Harry Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Alan Curbishley , George Burley , Steve Bruce , even under Redknapp who wasn't Bents biggest fan Bent scored goals. He has played and scored goals for far less fashionable sides than ourself in topflight for 10 years nearly now. The suggestion that we should sell Bent - a poacher who weve been crying out for for over a decade- because of our managers utter incompetence is ridiculous and farcical. Absolutely spot on. To be honest the last few pages of this thread have been total bollox. A total and utter tool like James Nursey spouts rubbish in the Mirror. Add in a dash of 'terrace talk' and ITK on other teams' forums and lo and behold we have facts. Bent is going nowhere for so many reasons. We need his goals, no one will pay us enough money and Lerner knows the consequences of selling with the fans. And the notion that we would be better off without him is laughable. Far better to spend money on giving Bent the right service if that is what is needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Oh and the problem is McLeish not Bent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 I'm amazed MON at any point never went in for Bent particularly in summer 2009. Bent would've been perfect in an MON team, he scores goals when you get crosses in and that's something you could never accuse an MON of not doing. Look at his only full season at Sunderland, scored 20 goals there and you can't say they had more creative players than we had at the time. As usual we've signed a quality player at the wrong time, when we're on the decline. Bent's best game this season was Norwich, two goals from two crosses. I'm sure he would've got one against Arsenal as Albrighton was hitting some great into the 6 yard box. I'm sure if he stays and Albrighton plays most of the games in the second half of the season, he'll have a healthy goal run as N'zogbia is not really a good crosser of the ball at all and has never been like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 The Arsenal away game from right at the end of last season should give you a clue to Bent's effectiveness, two excellent finishes from two chances which won us the game. Look at his spell with us and 70% of goals have come from him scoring from crosses into the box. This season Albrighton's hardly played and so we've hardly played this way. When Albrighton played at Bolton, Bent actually had some chances but just couldn't finish them. But I'm sure if that happens again in the second half of the season, he'll get a good goal return for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystally! Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 I'm amazed MON at any point never went in for Bent particularly in summer 2009. I remember someone mentioning that MON looked at Bent about the time he moved to Sunderland, but wasn't willing to spend more than about £8-10m? Not sure how true it is though. If it is then an absolutely mad decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Even though it was rumoured at the time the fee to Sunderland was 14m, I think in the end Spurs only recieved 10m as Bent didn't stay long at Sunderland so some of the add-ons weren't met. Very easy to say now and you can't obviously prove it obviously but I believe we'd have got 4th in 09/10 with someone like him in the team. Bar Chelsea away, the defence was incredible but look at some of the games we drew, particularly at VP, we drew at home against the likes of West Ham, Wolves, Sunderland etc, I'm sure Bent would've been a difference in some of those games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 We need him. Sadly he doesn't need us as much as he did when he signed and regained his England place through scoring week in week out due to service from Young, Downing and Walker. I will be so disenfranchised if Bent leaves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian_Taylor Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Bent was absolutely the missing piece in MON's squad. Bent, Agbonlahor, Milner, Young, Downing would have gotten us CL no doubt in my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Bent has missed too many sitters this season, why I'm not sure, confidence ? Bad Luck ? lack of concentration ? To put into perspective, he's on 5, Yakubu is on 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VamosMiAstonVilla Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 I have no doubt if MON would have bought Bent we'd have been playing Champions League football, it's been said many a time before. Ulver's analysis is spot-on. Bent is a highly intelligent player his movement is world class. Can't wait to get him back in the team. 8) Bet he's missing Houllier though like the rest of us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Bet he's missing Houllier though like the rest of us Yeah, really missing the gaffes, him and GMc sat on the bench like a couple of pensioners doing f**k all when we were losing. Yeah, wish he was back, we were so lucky to have him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VamosMiAstonVilla Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Took the words right out of my mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir_gary_cahill Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Bent has missed too many sitters this season, why I'm not sure, confidence ? Bad Luck ? lack of concentration ? To put into perspective, he's on 5, Yakubu is on 10 yakubu is an excellent premier league striker who i would've welcomed here before we got bent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir_gary_cahill Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Bent has missed too many sitters this season, why I'm not sure, confidence ? Bad Luck ? lack of concentration ? To put into perspective, he's on 5, Yakubu is on 10 yakubu is an excellent premier league striker who i would've welcomed here before we got bent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 Bent has missed too many sitters this season, why I'm not sure, confidence ? Bad Luck ? lack of concentration ? To put into perspective, he's on 5, Yakubu is on 10 yakubu is an excellent premier league striker who i would've welcomed here before we got bent Maybe but we have Bent and not Yakubu who I recall has in the past a poor injury record. The trouble with far too many Villa fans is the best player is the one we should have signed rather than the one we did. I still remember the howls of anguish when we 'spunked away' nearly £10m on that unknown Ashley Young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodytom Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 After 90 minutes I was wary. I text my mate saying that he was going to drive me crazy - and he has. This is a bit of selective quoting but this is my main issue. In that Man City game they were all over us for the last half of the game. The ball was being cleared and came back again. However Bent took his one chance in the game and put it away, which he hasn't done enough of this season but he can't score them all (should have done better once or twice mind). I'm not advocating Bent isn't responsible because he is, however the way we have played this season has been why IMO, nothing to do with a lack of desire. We improved a lot against Arsenal and I reckon he'd have had a few chances there from some of the balls we put over in the first half. However, because we haven't played that way, he has had literally nothing to feed on and therefore his confidence is low. He should have stuck a couple of the chances away, which is down to him, but I think the way we have approached games has meant Bent has completely lost confidence. Dont disagree with much of that. I suppose why I was wary after Bents debut is because I knew that couldnt happen every week. Ok, we dont get completely battered by teams all the time like we did that day, but at the same time we dont batter teams very often and never have done in all honesty. That game, he did nothing else but score. Granted, that was great that day. Because we won 1-0. But thats not always the case. What I took away from that game was, christ, he doesnt do anything other than tuck away clear cut openings - how often do we actually create them? And thats when we had Young and Downing. Yes hes a threat, a very good goalscorer in the premier league and I cant argue with that. But we dont have the quality elsewhere to cater for his limited game - especially when hes not actually scoring (like he isnt this season). We dont have the quality to get the best from him atm and I truly believe wed be better off with two strikers who are less potent, but who have more to their game, like hold up play, dropping deep, creating chances themselves. You can have the best striker in the world but if you cant get the ball to him, its pointless and thats down to a number of things including; Mcliesh's tactics Skill level of the players around Bent Bent himself The opposition. There is nothing I want more than Darren Bent to score the winner each week. There really isnt. Id love him to score regularly, but he just isnt. I dont see what he currently offers and I dont see that changing any time soon. I was gutted to see Ashley Young go, and low and behold hes playing well for Man Utd. But Trent made a good point that it didnt really matter how he performed elsewhere, as he was no longer doing it here. And although I still thought he was our best player last season, I have to be honest and say he wasnt the same Ash. Bent will no doubt go on to score goals elsewhere, but I can cope with that, because unless something changes dramatically (which I cant envisage), he isnt going to score lots of goals here, because he needs too many chances, which I have never seen any AVFC team create on a regular basis, especially this 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 Actually, for Bent to score lots he only needs the team to create an average number of chances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodytom Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 Actually, for Bent to score lots he only needs the team to create an average number of chances. Based on this season, I disagree. And we as a team struggle with that anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 Actually, for Bent to score lots he only needs the team to create an average number of chances. Based on this season, I disagree. And we as a team struggle with that anyway.Well we've created far less than average this season. Look at last season, or his time at Sunderland. Would you say we created an above average number of chances? Did Sunderland do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry'sboots Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 Actually, for Bent to score lots he only needs the team to create an average number of chances. Based on this season, I disagree. And we as a team struggle with that anyway.Well we've created far less than average this season. Look at last season, or his time at Sunderland. Would you say we created an above average number of chances? Did Sunderland do that? I'm with you Mantis. Bent has a similar goalscoring record to Drogba and Rooney over the past 4 or 5 years during which time he was playing at a struggling Spurs where he was in and out, a midtable Sunderland and, more latterly, a midtable Villa. There is no way that he would have seen the number of chances that either of the other two would have in title winning sides. All we need to do is get the team set up right for Bent. IMO he plays best when he spearheads the attack and has an effective number 10 or a link striker playing off him -neither of which we have had. If we could get the three right behind him from a combination of Gabby, Marc, The Zog, Ireland and Gardner I believe that we would see the best of Bent again. However, I don't have any faith in Eck's ability to deliver this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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