N'Zogbia

[Allan C]

IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money

You didn't rate a player who kept us up, scored a goal every other game and was better than anyone we'd had in his position for over a decade?

Correct. I didn't rate him and think he was way over-priced. For me, Bent was a Championship player who got lucky

My very best wishes to you defending that position. It might be easier for you to become a defence lawyer for a bloke caught red handed by the cops taking money from a bank vault swearing he wasn't there.

We all agree about Charles good ridence to him. My opinion will never change about Bent. We paid 18 million plus for a bang average player and that brings me back to my original point that that is when the rot started. And if he was a "shoe in" for Brazil 14 then so was Harry Redknapp's wife x

[passitsideways]

IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money

You didn't rate a player who kept us up, scored a goal every other game and was better than anyone we'd had in his position for over a decade?

Correct. I didn't rate him and think he was way over-priced. For me, Bent was a Championship player who got lucky

My very best wishes to you defending that position. It might be easier for you to become a defence lawyer for a bloke caught red handed by the cops taking money from a bank vault swearing he wasn't there.

We all agree about Charles good ridence to him. My opinion will never change about Bent. We paid 18 million plus for a bang average player and that brings me back to my original point that that is when the rot started. And if he was a "shoe in" for Brazil 14 then so was Harry Redknapp's wife x

Right, because we totally didn't spend bucketloads of cash on bang-average players all the way through the MON era.

[Villa in Denmark]

Bent was £18 million because of where we were and what it would do to Sunderland.

He was so bang ordinary, we ended staying up comfortably and Sunderland only just survived having been comfortably mid-table, largely on the back of the goals he scored for us and didn't score for them.

Even under McLeish he scored at roughly 1 in 2. We went into a nose dive when Bent got injured. Prior to that we'd been around mid-table and looked comfortable without looking great.

He'd been playing regularly for England scoring at a reasonable rate. Go back to the players in and around the squad before his injury and say who'd have gone instead.

To compare Bent to that brainless, egotistical peacock is frankly offensive.

[Allan C]

Bent was £18 million because of where we were and what it would do to Sunderland.

He was so bang ordinary, we ended staying up comfortably and Sunderland only just survived having been comfortably mid-table, largely on the back of the goals he scored for us and didn't score for them.

Even under McLeish he scored at roughly 1 in 2. We went into a nose dive when Bent got injured. Prior to that we'd been around mid-table and looked comfortable without looking great.

He'd been playing regularly for England scoring at a reasonable rate. Go back to the players in and around the squad before his injury and say who'd have gone instead.

To compare Bent to that brainless, egotistical peacock is frankly offensive.

I wasn't comparing Bent to Harry but his wife which was ever so tongue in cheek. The bang average players in the MON era weren't doing to badly or did I imagine those top 10 finishes?? Would love to swap that team for this one right now. "Roughly 1 in 2" is also very generous

[Villa in Denmark]

Bent was £18 million because of where we were and what it would do to Sunderland.

He was so bang ordinary, we ended staying up comfortably and Sunderland only just survived having been comfortably mid-table, largely on the back of the goals he scored for us and didn't score for them.''

Even under McLeish he scored at roughly 1 in 2. We went into a nose dive when Bent got injured. Prior to that we'd been around mid-table and looked comfortable without looking great.

He'd been playing regularly for England scoring at a reasonable rate. Go back to the players in and around the squad before his injury and say who'd have gone instead.

To compare Bent to that brainless, egotistical peacock is frankly offensive.

I wasn't comparing Bent to Harry but his wife which was ever so tongue in cheek. The bang average players in the MON era weren't doing to badly or did I imagine those top 10 finishes?? Would love to swap that team for this one right now. "Roughly 1 in 2" is also very generous

You said

We all agree about Charles good ridence to him. My opinion will never change about Bent. We paid 18 million plus for a bang average player and that brings me back to my original point that that is when the rot started. And if he was a "shoe in" for Brazil 14 then so was Harry Redknapp's wife

I never made any reference to the spineless one, someone else raised him as the epitome of paying over the odds for bang average players, but that is generally how accepted as being how we started off down this path.

The bit in bold is the bit I'm contesting.

Roughly 1 in 2 is after checking 9 in 22 in the league before his injury under McLeish after 9 in 16 under Houllier, so overall 18 in 38 or 1 in 1 in 2.11111111 games.

My mistake on the timings, the injury cost him his place in Euro 2012 in Ukraine and Poland.

Anyone that credence to anything that self serving, disingenuous gobshite Redknapp, comes out with is a bigger twonk than the guy who accepted a paw print as a signature on a bank account application form.

And for reference, the brainless egotistical peacock I was talking about was Charlie boy, but I can see why you could be confused.

[Allan C]

Bent was £18 million because of where we were and what it would do to Sunderland.

He was so bang ordinary, we ended staying up comfortably and Sunderland only just survived having been comfortably mid-table, largely on the back of the goals he scored for us and didn't score for them.''

Even under McLeish he scored at roughly 1 in 2. We went into a nose dive when Bent got injured. Prior to that we'd been around mid-table and looked comfortable without looking great.

He'd been playing regularly for England scoring at a reasonable rate. Go back to the players in and around the squad before his injury and say who'd have gone instead.

To compare Bent to that brainless, egotistical peacock is frankly offensive.

I wasn't comparing Bent to Harry but his wife which was ever so tongue in cheek. The bang average players in the MON era weren't doing to badly or did I imagine those top 10 finishes?? Would love to swap that team for this one right now. "Roughly 1 in 2" is also very generous

You said

We all agree about Charles good ridence to him. My opinion will never change about Bent. We paid 18 million plus for a bang average player and that brings me back to my original point that that is when the rot started. And if he was a "shoe in" for Brazil 14 then so was Harry Redknapp's wife

I never made any reference to the spineless one, someone else raised him as the epitome of paying over the odds for bang average players, but that is generally how accepted as being how we started off down this path.

The bit in bold is the bit I'm contesting.

Roughly 1 in 2 is after checking 9 in 22 in the league before his injury under McLeish after 9 in 16 under Houllier, so overall 18 in 38 or 1 in 1 in 2.11111111 games.

My mistake on the timings, the injury cost him his place in Euro 2012 in Ukraine and Poland.

Anyone that credence to anything that self serving, disingenuous gobshite Redknapp, comes out with is a bigger twonk than the guy who accepted a paw print as a signature on a bank account application form.

And for reference, the brainless egotistical peacock I was talking about was Charlie boy, but I can see why you could be confused.

ONCE AGAIN the reference to Harry's wife was light hearted and very tongue in cheek. I do however respect your opinions without resorting to calling you a "twonk" I'll stick to my opinion on Bent.  Look at all our inward transfers after Bent. Benteke was arguably the only success at a mere 7 million and a scoring return of 1 in 2 playing in the worst Villa team ever. Bent played in arguably our best team in years with a return of 1 in 3 but I'm open to correction. Don't forget the massive transfer fee we received for Bent, what was it?? NIL. Again my opinion but a massive loss. Finally, why are you trying to change history with the MON years. Give me those days now rather than the state we are in today

[Villa in Denmark]

I'm not trying to change history with the spineless one's record.

He came in, spent a fortune, assembled a team with a glass ceiling of 6th, for money that really should have had us challenging for top 3, not fading away to nothing 3 years on the trot.  Due to his own strengths he'd assembled a team that would run through brick walls for him.  Unfortunately due to his own failings it could only run through brick walls, never any thought of how to go over or around and it was a team that was perennially dead on it's feet by March because he wouldn't trust any of the identikit, like of like spare parts he'd bought at great expense to do a job for a couple of weeks here and there.

If you don't listen to Redknapp and it was a light hearted quip, then you're not a twonk. I merely described where someone who listens to Redknapp is on my common sense to utter bollocks scale.

If you're not capable of recognising Bent's record is drastically different pre and post ankle injury, I assume you'll be serving other players who've suffered similar career altering injuries the same discourtesy. I'm not comparing Bent to Little or Shaw in ability, but would you hold their attempts to recover from injury in the same light as when firing on all cylinders? If you showed his wiki page to someone who didn't know Bent's history, just said this guy's a player who relied on agility and acceleration to get his goals, when did he injure his ankle, I'd guess the vast majority would pick somewhere in 2012, based on that table of goals and appearances.

The lack of a fee back for Bent is just a s big an indication of the shocking way we've been run off the pitch as anything.  Our squad management has been awful in general.  Add in the bomb squad fiasco and it's no wonder that people we either queuing up to take players on loan or waiting to pick them up for free.  Add in the injury that's already been discussed and there's no way we were ever going to see much back.  If McLeish had wanted to cash in during the January window we'd have got a decent chunk back.  After that injury it was always a case of diminishing returns, especially after Lambert's Bomb Squad brain wave.

[Allan C]

I'm not trying to change history with the spineless one's record.

He came in, spent a fortune, assembled a team with a glass ceiling of 6th, for money that really should have had us challenging for top 3, not fading away to nothing 3 years on the trot.  Due to his own strengths he'd assembled a team that would run through brick walls for him.  Unfortunately due to his own failings it could only run through brick walls, never any thought of how to go over or around and it was a team that was perennially dead on it's feet by March because he wouldn't trust any of the identikit, like of like spare parts he'd bought at great expense to do a job for a couple of weeks here and there.

If you don't listen to Redknapp and it was a light hearted quip, then you're not a twonk. I merely described where someone who listens to Redknapp is on my common sense to utter bollocks scale.

If you're not capable of recognising Bent's record is drastically different pre and post ankle injury, I assume you'll be serving other players who've suffered similar career altering injuries the same discourtesy. I'm not comparing Bent to Little or Shaw in ability, but would you hold their attempts to recover from injury in the same light as when firing on all cylinders? If you showed his wiki page to someone who didn't know Bent's history, just said this guy's a player who relied on agility and acceleration to get his goals, when did he injure his ankle, I'd guess the vast majority would pick somewhere in 2012, based on that table of goals and appearances.

The lack of a fee back for Bent is just a s big an indication of the shocking way we've been run off the pitch as anything.  Our squad management has been awful in general.  Add in the bomb squad fiasco and it's no wonder that people we either queuing up to take players on loan or waiting to pick them up for free.  Add in the injury that's already been discussed and there's no way we were ever going to see much back.  If McLeish had wanted to cash in during the January window we'd have got a decent chunk back.  After that injury it was always a case of diminishing returns, especially after Lambert's Bomb Squad brain wave.

I stated on my original post that I didn't rate Bent when we signed him. Neither would I wish injury on any player at any club and as you say his performance deteriorated after his sadly. But again, in my opinion, it was 18 million plus that could have been better spent. Hence my original post about the rot starting there. Finally, and I am aware that this is breaking into other threads, MON assembled a squad that saw us challenging for honours consistently. It was his job to build that squad to get to the "glass ceiling" of 6th. I would love to be at that "glass ceiling" right now.

[passitsideways]

I'm not trying to change history with the spineless one's record.

He came in, spent a fortune, assembled a team with a glass ceiling of 6th, for money that really should have had us challenging for top 3, not fading away to nothing 3 years on the trot.  Due to his own strengths he'd assembled a team that would run through brick walls for him.  Unfortunately due to his own failings it could only run through brick walls, never any thought of how to go over or around and it was a team that was perennially dead on it's feet by March because he wouldn't trust any of the identikit, like of like spare parts he'd bought at great expense to do a job for a couple of weeks here and there.

If you don't listen to Redknapp and it was a light hearted quip, then you're not a twonk. I merely described where someone who listens to Redknapp is on my common sense to utter bollocks scale.

If you're not capable of recognising Bent's record is drastically different pre and post ankle injury, I assume you'll be serving other players who've suffered similar career altering injuries the same discourtesy. I'm not comparing Bent to Little or Shaw in ability, but would you hold their attempts to recover from injury in the same light as when firing on all cylinders? If you showed his wiki page to someone who didn't know Bent's history, just said this guy's a player who relied on agility and acceleration to get his goals, when did he injure his ankle, I'd guess the vast majority would pick somewhere in 2012, based on that table of goals and appearances.

The lack of a fee back for Bent is just a s big an indication of the shocking way we've been run off the pitch as anything.  Our squad management has been awful in general.  Add in the bomb squad fiasco and it's no wonder that people we either queuing up to take players on loan or waiting to pick them up for free.  Add in the injury that's already been discussed and there's no way we were ever going to see much back.  If McLeish had wanted to cash in during the January window we'd have got a decent chunk back.  After that injury it was always a case of diminishing returns, especially after Lambert's Bomb Squad brain wave.

I stated on my original post that I didn't rate Bent when we signed him. Neither would I wish injury on any player at any club and as you say his performance deteriorated after his sadly. But again, in my opinion, it was 18 million plus that could have been better spent. Hence my original post about the rot starting there. Finally, and I am aware that this is breaking into other threads, MON assembled a squad that saw us challenging for honours consistently. It was his job to build that squad to get to the "glass ceiling" of 6th. I would love to be at that "glass ceiling" right now.

Better spent on what? From what I remember, at the time we bought him, we desperately needed a striker to finish off the chances that Young, Downing and Albrighton were creating because the ones we had were completely useless (in the sense that I vividly remember checking to see how many league goals Gabby, Heskey and Carew had combined for at the time the transfer was made, and being horrified - it was something in the vicinity of three or four goals). It's not like we didn't cover other holes during that window either - Kyle Walker came in on loan to shore up the back four, and then we brought in Makoun (and, I suppose, Michael Bradley) to give us another midfield option alongside Stan and NRC (also, Bannan, Pires and Delph coming back from injury.) In fact, Makoun's probably a far more compelling embodiment of these past five years: a cultured midfield player who we completely mismanaged, and eventually moved on for a massive loss.

[Toronto Villa]

Bent signing enabled us to stay up. The £18m was a drop in the ocean to the millions relegation would have cost us. Fast forward to now to the cost of no longer having a proven goalscorer.

[myf]

I woke up from a nightmare last night which involved nzog scoring a pen for Wigan to beat us in next years play off final

[cdbearsfan]

Bent signing enabled us to stay up. The £18m was a drop in the ocean to the millions relegation would have cost us. Fast forward to now to the cost of no longer having a proven goalscorer.

Although that assumes that we couldn't have bought anyone else for £18 million who would've scored as many goals as Bent. That seems unlikely in hindsight.

[brian green]

For what it is worth in these times when so many of our players are thorougoing shits, Darren Bent is a really sound man.  He gave a very substantial voluntary donation to Ely Cathedral because his wedding was held in the Lady Chapel there and he sent a personal condolences card to the funeral of my brother whom he had never met but knew me from his days at Ipswich.

[passitsideways]

Bent signing enabled us to stay up. The £18m was a drop in the ocean to the millions relegation would have cost us. Fast forward to now to the cost of no longer having a proven goalscorer.

Although that assumes that we couldn't have bought anyone else for £18 million who would've scored as many goals as Bent. That seems unlikely in hindsight.

I really don't think we could have - most of the proven goalscorers in the EPL would have been at the top clubs and thus unwilling to come over; and if we had gone the foreign route, we would have assumed the risk that whoever we bought would need time to settle into English football, which was a risk we couldn't really afford to take. I mean, just look at Suarez, who went to Liverpool in that window for a few million more: he scored 4 in 13 after making the move; while Dzeko scored 2 in 15. They both ended up showing their worth (to vastly different degrees, of course), but that wouldn't have helped a team in the situation we were in.

Meanwhile, of Bent's 9 goals that he scored, 7 of them ended up getting us 9 points, which proved to be the gap between us and 18th place:

City x1 (+2)
Everton x2 (+1)
Arsenal x2 (+3)
Stoke x1 (+1)
West Ham x1 (+2)

I suppose his replacement might have earned points with goals of his own, but happy we didn't have to find that out.

[Rudy65]

I woke up from a nightmare last night which involved nzog scoring a pen for Wigan to beat us in next years play off final

They cant afford him