Darren Bent

[Adam_]

Thought I would post these up again updated this season of games since Bent signed

With Bent

40 games, 13 wins, 14 draws, 11 loses, 49 scored, 52 conceded, 53 points

Without Bent:

34 games, 6 wins, 13 draws, 15 loses, 35 scored, 59 conceded, 31 points

Incredible. Also incredible that there is a stat that shows we have won more games than lost in recent years.

Not really when Villa are the draw masters.... more draws in PL history than any other club.

I think we'd be better off selling him (Only if we got a decent amount for him) and using the money to buy 2 or 3 other players with.

[FamousHolteUnion]

If we could get £20m for him and buy 2 strikers from abroad, a winger, a midfielder and a left back with that £20m + whatever we can get for Warnock and Hutton, then fine, but I suspect we cant do so in the next 5 days. So he will be staying and we need to sort something out to create chances for him ASAP.

[Avfc96]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4506393/Premier-League-ace-Darren-Bents-cop-cousin-stole-cash-from-dead.html. Darren could be dragged into a police investigation, just what we need.

[P3te]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4506393/Premier-League-ace-Darren-Bents-cop-cousin-stole-cash-from-dead.html. Darren could be dragged into a police investigation, just what we need.

read it again

**** all of any consequence for villa or darrens football

[AVFCforever1991]

They have taken it down.

[Voinjama]

Anyone in favour of selling Darren Bent needs a check up from the neck up. If we sell Darren Bent who can the club realistically sign who is as good or better? And there is no way if he did leave the club we would get anywhere near £20 million. It is better he stayed.

Secondly the reason he is not effective at the moment is because he is not getting service. If you put any other striker currently at the club in Bents position on Saturday, they would not of done any better.

[OutByEaster?]

Secondly the reason he is not effective at the moment is because he is not getting service. If you put any other striker currently at the club in Bents position on Saturday, they would not of done any better.

I'd disagree, I think Gabby would have done better, I think Weimann did do better and I think you could make a case for Delfouneso having done more.

In a team that creates lots of chances, where ten men are able to overcome the opposition, Bent is perfect, he's the cherry on top, a luxury that can do the most important thing in the game - but you have to be very good to carry that luxury and get any value out of it.

In our team, we need strikers who can add something to the cake, people with movement, graft, grit and all those other non-goalscoring attributes - we need strikers that can help our midfield and we need strikers that can keep defenders busy. Bent waits. Gabby and Weimann get involved.

With where we are at the moment, I'd be fully in favour of selling Bent, I think we'd still get around £10m for him - politically that would be suicide for Lerner though, Bent is still the poster boy and still seen as the last of the famous, big names that we had. I think he's unsellable. I hope he's not undroppable.

[Ulver]

With where we are at the moment, I'd be fully in favour of selling Bent, I think we'd still get around £10m for him - politically that would be suicide for Lerner though, Bent is still the poster boy and still seen as the last of the famous, big names that we had. I think he's unsellable. I hope he's not undroppable.

Some people on here need medical assistance of the mental kind

[OutByEaster?]

With where we are at the moment, I'd be fully in favour of selling Bent, I think we'd still get around £10m for him - politically that would be suicide for Lerner though, Bent is still the poster boy and still seen as the last of the famous, big names that we had. I think he's unsellable. I hope he's not undroppable.

Some people on here need medical assistance of the mental kind

Charmed I'm sure.

[Voinjama]

Secondly the reason he is not effective at the moment is because he is not getting service. If you put any other striker currently at the club in Bents position on Saturday, they would not of done any better.

With where we are at the moment, I'd be fully in favour of selling Bent, I think we'd still get around £10m for him

I disagree with most of your post. But this bit I am absolutely speechless about.

[Ulver]

It's alright. But saying we should sell Bent for 10m, does point to a mental issue. Otherwise what would be the possible point of it ?

You'd sell our last top class player, a proven goalscorer at every level (inc for us in two piss poor seasons) and you'd also take a 10m hit for what purpose exactly ?

To buy (i'm guessing) a lesser/unproven replacement ?. Stunning idea

If we just spent the money from Downing/Young sales on replacing THEM then Mr Bent would still be banging them as always. But i'd have assumed that obvious to EVERYONE

[Voinjama]

I will ask again. To those in favour of selling Bent, and there alot of them, both on this forum and people who I speak with. Who can we realistically sign that is as good or better? Because if Bent gets sold, he will obviously need to be replaced. I want names.

[Chindie]

There's some merit in selling Bent. He's a sellable asset at a time where it looks like we need cash to invest and don't have it to hand. And given that Bent is a player who offers nothing without service, and the team is unable to offer that, he's useless. You could sell Bent, pick up a replacement with a bit more to his game and hopefully have some cash spare to invest in other areas of the pitch.

Unfortunately it's unlikely that any player you bought would be as good a goalscorer as Bent, and the impression would immediately be of a rats leaving a sinking ship/a team completely giving up on being anything successful the moment you sold him. And I also think he'd be a harder sell than we might expect - we'd demand a pretty penny and theres not many teams that would pay it. Ones that might might want more of their players than just a goalscorer with nothing else to their game. So we'd probably have to ask a price we might be a little upset about.

The best thing it appears, is to hope and pray that we've got enough money in the pot to buy players that make Bent look good again.

[Voinjama]

I think that no player can do anything without service. I don't think Darren Bent is amazing, but I do think in our current situation we should be grateful to have him. Beggars cant be choosers, and at the moment Aston Villa are beggars. I think Weimann will be good in the future, but at the moment he is not good enough or ready to lead the line for a season. As for Delfounso (sp), he is not good enough for this level.

Unfortunately Aston Villa will not be able to attract any decent players of the calibre bought between 2007 and 2010 for the forseeable future

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

There's some merit in selling Bent. He's a sellable asset at a time where it looks like we need cash to invest and don't have it to hand. And given that Bent is a player who offers nothing without service, and the team is unable to offer that, he's useless. You could sell Bent, pick up a replacement with a bit more to his game and hopefully have some cash spare to invest in other areas of the pitch.

Unfortunately it's unlikely that any player you bought would be as good a goalscorer as Bent, and the impression would immediately be of a rats leaving a sinking ship/a team completely giving up on being anything successful the moment you sold him. And I also think he'd be a harder sell than we might expect - we'd demand a pretty penny and theres not many teams that would pay it. Ones that might might want more of their players than just a goalscorer with nothing else to their game. So we'd probably have to ask a price we might be a little upset about.

The best thing it appears, is to hope and pray that we've got enough money in the pot to buy players that make Bent look good again.

Basically it.

(referring to an earlier post) £10 million for me is not enough, I think we could still grab £14-15 million ish, maybe someone like QPR come January or next year (as clearly not going to sell him this window)

If Lerner won't put in £15-20 million his own money then I believe we have to sell him really. For the money we receive from Bent, we're talking another 3 players who could improve our first team. We may not find someone better than Bent but you find a Tiote, Michu and Ba for about 10 million outlay and you're laughing. Clearly that's a difficult task but really I don't see any other way we can be competitive? Apart from trying to simply just get the best out of a lot who are really struggling and have done for some time.

I get the feeling Agbonlahor would thrive a lot more as well (fitness/injuries permitting)

Ideally Lerner invests on 3/4 players and we can HELP Bent and create chances for him while getting the best out likes of Ireland, N'Zogbia. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like that's going to be the case. A lot of players at the club need to go in all honestly and we need to keep re-building. So much money is going to waste on wages it's frightening.

[bickster]

I remember the outcry when we sold Andy Gray, if only they knew what was to come very shortly. No player is expendable

[8pints]

He's the greatest of his kind in the world. He is a very unique striker that can score from angles you'd think were impossible. He needs the service, Lambert realises this, he will buy the players to give him the service.

Once we sort out -

----------Bent-----------

---THIS AREA HERE----

--------midfield----------

--------defence----------

--------Goalie------------

We will be flying. Darren Bent scores goals, feed the Bent and he will score.

[VillaGoMarching]

I've been in favour of selling Bent for a long time, he basically relies on a service we can no longer offer him,

He's an 18 yard box player, you basically fill the box with balls and he'll score x amount of goals. At the moment, our midfield can't get high enough up the pitch to even reach the 18 yard box. We have for the last 12/18 months had a midfield incapable of carrying the ball or taking on a man. For most of that time we've had a midfield not interested in doing that. They were instructed to protect the back 4, all the time Bent was getting more and more isolated up front.

Now you look at his ability as a player, and it's pretty limited barring a decent goal scoring record. He can't hold the ball up, he doesn't have a trick to beat a man, He never creates opportunities for himself nor other team mates. He doesn't have a great first touch and he can't play with his back to goal. You might say it isn't the job of a striker to do those things but IMO, a striker has to do more than simply score goals.

IMO Bent is our most saleable asset, his value will only decrease with age, and the amount of time he's wasted in our team. so in part we should sell him at the next available opportunity, allowing the money to be spent on reinforcing the whole team. In our current state we can't afford to have any passengers, and for aslong as we fail to get regular supply to Bent the way he needs it to be effective, then he'll continue to be a passenger.

I know alot of people argue for building a team around Bent, but IMO, it will cost alot more to do that, than to build a competitive team from the sale of Bent.

[AndyM3000]

With Bent at the moment we are pretty much playing with 10 men every game, we would actually be a lot better off with Gabby up top.

[Mantis]

With Bent at the moment we are pretty much playing with 10 men every game, we would actually be a lot better off with Gabby up top.

Because we were so great with him leading the line at the end of last season, right?

We need to improve the quality behind Bent, not sell him.