http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...put-david-bentley-in-the-running-7643925.html Harry Redknapp yesterday raised the possibility of recalling Tottenham's forgotten man David Bentley to the bench for tomorrow's FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea, such is the extent of the squad's injuries. Bentley has not appeared for Spurs since November 2010 and started the season on loan at West Ham, where he was injured at the start of October. He has not played since then but began training again yesterday and, even if he does not make tomorrow's match, he is "in the frame" to be in the squad by the end of the season, Redknapp said. The Spurs manager confirmed Younes Kaboul is injured, leaving him with just two fit centre-backs, in William Gallas and Ryan Nelsen. Michael Dawson is out long-term. Ledley King could play tomorrow although he is a doubt. Sébastien Bassong is on loan at Wolves. To add to Redknapp's problems, Niko Kranjcar, who would have been on the bench, is out after injuring his knee, the club fear the Croatian may miss this summer's European Championship. Scott Parker, absent against Norwich with a hamstring problem, will return, but it is Bentley who is the most intriguing prospect for the game at Wembley. The 27-year-old was the first Englishman to score at the rebuilt stadium, for England Under-21s in 2007. However, since his £15m move to Spurs in 2008, his career has nose-dived and he found himself particularly out of favour after Redknapp's arrival in October of that year. Redknapp said: "He [Bentley] is in the running. David hasn't even played a game [for Spurs this season], but I'm struggling to find seven subs. We are a bit thin on the ground."
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Unbelievable that even with our squad depth, we're struggling for 7 subs. Not looking good for tomorrow!
That's the problem, Roo - we don't have the depth of squad that we need and knowing this, we still loan out players in the January window who would now be a vital resource. I am afraid that this highlights one of the key criticisms of Harry.
Is Bentley really such a bad footballer? We have seen glimpses of what he can do and at Blackburn he was quite impressive, I think there is a decent footballer in there somewhere..... he just needs to concentrate on football rather than his appearance. Bentley cant be any less use to Spurs as the likes of Pienaar, Krancjar, GDS and Rose for eg imo.
My theory is that he needs to shave his head to play well. He was great at Blackburn, no hair. Since he grew a style, and became more self conscious, after joining us, he's lost his power. Like a reverse Samson story. Harry should get the clippers out. Off with his hair!!
I'd take Gio, for the simple reason he won;t lose us at least £10m when we sell him. Also, if we're struggling to fill the bench, why not take some of the youngsters we didn't loan out en masse - Luongo and Lancaster are still at the club, along with Nicholson and Fredericks.
Seeing as we bought him from Blackburn, I have no idea why you think you ever did, to be honest. Bentley's not a bad player, but he's completely unsuited to our 4-4-1-1 system. He'd probably play pretty well in the 4-2-3-1, as it's far slower, he'd stick to his side and he'd have Walker creating space for him to work a cross from. He can actually take a set-piece too, which nobody else in our team seems to be able to manage at the moment. Lack of fitness, sharpness and confidence all go against him severely, though. Another case of buying a player that doesn't fit in, despite any talent that he may have. We need to think more about our overall squad structure and how it all fits together.
At least if Bentley is on the park, we'll have a dead-ball specialist. I'm not sure that he's much good for anything else, though.
Which adds to the argument that it's something to do with our training or lack of it, rather than any lack of ability in the team or squad. Van der Vaart and Bale both appear to have lost this aspect of their game, too.
Squad wise were blessed but tacticly were inept. Bentleys good only like all players if he's deployed properly! We can play 'football manager' on here till were blue in the face, but its not us who continues to pick out of form/injured players or evade the big question on squad rotation leaving the fringe players unable to be truly match fit because of our stupid no reserve team policy. And yes they play behind closed doors, but who do they play that can truely motivate them? Also this bad trainer thing he spouts out is void because he doesn't use the fringe players anyway except in emergencys, even as a fan you'll lose enthusiasm for training. Also injured players come back better from reserve games.
Is this really happening ?. I simply "can NOT believe it'. 12 clear points pissed up the wall now this. We seem to be degenerating into a farce. Somebody wake me up pls.......
