I thought that was pretty cheap of Bentley to hint that this incident was a reason he wasn't picked. As several managers have consistently failed topck Bentley, it might have been more impressive if he had realised that at some stage, he should be taking more responsibilty for his lack of games over the years. This is a guy who was handed a chance at Biormingham but stormed out after hearing he was starting on the bench. This is a guy who wrapped his car round a lamp post when under the influence. And despite what he says in the article about his club in Marbella being only an "investment", it was in fact a place he visited most weekends when he wasn't picked by Harry. Bentley needs to look at himself, and not try an influence the fans that Harry couldn't take the joke. Harry did take it and even used the opportunity to auction the wet suit off for charity.
Harry always appears to have a good sense of humour and I find it hard to believe that was a factor in not picking Bentley. Simply his style of play did not suit the team and if I remember correctly the run he had in the team was as much to do with lack of alternatives as much as anything, (Lennon injured for one.)
Redknapp admitted that he was pissed off about it though, SC. “Well I’ve got to be honest, Helen, it was a bit of fun, but I wasn’t best pleased with it, I’ve got to be honest with you. “I just thought it was a bit disrespectful if I’m honest about it, to tell you the absolute truth, you know. “I could never imagine doing that with Ron Greenwood, who was my manager when I was a player, or Bobby Moore doing it to the manager. “But no, David’s a good lad, I just think they got a bit carried away on the night. “You notice it was all lads who didn’t play who did it, it was none of the boys who actually played...” - HR He was also wrong about the last bit. Bentley was on the pitch when Crouch scored, for a start. Palacios played a whole 5 minutes, too! Not sure that several managers have consistently failed to pick him either, to be honest. I'm not claiming that he's perfect, by any means and I'm sure that his off-field behaviour did influence Redknapp's decision over his selection. Bassong going from 35 games to 15 the following season, despite an increase in the number and frequency of our fixtures, would back his point up, though.
There has been a bad weather prediction for Europe and the USA for this winter.I wonder if Bentley has heard this.Maybe Harry has called hime at home to tell him it may be 70 degrees in Russia this winter? But tell him not to kick the ball at the manager,he may get shot!!!!!!?
There have been too many indications from various sources, including OS, showing that his attitude has been less than professional. No serious manager is going to tolerate that. He has talent, but seems to have decided that being a playboy is more important than being a footballer. As he's still only 25, he could still be a very useful addition to our squad, but he needs an attitude transplant first. Or maybe, in his case, it's a matter of "growing up" we will see!..
Nsis, Bentley's 28, he's supposed to be at his peak! for me the lad has chucked the best part of his career away.
HTML: I'm sure I read somewhere that he was 25. I remember thinking at the time " I'm sure he must be older than that" anyway, my mistake. Totally agree about the waste. Bit late to start growing up now, I suppose.
How many of our decent squad players have had that same accusation leveled at them though, NSIS? Dos Santos, Bassong, Bentley, Kranjcar, Corluka, Pienaar, Pavlyuchenko... at some point it has to be a problem at the club. Either we're signing the wrong players too often or we're failing to instill discipline and respect in those that aren't in the starting XI, for some reason.
...or it's a smokescreen, perpetuated by Harry as an excuse to freeze out certain players. There was never any implication that Corluka had an unprofessional attitude in his season at Man City in 2007-8, nor was there any implication of him having one at any point with us between 2008-11...yet suddenly last season he has one? The same goes for Pienaar, who never had a bad word spoken about his attitude at Everton, yet suddenly at Spurs Lodge (as he never got a game under Harry) he has an unprofessional attitude? Sorry, I don't buy it for a second. Heck, Dos Santos was publicly pleading for a chance last season, but did he get one? No, he got a couple of starts in the Europa League and FA Cup, and a few substitute appearances late last season. Whilst it's true Bentley can be an unprofessional berk (he hardly proved otherwise at Birmingham a couple of seasons ago, and presumably would have done likewise at Wet Spam if he didn't break his leg), the complete list of people Harry deemed "unprofessional" happened to be exactly the same as the list of players Harry never seemed intent on playing, to the point he'd rather play one of the first teamers out of position to fill in for an injured player rather than give them a few games.
Where did Harry say Corluka and Pienaar were unprofessional as I missed that. What I didn't miss was these 2's problems more than explained. Corluka's missus cancelled their wedding and he went off the rails..badly, during this period Kyle Walker came to the fore. Pienaar was well documented, unfortunate with injury. Any particular reason you keep banging on about this?
As we're not on the inside, we don't really know the truth for sure. However, I agree about Corluka and Pienaar, I don't recall any direct allegations of unprofessional behaviour. In Bentley's case, there has been so much smoke, that there has to be a fire. The others, I remember Dos Santos of being accused of being a little too find of the nightlife, and Pav always struck me as a basically lazy player, who wouldn't put in any more effort than the minimum needed. But, as I say, without actually being ITK, who knows for sure.
I was referring to PNP's response. Let's be honest, Harry has always been skilled at freezing out players - the aforementioned list at Spurs, Nugent at Portsmouth, half the squad at Southampton - so at that point it becomes clear there's only one person who is acting unprofessionally: Henry James Redknapp. It's come up in the last couple of issues of WSC how bad it was at Southampton - in training he only spoke to the players he signed, whilst his idea of nurturing the youngsters was to throw eleven of them onto the pitch in a Carling Cup tie, lose, and then say "I told you so" to the board after they were encouraging him to use. Freezing out a whole youth team (which, at the time, included Theo Walcott, Andrew Surnan and Leon Best) certainly goes against the oft-repeated record of bringing through youngsters at West Ham.
"I was referring to PNP's response." ...indeed you were...on an open forum, PM is your best bet if you wanted to keep it to yourselves. Interesting stuff hbic, can't say I knew too much on the previous, looks damning i suppose, but deliberately cutting nose off to spite face seems unlikely to me, may be wrong.
Is this the same David Nugent who has gone onto better things since Harry bombed him out ?? Or are you referring to the David Nugent who after signing for Harry, then decided he would invest a large proportion of his wages in Stella Artois ?? Not one of your better posts HBIC.
I'm referring to the David Nugent who had just made his England debut, and was subject to bids from Sunderland, Everton and Portsmouth at the time - who, on the occasions Harry did play him, was played on the wing instead of playing him up front. Frozen out, played out of position, and not to mention Harry's response to him scoring his first goal for the club was to say he was looking to move him on as soon as possible (despite him arriving mere weeks earlier) - all damning stuff, and all of those happened at various points in his tenure at Spurs as well.
Yeah, he found out he had signed a piss head. As you say, "damning stuff", and most of it against Nugent. Pretty much all of the players you mention he has "frozen out", all came with some sort of baggage, but hey wtf, let's use it to take more cheap shots at Harry. I see you use WSC as one of your sources. Just to let you know, one of the current Conference leagiue managers is currently taking legal action against that magazine for printing fiction over fact. Don't believe everything you read.
So what was the baggage connected with the majority of the players Southampton had on the books? Also, the comments regarding his time at Southampton come from three separate sources - a lot harder to dismiss at that point.
Hbic and PNP You 2 are the main protagonists with this 'frozen out' theory. Are you both of the opinion that players private lives have absolutely no bearing on the way they train and play? just because they are professional players, doesn't mean they all act that way off duty as such. Clubs have little control over players activites outside, individuals have to be trusted, but you always get a a few who abuse it, and thats a fact in any industry. Would you be surprised to learn that a number of Spurs players have had alcohol issues recently. I will not give names but rest assure it happens far more than you 2 are aware. This does not mean culprits are to be found on park benches with empty bottles of Frosty Jack beside them, but smelling of it coming into work, thats right WORK! what would you do as an employer? "Ah no problem, I need to ****in rotate this afternoon make sure you've slept it off before you get changed for the match. And those of you that are sober, sorry but the lush is on the bench." For an inelligent pair of posters you're both thick as **** on this one.
I have no doubt that Harry had his favourites. You only had to look at some of his bizarre team selections last season. Trying to play certain players way out of position, just so they could be included in his starting X1. However, in Bentley's case, I have no sympathy whatsoever. There is far too much evidence of his unprofessional attitude. Why he has not been sold ages ago, only Levy knows.
