Stand by it all you like. I just think it's so unlikely, it's a point not worth even making. It's a bit like me saying we have a chance of getting a Champions League place. It's possible, right? You act like other teams won't pick up points as well. Believe it or not, most of them will, and most of them will keep the place, if not improve (i.e. Everton). But what is 'turn things around'? That's my point. You could turn things around and finish comfortably in the top 10, which would be a fantastic achievement considering the bad start. However, it's easy to push too far into the realms of delusion. Never said you didn't, did I? Enjoy it. You'll probably get a respectable result on the table. Again, why do you presume every other team is going to stagnate and crumble whilst you guys fly overhead? No matter how many points you guys pick up, if other teams pick up similar points, you aren't going to move an inch. Everton have a manager, imo, better than O'Neill, and a better squad with better players. They are more likely to do it than you are, but I still think that achieving 7th is a very big ask. Good. 5 of those players are actual CMs. If you got rid of Cattermole and Gardner, and then had Vaughan and Colback in CM (hypothetical partnership) you would only have Myler as true CM back-up. If he got injured, you would have to play Sessegnon out of position. The notion of getting rid of TWO of your CMs (one of which is currently first-choice) to fund another player without it being an issue is just stupid. You currently have some degree of CM depth, but you'll lose it with a dumbass move like that. In all probability, we are not as bad as you would like to think and you are not as good as you like to think either. It works both ways. All I know is that we currently have top clubs sniffing around players like Krul, Coloccini, Tiote, Cabaye, Ba and so on. Who's after your players? Oh yeah, no one. Says a lot.
7th depends. last year it was 53 points for 7th, 20 games left 35 points needed we need a run like Newcastle have had in the 1st 18 games, so unlikely but possible. Year before it was 63 points for 7th 20 games left 45 points needed we need run like spurs have had in the1st 17 and they still need to win 2 out of their next 3 to reach it., never going to happen. honestly though, top 12, safe from relegation with 2 games to go, will do me, i dont even care if Newcastle finish above us, but i would like the gap to minus and not get even bigger before the end of the season.
If you were in Blackburn's present position, would you release Samba in January? I don't know the state of his contract, but losing him on a Bosman in summer is the only way they're going to release him in January. It would be suicidal of them. Pav? Forget it. We could get Bent back for about half the price, and as a goal-scorer Pav certainly ain't in that league. Bent really is the best bet we've got because Villa still owe us a lot of money on him. It wouldn't cost the earth to squash the original deal.
believe it or not but pav has a very similar record to bent. pav; played 397 scored 144 Bent: played 393 scored 168 but a lot of bents was in the championship with Ipswich and he only has 2 20 goal seasons, one with us one with Ipswich in 45 games in the championship. Pavs have been in Russia and Europe 40 games 20 goals in europe. just saying they are not that dissimilar
Steve, like the way you always cut through the nonsense with stats! Guess DB has a better record in England but wouldn't have thought Pav was such a scorer, doubt we could pay eithers wages now unfortunately. This is why I, like many, want to see Noble given a chance as the likelihood of us getting a PL proven goalscorer is slim with the wages to turnover ratio we have. Best bet is developing our own or someone elses potential hot shots
well lets just take spurs for now. over 2 years Bent 79 games 25 goals (includes Europe and Cups) 60 games 18 Goals in the PL over 4 years including this Pav 108 games 40 goals (includes Europe and Cups) 76 games 20 goals in the PL not that much difference really, but spurs they tend to like to rotate the strikers, so you wont get Bent or Pav starting and playing 90 minutes game after game after game.
Thanks for that Steve, pretty surprising really. Take your point about rotation and them subbing strikers a bit more due to squad depth. Do you reckon Pav is a possibility? I understand the chat around Bent with transfer fee still being owed, but thought he left for more money and England recognition so see this as unlikely (apologies if this has been done already)
tbh i would prefer pappa demba cisse to both of them, i know i have been bigging pav, but i just dont think he is that good in the prem, and Bent has only really had 2 good seasons, and already done the dirty on us once. cisse may be a complete failure but then Pav and Bent might be as well, you just never know till you fork out for them.
I might be wrong here, Steve, but didn't Bent score 11 for us and 9 for Villa last season? Admittedly, only 8 of those he scored for us were in the league, but I thought he hit 20 in the season with a month out for injury in November. Maybe not. I'd still prefer him because of price, of course. But then, as hettonist says, there's wages to consider. And the way he was treated at SoL last month. A lot of 'ifs' and 'buts'. I don't think either will end up here frankly.
he had 36 league games and scored 17 goals, so only missed 2 league games. us 20 games 8 goals villa 16 games 9 goals only league though
Yes, he scored 3 in the cups for us, didn't he? I thought he scored 20 in all competitions. One other point, Rotor Volgograd (at least since 2000) have probably been a lot lower standard than our Ipswich and Dynamo Stavropol certainly are. So I think the Ipswich goals are probably something of a plus for Bent, not a minus. What do you think? Having said all that, I wouldn't turn Pav down. He's certainly a good player. When I said "Pav? - forget it." I didn't mean to run him down. It's just that Villa owe us so much money it's a no-brainer to me, in purchasing terms. They paid us £6m initially, and may have paid another installment - I'm not sure. We can negotiate some of that away because he's been a year there. So we're maybe looking at 5 to 9 million for Bent. Let's be frank, if we got that chance, and he wanted to come, we'd be mad not to take it.
well i am not really up on my russian teams i have to admit, but when pav played for all 3 they were in the Russian 1st division but the only one he ever did anything with was spartak, but he would have been a young kid for the other 2. But i really dont think bent will come back, think we have more chance of getting Henderson (and we dont have a chance with that yet). MON may not bring in anyone yet, we do have Campbell coming back soon and Bendtner who should be doing it (just isnt scoring) Whickam, Ji, Noble, and sess as a makeshift one, sothats 5 maybe 6 strikers on the books, OK not of them world class, but still 6, if they start scoring we dont need anyone, its just that they couldnt score in a brothel atm, everyone is clamouring for a striker. but do we actually "need" one?
