[Archived] Bentley

[Esulx]

I didn't want to see Damien Duff leave but he did.... hasn't worked out for him.

I didn't want to see Craig Bellamy leave but he did.... hasn't worked out for him.

I don't want David Bentley to leave, but he most likely will within the next couple of years.

The grass isn't always greener on the other side is it!!!

But put it this way guys, we all hope we'll be working up until we're 60+ but its not the same for footballers, most of them are finished with top level football at 32/33 so they want to make their money as quickly as possible and they'll live off it for the rest of their lives.

There's a fine line between loyalty and ambition and gone are the days of players like Le Tissier who'll stay at one club for their whole career. If Blackburn can play in Europe every season and even get in the Champions League then players of Bentley's ability would stay but results have gone against us this season and that UEFA Cup spot is going to be difficult to achieve.

It's great that Bentley currently wears the blue'n'white, the same with Santa Cruz, and Rovers have helped both their careers get back on track but their ambition, as a footballer, is to play at the highest level possible. If we're not going to be able to give them that, then they'll look for somewhere that they can get it.

I hate losing our better players as much as the next Rovers fan but we're never going to be able to hold onto great players. We'll maybe be able to hold onto 'better than average' players but great players will always move on.

Its a sorry state of affairs guys but that's life.

[Hughesy]

£12m is probably about right – until he played for England. Now they are surely looking at more.

What would you say if Tottenham offered Huddleston & £12m for Bentley?

Or if Liverpool offered Pennant & £12m for Bentley?

Liverpool and Spurs fans reckon they can get him for £12 million...

[RibbleValleyRover]

£12m is probably about right – until he played for England. Now they are surely looking at more.

What would you say if Tottenham offered Huddleston & £12m for Bentley?

Or if Liverpool offered Pennant & £12m for Bentley?

Tricky one

I wouldn't take Pennant and £12 million for Bentley.

Huddlestone and £12 million if i was the manager would seriously give it some thought.

At the end of the day it comes down to if Bentley goes can we replace him with someone else. Also Would Hughes even get all the money from the Bents sale?

[philipl]

This is all supporter tittle tattle.

Liverpool are doing great things for Crouch and Pennant's England careers and Spurs have been brilliant for Defoe, Bent, Jenas, Lennon and Huddlestone's international prospects. And no doubt Vogel is inspiring Bentley with stories of how brilliant life is at Spanish and Italian clubs.

Bentley knows he needs to play regularly and has been well-used to kicking his heels at Arsenal.

There will be a time to worry about a Bentley-less Rovers but I don't think that time is now.

[T4E]

This is all supporter tittle tattle.

Do you know what the S in BRFCS stands for Philip? What were you expecting?

[RibbleValleyRover]

Spurs fans on various boards reckon they are going to get him in the summer. Usual rubbish about them being a huge club, top four challengers next season, winning the league in two seasons oh and the fact they fill their stadium week in week out.

[Claytons Left Boot]

A big club in London who have only developed their stadium to seat 36k shows a complete lack of foresight. The 'real' big clubs like Arsenal and Manchester United (with Liverpool soon to follow) have shown how to do it. The supporters of Spurs have not changed since 2002 when they failed to beat us in the Worthington Cup. In other words they're still arrogant pr1cks with delusions of grandeur.

Aside from that has anyone noticed that when there are crowd shots at WHL you may as well be witnessing a game in somewhere like Turkey or the middle east. Dark haired, olive skinned, gloomy looking faces everywhere.

[blue phil]

Well it is in London , CLB ......

[ihateburnley]

I don't think we'd feel the effect of Bentley leaving too greatly. I know I'm probably in the minority because everyone has jumped on the media-hyped Bentley bandwagon - including David himself it seems - but he is surely far from irreplaceable. Yes, we may struggle to attract a big name player with Premiership experience (Bentley now is probably regarded as quite a big name player), but quality wise I'm sure Hughes could find a few gems out there.

Bents doesn't have the same sort of effect on the team as Duff did. But we got over the sale of him pretty quickly and the £17m allowed the purchases of (with change to spare)...:

- Paul Dickov - £150k

- John Stead - £1.25m

- Peter Enckelman - £150k

- Barry Ferguson - £7.5m

- Vrati Gresko - £1.2m

- Steven Reid - £2.5m

- Lorenzo Amoruso - £1.4m

- Brett Emerton - £2.5m

....in the same season. So we basically got 8 first teamers for the price of 1. Yes, I agree that money could have been invested more wisely but the point remains - we improved the squad overall by flogging one of our more sellable assets. I'm not suggesting that we become a selling club but if we assume that David Bentley could bring a fee of £15m (possibly more) then that's the equivalent of four Santa Cruzs or eighteen Christopher Sambas (what a squad!).

I just think we have proved with Duff that selling one player isn't the end of the world and with the right management we could improve the squad vastly.

[LeChuck]

but the point remains - we improved the squad overall by flogging one of our more sellable assets.

Our performance in league and cup following Duff's departure do not support that theory at all. Bigger squad? Yes. Better team? Absolutely not. I know which I'd rather have.

[American]

It's just a shame that Ferguson got injured. He was starting to look well worth the money, and the injury just led to him sitting around and feeling sorry for himself. Don't think he would have wanted away so badly had it not happened.

[philipl]

Last Tango in Paris and reference to the burial of kings in the nearby Basilica of St Denis litter the press today re Beckham's England career. To be honest, I was astonished Becks is only 32- I thought he played like Tugay, he looked so completely nackered.

Apart from the shove on Malouda, Bents seems to have escaped last night's snore fest relatively OK. Perhaps Capello did him a favour by not starting him in that line-up. Bents' lack of pace with two speedy Gonzales' threatening his place in such a pedestrian England line-up could cost Bents a lot of caps especially as there are no England forwards capable of benefitting from Bents' stock-in-trade crosses.

[T4E]

I don't think we'd feel the effect of Bentley leaving too greatly. I know I'm probably in the minority because everyone has jumped on the media-hyped Bentley bandwagon - including David himself it seems - but he is surely far from irreplaceable. Yes, we may struggle to attract a big name player with Premiership experience (Bentley now is probably regarded as quite a big name player), but quality wise I'm sure Hughes could find a few gems out there.

Bents doesn't have the same sort of effect on the team as Duff did. But we got over the sale of him pretty quickly and the £17m allowed the purchases of (with change to spare)...:

- Paul Dickov - £150k

- John Stead - £1.25m

- Peter Enckelman - £150k

- Barry Ferguson - £7.5m

- Vrati Gresko - £1.2m

- Steven Reid - £2.5m

- Lorenzo Amoruso - £1.4m

- Brett Emerton - £2.5m

....in the same season. So we basically got 8 first teamers for the price of 1. Yes, I agree that money could have been invested more wisely but the point remains - we improved the squad overall by flogging one of our more sellable assets. I'm not suggesting that we become a selling club but if we assume that David Bentley could bring a fee of £15m (possibly more) then that's the equivalent of four Santa Cruzs or eighteen Christopher Sambas (what a squad!).

I just think we have proved with Duff that selling one player isn't the end of the world and with the right management we could improve the squad vastly.

This is exactly the point I've been making for some time now - I've no doubt Hughes could do better than the list above.

[Hughesy]

From that list alone we sold Barry back for around the same cash, stead kept us up and Reid & Emerton would now be worth at least £8m between them and are both still 1st teamers.

Im sure that if we had £20-25m (Bentley sale + cash on top) then Hughes would be able to put together a very, very good team. I think either way it is a win, win situation for Rovers. Yes Bentley is a very good player, but he isnt consistent - no one is irreplacable.

[ihateburnley]

From that list alone we sold Barry back for around the same cash, stead kept us up and Reid & Emerton would now be worth at least £8m between them and are both still 1st teamers.

Im sure that if we had £20-25m (Bentley sale + cash on top) then Hughes would be able to put together a very, very good team. I think either way it is a win, win situation for Rovers. Yes Bentley is a very good player, but he isnt consistent - no one is irreplacable.

Spot on Hughesy.

Our performance in league and cup following Duff's departure do not support that theory at all. Bigger squad? Yes. Better team? Absolutely not. I know which I'd rather have.

Duff was sold in July 2003 just after we'd finished 6th under Souness and qualified for Europe. We could have at least consolidated that position the following year and pushed on for the UEFA again. However in my opinion it wasn't the selling of Duff that contributed to our temporary downfall of finishing 15th two seasons running. We didn't replace Duff in terms of bringing in a direct left midfielder/winger that was going to challenge every week for a first team place. From the list I put up a few posts earlier, the closest we got was Gresko who had played on the left wing before, but was used as a leftback in his time at Rovers. The only left midfielder we signed that summer was Javier De Pedro on a free. Which says it all really.

Now we have a very astute manager who seems to consistently have a plan BEFORE he makes the decision to sell players. I think we've all been pretty impressed by the transitions from Dickov>Kuqi>Bellamy>McCarthy>Cruz and how even though we let players go that seem to be an integral part of the squad, we replace them - and usually with a better player and money to spare.

I just feel that with Bentley we have got a time frame of maybe 2/3 years until we NEED to sell him to look after the future of our club. Whilst I think he is a very gifted player, I think he has limitations which maybe not suitable for a club like ourselves. His most blatent weakness is a lack of pace and I feel with the lack of pace throughout our squad in general, this means his intelligent balls through and his dangerous crosses are rarely utilised. Like it or not, I feel we need to sell him before his market value starts to deteriorate, for the good of BRFC. His hype and publicity has been sky high recently (possibly as high as it will ever be for him) and to cash in on it now would be excellent business.

[Hughesy]

Pace is deffinatly lacking in our squad - i really hope that is something we resolve this summer.

Who would take Lennon & Huddleston in a swap for Bentley??

[T4E]

Pace is deffinatly lacking in our squad - i really hope that is something we resolve this summer.

Who would take Lennon & Huddleston in a swap for Bentley??

I'm expecting a barrage of "I'd drive him there myself" style comments.

Lennon and Huddlestone would be incredible business. While we're at it, lets offer them McCarthy in exchange for Keane and Jenas.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Pace is deffinatly lacking in our squad - i really hope that is something we resolve this summer.

Who would take Lennon & Huddleston in a swap for Bentley??

Not a fan of Lennon whatsoever, he's all pace and nothing else.

[daveoftherovers]

Not a fan of Lennon whatsoever, he's all pace and nothing else.

Too right, agree wholeheartedly, he wears a shire horses sunglasses, he only looks up when he gets to the by-line or sees the whites of the goalkeepers eyes (And he can't finish)

Bottom line is it's his choice now isn't it, yes, okay, more money, CL football perhaps (If Liverpool make it, rules out Spuds.)

Wouldn't want to see the guy go at all, he showed against Wigan that he one of the very few we have that has the danglers to take a game by the scruff of it's neck when required...

It would be a quality offering if he stayed and we continue to strengthen & progress with MH next season...

I think he'll stay another season at least TBH, that's where I'm sticking my money.

[Jan]

Pace is deffinatly lacking in our squad - i really hope that is something we resolve this summer.

Who would take Lennon & Huddleston in a swap for Bentley??

When will we ever learn?

History has taught us that when we lose our best players, albeit for large sums of cash, then we struggle badly for at least one season afterwards and in some cases longer (the sale of AS had a lot to do with our subsequent relegation). Now obviously Hughes has a better track record of buying cheaper players and making them good than either of the numpties involved before, but still it's a bad move.

One thing, however. I don't think Bentley will ever be as good as Duff or Shearer were. Bentley is good, but less consistent. I still think that if we'd kept Duff we'd have been challenging for Champions' league the following year rather than grubbing around in relegation bother.

Oh and NOT ON YOUR LIFE. Lennon is a vastly inferior Bentley and Huddleston is a lump.

[ihateburnley]

When will we ever learn?

History has taught us that when we lose our best players, albeit for large sums of cash, then we struggle badly for at least one season afterwards and in some cases longer (the sale of AS had a lot to do with our subsequent relegation). Now obviously Hughes has a better track record of buying cheaper players and making them good than either of the numpties involved before, but still it's a bad move.

One thing, however. I don't think Bentley will ever be as good as Duff or Shearer were. Bentley is good, but less consistent. I still think that if we'd kept Duff we'd have been challenging for Champions' league the following year rather than grubbing around in relegation bother.

Oh and NOT ON YOUR LIFE. Lennon is a vastly inferior Bentley and Huddleston is a lump.

Jan I find your post slightly contradictory. On the one hand your saying that we have struggled in the past when selling the likes of Duff and Shearer, yet you go on to say that Bentley is not in the same class as Duff or Shearer anyway - or in fact that he ever will be! Both Duff and Shearer were by far and away our best players and as a result, we sold them for mega money. Bentley is one of our better players (but not the best), who we bought for hardly anything, has hinted/been misquoted that he wants a move away in the future and has the hype surrounding him that means we could also attract a lot of money for him.

I say if he wants to stay for another couple of years - great! - if not, lets sell him to the highest bidder and buy some more Sambas!

[Hughesy]

I'm expecting a barrage of "I'd drive him there myself" style comments.

Lennon and Huddlestone would be incredible business. While we're at it, lets offer them McCarthy in exchange for Keane and Jenas.

Doesnt look like it mate! Personally i would take it as a fair deal.

[Jan]

Jan I find your post slightly contradictory. On the one hand your saying that we have struggled in the past when selling the likes of Duff and Shearer, yet you go on to say that Bentley is not in the same class as Duff or Shearer anyway - or in fact that he ever will be! Both Duff and Shearer were by far and away our best players and as a result, we sold them for mega money. Bentley is one of our better players (but not the best), who we bought for hardly anything, has hinted/been misquoted that he wants a move away in the future and has the hype surrounding him that means we could also attract a lot of money for him.

I say if he wants to stay for another couple of years - great! - if not, lets sell him to the highest bidder and buy some more Sambas!

OK- if we can stop the Sambas from having children.....

I just think it's a bad precedent and when we've done it before we've come a huge cropper. (It could have been argued by the sane- which excluded our manager at that time- that the triumvirate of Dunn, Duff and Jansen were a collective "best player"- much like Rocky and Bents are at the moment)

[ihateburnley]

Doesnt look like it mate! Personally i would take it as a fair deal.

I'd take Huddlestone and £10m. I think Spurs will sign a couple of bigname foreigners to play in central midfield next season and Huddlestone will be allowed to leave.

Don't rate Lennon myself.

[CircoWill]

There is absolutely no way we should sell Bentley. When he plays well, Rovers play well. When he has an off game, so do the rest of them. Without his passing and creativity, we'd be severley lacking.