[Archived] Bentley

[ihateburnley]

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.

I don't think anybody is saying we should sell Bentley and replace him with say...nobody!

[broadsword]

No they're just saying that we sell him and replace him with someone ... inferior.

A plan of genius.

[Mozzer]

i dont want us to sell bentley-hes a brilliant player...

but if any deal was to suit us i would think pennant + cash would suit us..1 we get pennant who is a decent player, and 2 we get cash to improve the rest of the squad..

i think getting a straight say 15million,we would struggle to find a replacement-like we did for duff for ages...

[rover6]

Can people see the parallels between Bentley's England prospects and the prospects of our youth guys like Treacy getting into the Rovers team?

People here were saying, after one game, that Treacy isn't ready/good enough and should be stuck back in the reserves. Well I have heard (non-Rovers) England fans saying that from what they've seen, Bentley isn't ready and shouldn't take Becks' place in the England side.

It's the same short-sighted logic and should surely convince people of the validity of my position (long-standing). Bentley needs regular games with England to emulate his Blackburn form by overcoming nerves/uncertainty/excess self-criticism and to play his natural game. Rovers fans know that an on-song Bentley is England material. Just like any Rovers youngster, be it Treacy, Nolan or Peter will never fulfil his potential unless given regular action with Rovers firsts.

This culture of expecting immediate success is stupid and counter-productive - at both international and club level.

[T4E]

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

There are some extremely blinkered people on this website.

Go to a Spurs site and ask if they'd swap Lennon and Huddlestone for Bentley, they'd laugh you out of the place.

[LeftWinger]

Go to a Spurs site and ask if they'd swap Lennon and Huddlestone for Bentley, they'd laugh you out of the place.

As we all know - Spurs fans are the kind of people that "like the money" - so they'd want cash too!

[American]

The only left midfielder we signed that summer was Javier De Pedro on a free. Which says it all really.

LeChuck was practically creaming when we bought Javy....

[LeChuck]

LeChuck was practically creaming when we bought Javy....

Hah, cheers American. At least he was only a free transfer. I also nearly creamed myself when we signed Bentley and Warnock whilst everyone else was sceptical about bringing in reserve players, so I'm happy enough with my creaming.

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.

Admittedly that didn't help, but there would have been no-one available who could have performed to the level Duff was, or anywhere near it. Duff was worth so many points on his own that season with bits of magic, just as Bentley is this season. We wouldn't have beaten Wigan without him, and there are plenty of other games he has done similar things in. It seems to be the case that if Bentley isn't performing Santa Cruz isn't scoring, so he could well go back to his 4-5 goals a season that he's done throughout his career if we get rid of Bentley.

I just don't buy in to this Football Manager-esque thinking that we can sell Bentley for £20 million, buy 4-5 players with the money and be a better team. For a start, where is the gap in the wage budget for these extra players? Put simply, there isn't. For every player that comes in, one will have to go out, regardless of transfer fees.

Continuity seems to matter a hell of a lot in the Premiership. With Bentley gone we'd have to change the way we play and the way we score goals, because Santa would really struggle without him. I fail to see how all this major upheaval is meant to make us a better team, especially when you remove our primary source of goals.

[ihateburnley]

I just don't buy in to this Football Manager-esque thinking. For a start, where is the gap in the wage budget for these extra players? For every player that comes in, one will have to go out, regardless of transfer fees.

Ah no that's where you're going wrong! All you have to do is click on 'Manager' on the toolbar, and then click on 'Board Room'. From this screen you can click on 'adjust budgets' in the bottom left-hand corner. This enables you to transfer available cash from the transfer budget to the wage budget and vice-versa.

Hope that clears everything up,

Regards,

IHB xx

[LeChuck]

You know, that's very apt for me at the moment as the new Q.P.R. owners are messing with my new seasons plans with their tiny budget...

[Bazzanotsogreat]

For me peoples views on Bentley are far too Rovers & indeed Premiership centric. Whilst I am not advocating us selling David, there are plenty of players out there who would improve out team if Mr Hughes was given a 20m + transfer budget ive got no doubt he would use wisely and ultimatley succesfuly. If we replace David with a player that is good but not as good as bents but for a lot less money, whose to say that Sparky wouldn’t be able to massively improve other areas of the squad with quality players. And before we get the Premiership centric brigade: shouting unproven etc McCarthy & Roque anyone

Every player in the World has a selling price even your Ronaldo’s & Messi’s , if someone were to put a very large bid in for Bentley I am sure the board would except. The lucky thing for us, is that we have a manager who is extremely astute in the transfer market & whilst we may or may not get an equivalent quality player in David’s position he would undoubtably strengthen other areas of the team with the excess money.

I keep on reading these parallels about Duff & the subsequent waste of money by Souness:

A . Mark Hughes is not Souness

B. What has Duff done since his first season since leaving Rovers? he has frankly been rubbish when he has actually played. Barcode fans want shut of him already.

C. In today’s market who is worth more Emerton, Reid & MGP combined or Duff on his own?

[LeChuck]

I can't be bothered repeating myself Bazza about the wage budget and source of goals if Bentley goes, but please just think about it.

Can I just dispel a myth that seems to be appearing on the board though; Duff did not become rubbish the instant he left Rovers, he was brilliant for Chelsea in his first year there. I remember quite a few Ranieri interviews where he said his mum was always telling him he has to play Damien Duff (not that I'm saying she's a great judge of a player, it was just a light hearted comment about the great form Duff was in that year). Injuries have robbed him of the speed and agility he had to run past several players and he hasn't learned to adjust.

Reid/Emerton etc. might be worth more at this present time, but Duff contributed far more to Rovers in his time at the club than all of the players bought with that money put together.

[T4E]

I just don't buy in to this Football Manager-esque thinking that we can sell Bentley for £20 million, buy 4-5 players with the money and be a better team. For a start, where is the gap in the wage budget for these extra players? Put simply, there isn't. For every player that comes in, one will have to go out, regardless of transfer fees.

Surely you just put a portion of that £20m to one side to increase the wage budget?

[LeChuck]

I don't know how the finances would work to be honest. How long could you sustain an inflated wage budget on the sale of one player though? Could we only keep them for that one season then have to ship a load out?

[philipl]

The points which are relevant are these:

- we either caught the day when the entire Arsenal board and Wenger had been at the sherry when we bought Bentley for under £1m or there is a significant percentage of any sale fee that will head straight to the Emirates.

- the key issue is how players play for Blackburn Rovers. Bentley is a known quantity who on his day (which is 50% of the games) is one of if not the key player in a good Rovers performance. The same went for Duff before we sold him; the fact that Mourinho misused him and he got injured is irrelevant.

- such key players are very rarely adequately replaced when they are sold and the club invariably "loses" half a season as the team gets used to new faces and playing a different way. Right now, the ball goes to Bentley and we can be pretty certain Rovers will retain possession and set up an attacking opportunity. That sort of certainty is simply not available on the market with our budget

- our budget has to include wages and costs of transaction. Every new face is a potential wage differential problem and a dollop of cash paid out on the deal itself. All of this comes out of the £40m stated wages budget and £10m rumoured transfer budget. Therefore, it is madness to actively seek any transfer activity which is not strictly necessary.

- finally the idea of swapping x for y plus cash simply does not happen any more. I maybe wrong but it is probably 18 months since a Premiership club was last involved in a player swap deal. Individual contracts are now so specific and onerous that it is a major headache moving one player, never mind two with different agents etc etc.

So far from jumping in your car to drive Bentley to WHL, the idea is frankly nonsense.

[S15]

So far from jumping in your car to drive Bentley to WHL, the idea is frankly nonsense.

Spot on, as the petrol money would have to come out of the transfer kitty.

[USRoverME]

Spot on, as the petrol money would have to come out of the transfer kitty.

I thought the club had to pay that money tot he player who would then pay that money to you as his "Agent"

[Bazzanotsogreat]

I can't be bothered repeating myself Bazza about the wage budget and source of goals if Bentley goes, but please just think about it.

Can I just dispel a myth that seems to be appearing on the board though; Duff did not become rubbish the instant he left Rovers, he was brilliant for Chelsea in his first year there.

What has Duff done after his first season since leaving Rovers

[bluebruce]

I'm not sure what wavelength some of you are on. I will be disgusted if we sell Bentley at less than 20 million. Sure, his market value might be around 15 mill, but I feel you should always insist on at the very least 25 percent more than market value for your best players.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Plus the fact Arsenal probably have a % of the sell on fee means we would have to sell him for above 20 million to make it worthwhile selling at all.

[S15]

What did Duff do after his first season??!

Win two titles and two league cups, that's all!!

[thenodrog]

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

Are we to be given special permssion to play with 13 players next season?

[blue phil]

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.

Against that , Jan , you have to accept that we aren't always in a position to keep the best players - both financially and from the players' personal ambitions point of view .

Also even the best managers need time to build new teams - and new teams have to be created every few years . I would argue that we are at such a position at the moment ; Tugay's no longer the force he was , neither is Pederson - it is highly debatable whether Reid and Dunn have their best days in front of them .

I'm of the opinion that Bentley will have one more season with us but after that comes major rebuilding ....which costs money . We lost out over McCarthy , we have to get the best deal for Bentley .

[John]

Few points:

Bentley will undoubtedly get better, so I doubt his value will go down over time. People seem to be thinking of this doomsday scenairo where-by he may get injured etc, but no need for such negativity IMO.

Bentley is probably our best, most influential player. Clubs with ambition don't tend to sell their best players. Depends where we want to go I suppose.

Also, selling your best players shows that we are not an ambitious club, therefore may not help when signing new players. Additionally, we have a bright, very ambitious manager. Selling Bentley would push Hughes closer towards the exit door.

Overall, unless he really wants to leave the club at the moment, lets continue to watch a class act playing for BRFC. He will move onto so called bigger and better things at some stage (like our manager).

[thenodrog]

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).

You haven't been around long enough Jan. MY BRFC history tells me that we ALWAYS sell our best players. Period!