There are rumors founded on rumors which fills the sports pages,but the latest one if true somewhat has me perplexed. Fulham to bid 12mil for Darren Bent in the transfer window. We have a plethora of forewards.what we desperatly need is a couple of quality defenders. And for a reputed 12mil,definatly not Bent.
He is definitely not worth £12 million anymore. If we could have got him for that in the summer, then fine, but not now. The guy can't get in Villa's first team, so why should we pay that for him? As you say, we have no need for strikers currently. I still think a CM is the priority in January. If Jol is right and we have around £20 million to spend, maybe we should try and piss Spurs off with a bid for Moutinho?
Would Bent like to play in a team featuring the attacking talents of Berbatov, Ruiz and Duff? Absolutely, he would love to play with that creativity. Do we need Darren Bent? No, we don't anymore. It's a logical fit for Bent but hardly a fit for us anymore. That £12m could be much better spent on a CM or CB (preferably one of each). On a final note, we finally shipped off our strikers with attitudes in January/the summer. I don't want to sign another one!
Before someone points it out, I'm aware that Berbatov has an "attitude" of sorts. I don't really agree that he has an attitude problem but in any event, when you actually are the best player on the pitch every week (even against top 4 sides), I'm more than happy to accept it!
I know what you mean Surly, but I feel Bent has a right to be 'bent' out of shape (pun intended) Villa are a team seriously lacking in both attacking threat and creativity. Bent provides the team with not only one but both of those things and finds himself on the bench every game. Benteke, despite his goal yesterday, hasn't looked worth the price tag for me, and misses too many chances Bent may well not have. Let's not forget that Bent's England place is hanging by a thread now that Defoe, Rooney, Welbeck and Carroll are all playing and scoring regularly.
Agreed, Bandit. Bent is fully justified in moving on in January given the way Villa have treated him. As much as I dislike Robbie Savage, he's spot on when he highlights how poor that Villa squad is. However, the attitude issues have been there since Spurs through his stint at Sunderland. He's a talented player, but I don't want to be spending £12m for someone like him when we have real needs.
This Bent rumour is just lazy journalism, they have to write something new in the papers every day so they will come out with this stuff every so often. If we were however to spend £12M on a good, young CM I would be very happy indeed. My pick with that budget would be Aaron Ramsey, but hopefuly Jol will spend £4 and unearth some gem. As for Berbatov I'm not even sure you could call it an attitude, it seems more to me that he's just very introverted so managers who don't know him well find it difficult to motivate him, and in some cases can't tell when they have managed to do so (Fergie's hairdryer does not work on everyone). Jol is one who does understand him, and he's certainly managed to motivate him here: I heard he was playing the majority of the match yesterday in pain, yet kept going and scored a great goal.
Surly Savage got a lot of criticism at the start of the season when he tipped them to go down. Everyone seemed to jump on the Lambert bandwagon without realising their squad hadn't been improved over the summer one bit. Lower league players and obscure transfers from Holland does not a team make. Looks like he was spot on with that one though. Rooke Berbatov's goal celebration yesterday was the highlight for me. Running to the fans to celebrate was something I had certainly not expected from him when he came here, he just doesn't seem like that type of player. A Man Utd fan summed up his goal for me yesterday, they said that while he was at Utd, he couldn't truly appreciate his talents, as he was often perceived as being 'lazy' but now that he plays for someone else, that stuff no longer bothers you and you can begin to fully appreciate the type of player he is. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that Berba would be a massive hit here when he signed, much of that can be credited to Jol.
Just another word on Berbatov following on from Rooke and Bandit: not only does he celebrate is own goals with passion but he celebrates everyone else's as well. I think we were all prepared for his skill and brilliance but I for one wasn't prepared for him to be such a team player. He's great in attack but he's good in defence too and he always seems to be on the part of the pitch where he's most needed. He might be the star of the team but he's very much a part of it
Berbatov’s goal celebration yesterday was quality. I was kind of taken aback by it and didn’t expect it at all. He is absolutely a different class and I think was the signing of the summer for what we paid for him. Credit to Big Maart for that. Personally I’d take Bent as his goal per game ratio is good wherever he has been but I can understand the moody comparisons to Zamora so he would come with a risk. I’d be surprised if Jol were to sign him as he bought him in to Spurs where he deemed a failure so not sure if he would go for him again? I still fear Hangeland may go in January and if that is the case we would definitely need to replace him which would no doubt cost more than we would get for him with 6months left on his contract.
Spot on Rooke. This is Goal.com winding us up again - ever since the Dempsey farrago they seem hell bent (no pun intended, Bandit) in spreading disruptive rumours about Fulham. In this case they picked up that when Jol was at Spurs, in 2007 he bought Bent for £16.5m and have made a story of it. One which Bent himself has refuted. On the other points you make - totally agree.
I think for the first time since I can remember, I can't see any glaring holes in our team. Riether has, as far as I'm concerned, filled our omnipresent RB problem - Kelly is good cover. Riise is good on the left and we have quality cover for him in Briggs. Up the middle, Hughes and Hangeland are great and we have Senderos and Baird as cover. On the right we have Duff, Kasami and Davies. On the left we have Frei, Richardson and Kaca. Up the middle we have quality and cover. Strikers - Berbatov, Ruiz, Petric, Rodellega .... (and wasn't that a sweet goal from Ruiz, yesterday?!). Other than adding quality to our cover, what position do we need to fill? We don't need Bent. I don't see how we need anything right now.
We do really need a class, young CM. I'd really like to see Minkwitz or Smith playing there more, as our side is desperately lacking English players.
DR- don't forget Dejegah - he's looked v good coming off the bench in the last 2 games. I'm sure we'll be seeing him start a game v soon
I agree with the majority here - we don't need him and he wouldn't be happy here. He's upset that he's not an automatic choice at Villa, and I don't think he'd be an automatic starter here. Berbatov would clearly start ahead of him, and for my money Ruiz is a better fit than Bent to partner him. I'm not saying Bent wouldn't get games, but he couldn't expect to start every week. I don't think he'll move unless it's to a club that offers him a realistic prospect of that. I also agree with those who say the story is probably invented rather than something that's actually happening. Is Minkwitz British? I had it in my head he was German, or am I thinking of someone else?
Sorry, a quick Google shows you are right Captain. Not sure how I thought he was English with a name like that, probably just being called 'Ronnie' and coming up through the ranks...
Definitely agree...From what I've seen of him against Villa last weekend and yesterday at Reading he looks very good. Hopefully he will be fully fit and be starting soon.
Bid-meister ... I don't disagree that we could use a good young CM, but anyone we obtained would end up fourth-in-line to come off the bench to relieve Diarra and Baird or Sidwell. Any player we brought in as a "good, young ..." would be better off slugging it out in the Championship or League 1 rather than sitting on our bench. I'm just saying that I'm comfortable with the team for the first time in years. Last year we had problems at right back and in the center of midfield, since Sidwell was out most of the year. The year before that, it was left back that was giving us fits. For the last three years we've been thin up top, with just Zamora and Johnson as bonifide stikers. Of course, theoretically, we could improve at every position on the field. Every team can. I just don't see any giant problems in our line up, no glaring gaps in quality or depth that stand out in my mind. And, yes, I'd like to see more of Dejangah.
