I have stood in silence as the rumours circulate about transfers, I'm excited. I want the club to do well. But something is on my mind, and that is yeh Charlie Austin has a track record of scoring goals but its a gamble, an expensive gamble that we can ill afford. If he comes and can't cut it then we've wasted all that money. I think, seriously think that we should go for Darren Bent. I've done all the maths, and I'm sure he's proven record would ensure we stayed in the league. We just need to put up the cash.
I don't think it is a gamble. Even if he does as bad as its possible to do, we'll still get £2m for him in a year's time. He's of a re-sellable age and im sure thats not an accident - it's really not like some of the expensive risks of last time.
I think we can afford it, not only that but we should be looking to invest in players like these if he has a good spell here he could bring in a better price than than we paid. Bent is getting on and for me just looks lazy.
Right age, proven goalscorer in the Championship, will have resale value no-matter what and has every chance of stepping up as long as his head is right for the challenge. Darren Bent would cost a shedload in wages, if he doesn;t score will have little resale value and we'd be relegated and having to pay his wages like with Bullard. Not a sensible option in my opinion as you are potentially gambling the financial security of the club in staying up. At least with Austin he's the type of player who gives you every chance of getting back up if you do go down as he's still young enough to aspire to establishing himself as a premier league striker. Hunger plays a big part, as does age and saleability should we need him off the wage-bill. Not only that, Bruce knows Bent well and the fact he hasn't moved for him speaks volumes. If he doesn't go in the window (as 65k pw for a player who hasn't played suggests he might not) then a loan may well be an option - as with Odemwinghe.
When your maths are as watertight as Bruich's, there's literally NO risk. Kid's a little Hawkings. Good enough for me, I'll put it out there.
Darren bent, so good that he couldn't get in villas **** team and no one wants him. What a signing that would be(!) ****stick
Bent is a big name - and for me is not worth the risk... you think that someone looking for 1 last payday is a good investment? we need someone young enough that we can sell on - Bent is 28/9.. Austin is a good 5 years younger. To me he has more resale-ability than Bent if our PL dream goes tits up.
Bent has Bullard MkII written all over it.. Austin scored a shedload without Brady & Elmohamady on the wings. it's potentially a great signing and investment. We've been waiting for another Windass for too long now (Fryatt..??) I think Austin could go on to become our highest scorer in PL and get more than Geovanni did (11)
We won automatic promotion last season without Davies, Austin, Figueroa or McGregor. If we had them we would have finished champions. If the worst happens and we go down we will have that same team to challenge for promotion again. We will also have parachute money to shop for the best additions like Reading, Wigan and QPR are doing now (while the rest of the league are enforced by FFP to shop in the bargain basement). Step one for securing the club's long term financial future is assembling a squad which will always bounce straight back up to the Prem. and with Austin on board I think that step will have been achieved. The next step for Bruce is adding enough quality to keep us up and if he does that it will be a bonus.
If Aluko was never injured we could've been champions. There was a point were we were only 4 or 5 points behind Cardiff. Agreed on the second point. Most of these signings would likely stay if we went down.
