Sell Bent?

[loughborough villain]

For me a player in the Defoe mould would be the solution, he makes runs that our current midfielders would benefit from and he also gets on the end of tap-ins in the box, he would also contribute more in respect of overall involvement in the game and I think that with the current funding available to the manager it is a case of doing the best with what is realistically available which, for me, would be to replace Bent with player better suited to the limitations of our current squad.

Defoe is exactly the sort of player that got us in to this mess in the first place.

If we were to sign him his transfer fee would be overpriced because he's an established Premier League player and as he's 30 in a couple of months time he would view this as being his last chance to get a big contract before he retires so his wages will be as high as they'll ever get and after he finishes a 3 or 4 year contract he'll have very little resale value.  If we paid him £60k per week, a conservative estimate I reckon given we're apparently paying Bent £80k, then a four year contract would cost us £12.5m in wages alone.  He could therefore easily cost us £25-£30m with the transfer fee included.  Not worth it in my opinion.

But given all that I'm actually surprised Sunderland aren't sniffing round him - he's the classic MON signing - buy for now, worry about the future later.

I totally take your point on Defoe and did say a player in the Defoe mould.  Having said that I am only suggesting that Defoe would be a better alternative to Bent, who also is probably close to his last big deal, the cost would be positive/neutral as we would probably pay less to buy Defoe than we would get for Bent and he would be on less money, I just think that he - or a player of his type - would be the ideal solution at the moment, given our resources, or lack of!!

[sonlyme]

How about this for an idea....

In Lambert - we trust.

[Mister E]

Why has no one signed Jordan Rhodes? Is he worth going for?

[KRS]

£6m would secure the services of Jordan Rhodes...for me it would be a risk worth taking, but again you have the big question of supply. He's a natural goalscorer but dont know enough about him to judge his work rate off the ball, but as a goal poacher and finisher he's easily as good as Bent from what I've seen.

Players like Defoe and Sturridge can create their own chances, players like Carroll can hold the ball up bringing other players into the game...unfortunately Bent cant/wont do either of those things very well, but they are more than capable of putting the ball in the back of the net from 6yds like Bent does. The more I think about it, the more it points to selling Bent and bringing in more technically gifted players or hardworking players.

[Toronto Villa]

Why has no one signed Jordan Rhodes? Is he worth going for?

If he was worth it somebody would have. It's a combination of professional scouts and management thinking he can't immediately make the step up and his club placing a mental valuation on him. At say 2m he'd probably offer good value as a project with a lot of potential.

[Brian Taylor]

Keane. Robbie Keane!! He knows how to control the field.
The rest are journeymen compared to his undoubted, and demonstrated, talent.

[ROBBO]

When we bought Bent we had the players to supply him and the goals he scored saved us from relegation, it appears that Lambert doesn't want to play with orthodox wingers which makes us play narrow, with that in mind i cannot see Bent getting the space to run in to. He is a very good player in the right set up but not the player we need right now.

[SoccerHQ]

I agree Robbo.

Bent will still score, probably when Gabby comes back and maybe plays wide for a bit as he set up a few of Bent's goals early last season.

Last season he were shite and think he had 9 league goals by the time he was injured so I'd say he'd have reached 15 league goals.

[OCD]

Its sod's law isn't it. Under MON we had the likes of Milner, Young and Downing as the supply route and played a game based on getting wide and crossing it in for Carew to knock down for anyone following in. Bent would have thrived on that and we could have got him when we got Heskey and were challenging Arsenal for 4th place. For the first time in years we have a prolific predator in Bent but little to no supply. It really is frustrating. 

[Phil from the upper holte]

Why can't Lambert play to Bent's strengths? It's not like were free scoring is it? Personally I'm right pissed off we let Johnson go to bloody Sunderland

[danlanza]

Keane. Robbie Keane!! He knows how to control the field.
The rest are journeymen compared to his undoubted, and demonstrated, talent.

Brian, we should have one out of our way to keep Keane last season, he and his 2 goals against wolves kept us up, both from outside the area. I think i am right , but if i am not somebody will put me straight: 3 goals in 2 seasons scored from outside the box, 2 Robbie Keane v wolves and the strike from KEA last wkend, maybe i have missed 1 but i doubt it. Fecking piss poor. We need a Scholes type player to take a shot on sight instead of trying to walk the ball in the net.

[ROBBO]

The managers philosophy seems to be a more continental style of play with players interchanging positions as the game evolves,i cannot for the life of me see where Bent who is a finisher and nothing more will get the service from.Lambert favours a big lump leading the line who can hold the ball and put himself about,Benty is not that type of player.

[Ian.]

Keane. Robbie Keane!! He knows how to control the field.
The rest are journeymen compared to his undoubted, and demonstrated, talent.

Brian, we should have one out of our way to keep Keane last season, he and his 2 goals against wolves kept us up, both from outside the area. I think i am right , but if i am not somebody will put me straight: 3 goals in 2 seasons scored from outside the box, 2 Robbie Keane v wolves and the strike from KEA last wkend, maybe i have missed 1 but i doubt it. Fecking piss poor. We need a Scholes type player to take a shot on sight instead of trying to walk the ball in the net.

I'm sure Petrov got a couple last season, but yes we do need more goals from midfield.

[Rick_avfc]

The more the game on saturday went on the more I kept thinking maybe we should sell Bent but problem is who would buy him?  I'm a big DB fan and would love him to be a success like he has been at  other clubs but we just dont have the quality around him to supply him so he can make the difference.

[enigma]

Keane. Robbie Keane!! He knows how to control the field.
The rest are journeymen compared to his undoubted, and demonstrated, talent.

Brian, we should have one out of our way to keep Keane last season, he and his 2 goals against wolves kept us up, both from outside the area. I think i am right , but if i am not somebody will put me straight: 3 goals in 2 seasons scored from outside the box, 2 Robbie Keane v wolves and the strike from KEA last wkend, maybe i have missed 1 but i doubt it. Fecking piss poor. We need a Scholes type player to take a shot on sight instead of trying to walk the ball in the net.

I know Keane only played a handful of games for us but he was my player of the season. We'd have been relegated without him.