[Jimmy Smash]

Thought you meant Gardner.

[dave.woodhall]

Jeans wasn't a bad signing... just an unlucky one. He was certainly worth taking a punt on, given the circumstances.

I disagree, seeing as he had an injury history which read like a casualty list from the battle of Agincourt.

A bit like Paul McGrath & Ronny Johnsen. They worked out.

One world class and one excellent defender, well worth taking a punt on.  Jenas is an average midfielder at best.  So not exactly 'a bit like' and more 'nothing like'.

We're talking about injury records, not ability. Jenas was the sort of player our manager believed we needed, and was therefore worth the lesser gamble than the two players mentioned.

Were either of those two actually injured when we signed them?

One of them had been advised to retire.

[Risso]

Jeans wasn't a bad signing... just an unlucky one. He was certainly worth taking a punt on, given the circumstances.

I disagree, seeing as he had an injury history which read like a casualty list from the battle of Agincourt.

A bit like Paul McGrath & Ronny Johnsen. They worked out.

One world class and one excellent defender, well worth taking a punt on.  Jenas is an average midfielder at best.  So not exactly 'a bit like' and more 'nothing like'.

We're talking about injury records, not ability. Jenas was the sort of player our manager believed we needed, and was therefore worth the lesser gamble than the two players mentioned.

Were either of those two actually injured when we signed them?

One of them had been advised to retire.

....by Manchester United who offered him money to.  Not sure that the offer was made with the best of intentions.

[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?

Since when have you become a mind reader and know how I would react?

I'm stating that it would be good to hear from our chaiman once in awhile on club matters.

..and just for you TV, yes I would believe him.

if your opinion on Randy is that he doesn't care anymore, then why would you believe anything he says? I know if I was at that point I wouldn't believe him.

[Jimmy Smash]

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?

Since when have you become a mind reader and know how I would react?

I'm stating that it would be good to hear from our chaiman once in awhile on club matters.

..and just for you TV, yes I would believe him.

if your opinion on Randy is that he doesn't care anymore, then why would you believe anything he says? I know if I was at that point I wouldn't believe him.

Even if he said that he didn't care? 

[dave.woodhall]

....by Manchester United who offered him money to.  Not sure that the offer was made with the best of intentions.

The fact remains that both players were gambles based on their injury record. We didn't just offer to take McGrath on loan, we paid what was for us a high fee for him and smashed our pay structure. He was also a long way from world-class at the time.

[pauliewalnuts]

McGrath was a massive gamble, yes, but I'm not really sure how relevant that is to any other player.

If you took a punt on 100 alcoholic, injury wrecked players, how many of those would you expect to come through and be that good? I'd say probably 1.

Does that make it a risk worth taking? No, not really.

[pauliewalnuts]

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.

Someone on here was sat next to Roberto Martinez at one of our matches recently, and engaged him in conversation.

Martinez was telling him how we weren't playing CNZ in the right way to get the best out of him. Maybe Alex could give Martinez a bell and ask him.

[Somniloquism]

Someone on here was sat next to Roberto Martinez at one of our matches recently, and engaged him in conversation.

Martinez was telling him how we weren't playing CNZ in the right way to get the best out of him. Maybe Alex could give Martinez a bell and ask him.

Didn't he play a free roll/ second striker roll at Wigan and sometimes at Newcastle? He seemed to have been falling into that roll with Gabby up front and playing better. He's another one on why we don't seem to have a forward formation that works when all our players are fit.

[eamonn]

If Bent does go it'll be interesting to see how the club spins it. The austerity masters of Europe. At least Greece won a trophy before it all went tits up.

If Liverpool are in for him and Bent knows it I'd expect him to hand in a transfer request like he did this time last year straight after a Sunderland game.

[LeeB]

Jeans wasn't a bad signing... just an unlucky one. He was certainly worth taking a punt on, given the circumstances.

I disagree, seeing as he had an injury history which read like a casualty list from the battle of Agincourt.

A bit like Paul McGrath & Ronny Johnsen. They worked out.

One world class and one excellent defender, well worth taking a punt on.  Jenas is an average midfielder at best.  So not exactly 'a bit like' and more 'nothing like'.

To be fair Risso, how many England international midfielders with more than 20 caps have we signed over the years?