Darren Bent

[pauliewalnuts]

Before it gets silly lets not even compare Rooney and Bent please, there is no comparison.

There is if the question at hand is whether strikers are allowed a barren spell.

[ozzjim]

Rooney has played totally crap for united for weeks on end in the past, but they don't start thinking about selling him, they may rest him here or there, but they generally keep faith. The worst of them all last Jan is Dzeko for me. He misses so many chances it is scary. Bent would have hatfuls of goals in the man city side for certain

[Shrek]

Rooney is heavily involved in most things even when he isn't scoring, he is a top footballer, if Bent isn't scoring the team are basically playing with 10 men.

And i'd swap Bent for Dzecko all day, he creates goals for himself and is better in every department than Bent.

[old man villa fan]

There are much better players out there than Bent so if we sell him in the summer then I really wont be bothered as long as his fee is substantial enough to replace him with someone better plus funds for additional players

Can you run that one by me again.  There are better players out there than Bent + sell him for a fee so that we can replace him with some one better + funds for additional players

McLeish would have to be Merlin the f****** magician to make that happen!!!

[pauliewalnuts]

Rooney is heavily involved in most things even when he isn't scoring, he is a top footballer, if Bent isn't scoring the team are basically playing with 10 men.

And i'd swap Bent for Dzecko all day, he creates goals for himself and is better in every department than Bent.

Dzeko missed about 300 chances in that match against Sunderland alone.

[old man villa fan]

On the flip side it encourages players to make longer, more ambitious passes resulting in us losing possession.

He is great in a counter attacking team that do not worry too much about retaining possession whereas he is not suited to a game plan like Arsenal who try and pass teams to death. 

Most of Bent's chances were created by through balls along the ground, predominantly by Young and Downing.  They were not ambitious long balls from the back.

What we are seeing now are long hit and hope balls from the back that mostly go nowhere near him.  The one decent move he was involved with last night was when the ball was played along the ground to him and he laid it off to Gabby and spun around for a one-two but as Chris Smith mentioned, his first touch let him down.

[Somniloquism]

Rooney is heavily involved in most things even when he isn't scoring, he is a top footballer, if Bent isn't scoring the team are basically playing with 10 men.

And i'd swap Bent for Dzecko all day, he creates goals for himself and is better in every department than Bent.

Not when he was shagging someone behind his Mrs back he wasn't. His first goal that was from open play and not a penalty came in Jan of last season. Even then, when he was scoring some, he was pretty shit (relative to his previous form). Remember the total mis control of a ball and pass in the build up to his overhead kick against Cit£h. He was doing that alot.

[Matt Collins]

Ireland is useless on the wing, 442 could work, but then Ireland doesn't play.

We need to pick the best team available based on form, in which case Chelsea team with Bent coming on.

I agree it's not his best position but I thought he played well there yday.

However, I tend to agree the Chelsea front 6 may be our best side at the moment, but leaving bent out would be a risk, not least in terms of fan and bent's reaction. But oh form he'd be the one to leave out.

[Pete3206]

Rooney is heavily involved in most things even when he isn't scoring, he is a top footballer, if Bent isn't scoring the team are basically playing with 10 men.

And i'd swap Bent for Dzecko all day, he creates goals for himself and is better in every department than Bent.

No argument from me there. So just how do we go about getting Dzecko? Can't see Man City doing swapsies anytime soon. Meantime, we have a very capable centre forward whose lost a bit of form and confidence. Perhaps he'll recapture that soon and start scoring regularly. We certainly can't just demand players are disposed of because they go through a bad patch. Can we? And if so, just who is going to as good as Bent for us? 

[KRS]

There are much better players out there than Bent so if we sell him in the summer then I really wont be bothered as long as his fee is substantial enough to replace him with someone better plus funds for additional players

Can you run that one by me again.  There are better players out there than Bent + sell him for a fee so that we can replace him with some one better + funds for additional players

McLeish would have to be Merlin the f****** magician to make that happen!!!

No problem OMVF...for the fee that we could get for Bent (lets say £30m for arguments sake), we could get an all round better forward for £15m that contributes to the team as well as score goals, plus a couple of decent £7.5m players in defence or midfield. Is that easy enough to understand?

Just remember....Darren Bent is not the messiah...he's a very naughty boy!

[ROBBO]

There is only one club that might be silly enough to give us 30 million for Bent and they, through their manager, have been counted out, and if Lerner is carrying on with his stringency plans we wouldn't get any of it for new players anyway. His record says he is the best finisher in the premiership, someone we've wanted for years and yet there are those who want him gone, the worlds gone mad.

[Jimmy Smash]

Rooney is heavily involved in most things even when he isn't scoring, he is a top footballer, if Bent isn't scoring the team are basically playing with 10 men.

And i'd swap Bent for Dzecko all day, he creates goals for himself and is better in every department than Bent.

Dzeko missed about 300 chances in that match against Sunderland alone.

I've told you a million times... don't exaggerate.

[ozzjim]

There is only one club that might be silly enough to give us 30 million for Bent and they, through their manager, have been counted out, and if Lerner is carrying on with his stringency plans we wouldn't get any of it for new players anyway. His record says he is the best finisher in the premiership, someone we've wanted for years and yet there are those who want him gone, the worlds gone mad.

A mischievous poster may point out here that Damian Comoli does the buying at Anfield.

[Dave]

There are much better players out there than Bent so if we sell him in the summer then I really wont be bothered as long as his fee is substantial enough to replace him with someone better plus funds for additional players

Can you run that one by me again.  There are better players out there than Bent + sell him for a fee so that we can replace him with some one better + funds for additional players

McLeish would have to be Merlin the f****** magician to make that happen!!!

No problem OMVF...for the fee that we could get for Bent (lets say £30m for arguments sake), we could get an all round better forward for £15m that contributes to the team as well as score goals, plus a couple of decent £7.5m players in defence or midfield. Is that easy enough to understand?

The numbers stack up.

Now, how do that striker's £60,000 wages and the other two players £45,000 wages (each) compare to Bent's circa £70,000 wages and how does that help us reduce the wage bill?

[eastie]

There are much better players out there than Bent so if we sell him in the summer then I really wont be bothered as long as his fee is substantial enough to replace him with someone better plus funds for additional players

Can you run that one by me again.  There are better players out there than Bent + sell him for a fee so that we can replace him with some one better + funds for additional players

McLeish would have to be Merlin the f****** magician to make that happen!!!

No problem OMVF...for the fee that we could get for Bent (lets say £30m for arguments sake), we could get an all round better forward for £15m that contributes to the team as well as score goals, plus a couple of decent £7.5m players in defence or midfield. Is that easy enough to understand?

The numbers stack up.

Now, how do that striker's £60,000 wages and the other two players £45,000 wages (each) compare to Bent's circa £70,000 wages and how does that help us reduce the wage bill?

The likes of heskey, cuellar, beye and maybe petrov will shortly be off the wage bill so i would expect there to be some leeway if alex finds the players he needs.