NiallQuinnsDiscoPants

Hows that then? Sunderland season ticket? Tottenham season ticket? I'm just passing on the facts mate - you all seem to be hanging your hats on a very skewed statistic that puts him in the Drogba/Rooney bracket when in fact 81 goals in six years only equates to an average of 13 goals a year. If Rooney and Drogba took their sides penalties they'd both have well over 100 goals in the same period, from less games. There's a big reason why those three are the top three scorers over the past 6 years - they're three of the VERY FEW strikers who've been playing regularly in the Premiership during that period. If you break it down to (a) goals-per-game or ( recent form he's not nearly as impressive, and to be honest that's something that's dawned on us since we've seen Gyan and Wellbeck. He'll score a few goals for you but you could get someone to do that for less than 10m; about £5m if you went abroad and knew what you were looking for. Instead you've panicked and bid about double the market value for a badly out of form striker who isn't even currently the second best striker at his club (like I say, please feel free to look through the thread on our board for about the last six months - it is regularly mooted that he shouldn't be in the side). I understand the wheels have come off, and that you're in dire straits, but this is probably the most outrageous panic buy in Premier League history. There's a reason that it's going to go through in less than 36 hours - the selling club can't get this done quick enough.

Ah, so when you said that Darren Bent was a "proven 20-goal a season Premier League scorer", you meant in all competitions?? I see. OK the, I'll rephrase - what's that based on the two seasons out of his ten year career that he's scored 20 goals in all competitions? You may be desperate to believe you're signing Lionel Messi, but you're not.

Ah, so when you said that Darren Bent was a "proven 20-goal a season Premier League scorer", you meant in all competitions?? I see. OK the, I'll rephrase - what's that based on the two seasons out of his ten year career that he's scored 20 goals in all competitions? You may be desperate to believe you're signing Lionel Messi, but you're not.

Yeah, we take your best player off you without any of your fans knowing about it and you've pulled our pants down... :? Our board is hardly in meltdown mate - you might want to pop your head in, scroll back through the last 4/5 months worht of threads and read the ongoing debate about selling Bent/leaving Bent on the bench etc. We've been on a great run over the last four months and during that period he's been left behind by the other two strikers at the club. Like i say, read the threads posted well before this story leaked. You could even just read the first page, we're not suicidal we're haggling over how best to spend the money.

List me the number of PL forwards who have played all throughout that period and stayed injury-free?? It's an easy stat to roll out but goals-per-game is the only fair way to do it as there'll only be a handful of players who've been playing regularly in the premier league over that period. 81 goals in the past six and a half seasons for Bent I think - obviously skewed by the fact that 20% are penalties whilst Rooney/Drogba don't take their team's penalties. I'd wager Rooney and Drogba have played a lot less games over those six years than Bent has. Make no mistake, he's a decent signing for you, but £18m is outrageous given his form and it's no suprise that this will all be getting done in the space of about 36hours. SELL SELL SELL!!!!

Yep. he's not playing that well this season, but still has 8 league goals in 20 appearances. Gyan, who many are saying is much better, has 7 in 19 appearances. And that's with Bent "not playing well". The fee is huge, too much. But in terms of the player we're getting, i'm very happy. Four of Bent's league goals are from the penalty spot. Gyan has made 19 appearances but 11 of those are from the bench when he first signed and was settling in. All 20 of Bent's appearances are starts, and 19 of those games he finished. Make no mistake about it, Bent is "not playing well". Gyan has five assists in three months. Bent has one assist in 18 months. £18m smacks of desperation and I think we've had your pants down here.