[Archived] Bentley

[Hasta]

Because sometimes you only get one shot in life and you have to take it when it comes along.

If he signs a new contract then Rovers can turn round and say they want £17mill for him or he's going nowhere. Now personally that would be great for the club and us fans. However Bentley may well know that clubs (Liverpool) are only valuing him at £12 million. By signing the contract it benefits Rovers but could harm his chances of moving to a top 4 team.

Remember practically no player will ever have the same feeling for the club has you and I.

[Shaddy]

If he want to progress his career, then lets get the £15+ million for him and let hughes buy 2 very decent players! We have lost very good players in the past and replaced them easily.

I wouldn't say easily. I think a more appropriate word is eventually. It's never easy replacing members of a stable squad.

[Liam0001]

bein pretty drunk after a night out

and with what chris (my cousin, who is in the same die-hard state of being in being a rovers fan as i am)

who incidently got told of bentley he is off

it makes my blood boil

pennants a good player

but, they prefer kuyt

the dutch dickov

"he tries hard" - should do for £10 million plus

[John]

According to most of the papers today, Bentley has turned down the offer of a new contract, and informed us that he wants to move on.

[philipl]

This is the Guardian's version which includes Bentley's exact words- apparently.

There is an understandable extrapolation from what he said to what is being reported.

Interestingly, Liverpool's interest is reported to have wained and Spurs and Newcastle are reported as the most likely bidders and the vague hope that Chelsea will come in is mentioned.

I'd say Nicko's comments on tthis one are being 100% supported by what is emerging.

I would put the chances of Bentley being at Ewood on 1 September as 50/50. Rovers are in the driving seat on this one so can play it how they want.

[Bobby G]

Frankly Im sick and tired of hearing him run his mouth every single day, having an opinion about everything like he is some ex-professional superstar. I have never seen a rent-a-quote so much and he has really believed his own hype, when we all see him each and every week, we definitely see that he isnt consistent enough to play in the top 4 or a bigger club yet. He performs exceptionally but once in three games probably and another season with us would have really helped his development. I for one could care less if he leaves now as long as we get at least 15 million pounds for him.

[Eddie]

We're not in the driving seat because I don't trust Bentley to not fully spit his dummy out next season. We might be saved by the fact that he needs to play and play well to be in the England team, but it wouldn't surprise me to see him kick up a fuss. Say what you want about Neill, but I can't see Bentley doing the same thing.

[philipl]

I think there is some backwards rationalising going on.

Bentley is joint equal the most technically gifted player on the Park EVERY match he plays for Rovers and even when he is having a relatively disappointing game for us he is still retaining posession, playing the ball into players with more space and getting the odd telling cross in.

His opta stats are so good that this has to be the case or else he'd be superman in the "good" games.

The folks completely over-reacting to his media profile are losing sight of the fact that he will be a very very hard act to replace.

Besides which, Bentley has not even said anything really naughty re the Rovers.... yet.

[Eddie]

No, but he hasn't said anything good and his history at Arsenal isn't exactly the best.

We also can't go overboard with these opta stats. He had a good season, but the statistics are skewed slightly by the fact that Pedersen's horrible season meant that we mainly played through Bentley (which in turn made it harder for Pedersen to play well), but it gives a decent boost to a lot of Bentley's statistics and made it easier for him. He's a very good player, he will be hard to replace, but he isn't the second coming.

If we were able to get 15 million in for him, which in my opinion is about market value, then we would be able to replace him without any real problem so long as our scouting network continues to do its job well (not miracels, but simply a good job).

[philipl]

I disagree with you in playing down David's significance- selling him won't automatically make MGP a great player. Selling Bents will easily have a similar impact as selling Duff. If we lose half the number of assists and goals scored by Bentley,goals scored would drop from a touch over 50 to low 40s and top half finish turns into a bottom half finish.

Pricing has to be a sensitive one but I think nobody would disagree that Rovers should look to get the equivalent of two guarranteed starters in an EPL top half team for him. At current rates that means a £20m+ fee.

g

[S15]

I don't blame Bentley one teeny tiny bit for wanting to move on.

However, other than being highly immature with his attitude around fans and media, his little blurts are doing us no favours with regards to getting the best price possible for him, as if clubs know he wants to leave....

The only reason Bentley hasnt said as much is probably so he can claim his little loyalty payment upon being sold.

[philipl]

Incidentally, this is the Times' take on the same press conference- not a word about transfers.

From what I can see online at the moment, the Telegraph did not report the Bentley press conference.

[yoda]

I don't blame Bentley one teeny tiny bit for wanting to move on.

However, other than being highly immature with his attitude around fans and media, his little blurts are doing us no favours with regards to getting the best price possible for him, as if clubs know he wants to leave....

The only reason Bentley hasnt said as much is probably so he can claim his little loyalty payment upon being sold.

He needs a slap and telling to shut the xxxx up,

Its the Rovers who are paying his wages.

[Bobby G]

Stats are deceiving sometimes. Doesnt change the fact that he is inconsistent.

It says more about how poor we were in our build up and attacking strategies that we largely depended on him rather than distributed our attacks. We had no outlets last season other than Bentley and Santa Cruz in my opinion. Its not that David was great, but moreso that we were poor in general. Not to take away from the fact that he is very good and he is possibly one of our top 2 players. If we get 20 million its excellent, but 15 million will be a fair market value.

[Guest Kamy100]

If he wants to go then Rovers should let him go. Get the best deal we can and then we move on. Bentley is a class player who has been superb over the last 2 years, however it is becoming obvious that he feels he needs to move onto a club with Champions League, if he does move onto one of the so called "big four" then good luck to him.

[modes98]

No Contract deal yet, This guy just doesn't know when to shut up.

Asked if he had agreed a new deal with Blackburn, Bentley said: "No I haven't signed it but we're not talking about that now."

[Uddersfelt Blue]

No Contract deal yet, This guy just doesn't know when to shut up.

Whats wrong with answering a question? Give the guy a break. He is clearly ambitious and whether or not he leaves Rovers now or in the future he is entitled to express his views.

[thenodrog]

We also can't go overboard with these opta stats. He had a good season, but the statistics are skewed slightly by the fact that Pedersen's horrible season meant that we mainly played through Bentley (which in turn made it harder for Pedersen to play well), but it gives a decent boost to a lot of Bentley's statistics and made it easier for him. He's a very good player, he will be hard to replace, but he isn't the second coming.

Evaluation might be more accurate if you were able to watch him from pitchside eddie.

[thenodrog]

Asked if he had agreed a new deal with Blackburn, Bentley said: "No I haven't signed it but we're not talking about that now."

I take that to mean 'I'm not prepared to discuss it with you at this press conference' rather that 'I'm not currently talking to BRFC about it'.

[RoyRover]

The guy is obviously looking elsewhere, by constantly talking about how he wants to play at the highest level, play in the Champions League, win things and how he still hasn't signed a new contract. He has one good season for us and then wants to move on. How can teams like Rovers expect to really progress if the players they take a chance on and develop, leave as soon as they start to play well? I'm being naive, thinking that the guy should show some loyalty, as that is a thing of the past in modern day football. If he does go to Spurs or Liverpool at least we can be safe in the knowledge that he won't be winning much with them, or in the case of Liverpool, playing much either.

[modes98]

he is entitled to express his views.

It's when he expresses them every single day that it gets annoying. Just get your head down and play football, after all that is what we pay him to do isn't it?

I kind of just wish he would leave right now and give Hughes the time to get in an adequate replacement. We need to look at good players who can actually cross well and not Pennant!

[AndyC]

The guy is obviously looking elsewhere, by constantly talking about how he wants to play at the highest level, play in the Champions League, win things and how he still hasn't signed a new contract. He has one good season for us and then wants to move on. How can teams like Rovers expect to really progress if the players they take a chance on and develop, leave as soon as they start to play well? I'm being naive, thinking that the guy should show some loyalty, as that is a thing of the past in modern day football. If he does go to Spurs or Liverpool at least we can be safe in the knowledge that he won't be winning much with them, or in the case of Liverpool, playing much either.

Yes you are being tremendously naive! The only players that show massive loyalty are the ones that couldn't really take the next big step up.

Bentley is a champions League player. We're clearly not challenging for that with our lack of funds, but if we can get £15 million, we can use it to get 2 very good players in.

I really don't want him to leave, as he's clearly our best player, but you guys should really wake up and smell the coffee. He's going, despite what ever denials our club put out!

[JAL]

Last season Rovers were a 'one trick pony' Bentley to Cruz for me was Rovers story for the season 2008, all the other players produced a lot less in their time on the pitch to the creative attacking contribution of Blackburn Rovers season than what David Bentley did for us.

Losing Bentley now, would be just as big as when Damien Duff left us, the stats even show what us avid watchers saw on the pitch every weekend that Bentley was our main creative force as Dunn, Tugay, Savage, Pedersen, Mokoena, Reid all struggled to make any significant sustainable contribution to the attacking side of the team.

If Bentley wants to better himself then fair enough we should all wish him well but to chose Liverpool, no disrespect, but they aint going to be that good in the future surely he'll leave for one of the other bigger clubs.

Heres to wishful thinking and hoping Bentley is a Rover come the new season.

[AndyC]

Does anybody know anything about the agents/advisers guiding Bentley?

From where I am sitting I cannot see they are acting in David's best interest in any shape or form whatsoever.

The lad has a contract apparently paying around £20K per week with another three years to run. That means that whoever may come in for him has to induce Rovers to part with him and the Mr 10% get their cut of the transfer fee. Nicko is suggesting that Bents was offered £50K a week back in February for a new four year deal- that still wouldn't stop another club trying to bid for him and the transfer arithmetic would still be the same surely? And if they wanted to be cynical (agents?- surely not!), they could trouser David's enlarged packet and hold David's smiley press conference with Sparky whilst they still hawked him round Manchelsarsepool regardless of whatever clauses Rovers might insist on.

OK at £50K a week he'd have to take a pay cut to join Spurs and not get a payrise to join Liverpool but what is the big deal on David's folk having shown their backside to the £400K in extra wages from Rovers David has now missed out on since the new deal was first offered? I cannot see how they are creating net positive value for David on this in any shape or form or under any scenario.

Liverpool have to sell first to be in any reasonable shape to bid for Bentley and the Rafa/Parry/Gillett/Hicks/DIC circus is as predictable from one day to the next as an empty crisp bag blowing around Pierhead.

Chelsea are apparently believed to want Bentley although that story only comes from his people. Who at Chelsea?- Grant? Clarke? Ten Cate? Kenyon? Abramovich's girl friend? Mossad? the KGB?

Could it be that David is being genuinely unselfish and not burdening Rovers with his extra wages whilst he gets his head sorted/ tries to displace DB 60 yards into an empty net Goldenballs? Very unlikely but I don't see any explanation on this one that makes any sense.

Anyone care to enlighten me?

simple phil - it's not about money for bentley. It's about getting a move to a team playing champions league football and it will be easier to do that, by not signing a new deal and pretending he's committed for the long term.

[ihtd]

If he goes so be it, we've lost bigger and better players than him before. Bentley wouldn't be fit to lace Duff circa 1999-2001's boots, we managed to get over losing Duff, we can get over losing Bents. His heart isn't in the club anymore and he seems like he's gone all Mr BigTime, best off just getting shut and making sure the club gets the best possible deal out of probably Liverpool. I would take 12million and Benayoun for him. Then spend the rest on getting Arshavin from Zenit and we'll be in business. I just hope he realises he is going to not play regular football at Anfield, only Gerrard, Reina and Torres are pretty much exempt from Fat Benitez's rotation policy and he ain't in their league in terms of quality. I think he might just get shown up on the big stage for his lack of pace, the game has changed since Beckham were able to be affective without pace. Now the game is so dynamic, he would get shown up in the latter stages of a tournament ala CL i believe. Excellent crosser of the ball and has excellent ball control but there are so many better players in his position in Europe.