do you want us to sign David Bentley?

[Paul]

Originally Posted by spider-neil

it would reduce his playing time and curtail his development.
I'm of the opinion we should take our transfer kitty and service three positions LB/RB/RM and this it.
finally I'm not blind to babel's shortcomings I see them as well as you.

I wasn't talking about what we will do; I was on about what I would do given a blank cheque book to guarantee a title tilt next season. It was an illustrative post regarding the relative strengths of our team. My point is that we can't rely on Ryan Babel yet to be a match winner.

[spider-neil]

Originally Posted by Paul

That, for me, is a very important point: who has left Wenger's Arsenal to go on to sustained success elsewhere? No-one that I can think of (Anelka had one god season in Spain before his career went tits up). Wenger is obsessed with pace, athleticism and skill and it's pretty obvious why Bentley didn't measure up. Like it or not, pace is a prerequisite for top players now.

how much pace does rosicky have?
how much skill does eboue have?
we need goal scorers its as simple as that, we are going about things the wrong way we are expecting another barnes and off the top of my head I can only think of two (maybe three) players in world football who have pace, skill and goals to provide and score from a wide position and we can't afford any of them (well unless the dic come in).
man, I wish I could draw up a pie in the sky wish list it looks fun, well more fun than a realistic wish list.

[spider-neil]

Originally Posted by Paul

I wasn't talking about what we will do; I was on about what I would do given a blank cheque book to guarantee a title tilt next season. It was an illustrative post regarding the relative strengths of our team. My point is that we can't rely on Ryan Babel yet to be a match winner.

oh, fair enough :)

[TheHitman]

I remember listening to Bellamy talking quite honestly about comparing Playing at Blackburn to playing at Liverpool he said the difference was staggering highlighting the amount of space the consistency and how a team who have goals to win trophies differs in their approach.

If you are looking for a pacy player who can get goals the lad at psv Jefferson Farfan has always impressed me and has experience of playing in the c/l. Although a striker he often plays out wide and cuts in and seems quite a versatile little player, would cost less than Bently....

[Paul]

Originally Posted by spider-neil

how much pace does rosicky have?
how much skill does eboue have?
we need goal scorers its as simple as that, we are going about things the wrong way we are expecting another barnes and off the top of my head I can only think of two (maybe three) players in world football who have pace, skill and goals to provide and score from a wide position and we can't afford any of them (well unless the dic come in).
man, I wish I could draw up a pie in the sky wish list it looks fun, well more fun than a realistic wish list.

Rosicky is not slow at all. He's a nippy player. Pace doesn't have to mean sub-10 second hundred metres.

Eboue is skillful enough to beat a man with the ball and cross it at pace.

But I see from your second post that you've realised what I'm on about.

[Redder Lurtz]

I think the kind of money being discussed is overinflated and I hope we don't end up spending anything over around the £6m mark if we do buy him. I think he may have potential.

One question about him and his ability is that, whilst there are so many Reds against the idea of signing him, I haven't heard one pundit do anything other than wax lyrical about his ability and his potential. If that had been one or two pundits then it might be misjudgement but for pretty much every commentator or pundit to rave about him? Sounds like they may have a point?

[spider-neil]

last post before I go to work,
anyone who thinks bentley wouldn't get into the arsenal's first 11 can't have watched too much of arsenal this season.

song - 0
diarra - 1
diaby - 2
silva - 0
tomas - 7 (virtually all of them scored when the result was secured)
fab - 12 (well he's class)
denilson - 2
flam - 3
hleb - 4
walcoot - 5

bentley - 9 (and a shit load of assists)

[Brownie]

Originally Posted by spider-neil

last post before I go to work,
anyone who thinks bentley wouldn't get into the arsenal's first 11 can't have watched too much of arsenal this season.

song - 0
diarra - 1
diaby - 2
silva - 0
tomas - 7 (virtually all of them scored when the result was secured)
fab - 12 (well he's class)
denilson - 2
flam - 3
hleb - 4
walcoot - 5

bentley - 9 (and a shit load of assists)

It's just that simple isn't it!

[spider-neil]

okay ONE more post

we fall into the trap over and over again attempting to service our wide areas whilst leaving the fullbacks unchanged we are tackling the symptom(sp) not the cause.

ray houghton wasn't the quickest or the most skillful but he filled his boots because we had superb support from his fullback. kennedy? ljunberg? my number one signing would be daniel alves THE best attacking fullback in world football and then stick a goal scorer in front of him. I know though many people on this forum would buy alves and stick him at right midfield and continue on with our fullbacks who contribute next to nothing going forwards but that's okay 'a defenders job is too defend'. keep telling yourself that whilst manu arsenal and chelsea disappear over the horizon every season leaving us in their wake, well, at least we'll conceeded the least goals...oh, wait

[hamstrung]

He's OK. We need better than OK

Private polls suck.

[wiiksie]

He's a cockernee wide boy geezah, who wears shit suits. So no.

Oh, and good player, but not good enough for us etc etc.

[G Richards]

Originally Posted by TheHitman

If you are looking for a pacy player who can get goals the lad at psv Jefferson Farfan has always impressed me and has experience of playing in the c/l. Although a striker he often plays out wide and cuts in and seems quite a versatile little player, would cost less than Bently....

That's a good shout that one. He could do really well for us on the right of the three behind Torres. He's not quite top, top drawer yet, but in my eyes would rank alongside the likes of Babel, Young, Agbonlahor et al in terms of pace and quality.

[Faustus]

I do like him as a player and think he's had a good season but, ideally, we should be signing players of better quality than him to bridge the gap between us and the Mancs. We've already signed too many squad players in the past so I wouldn't even have him to make up the numbers.

For me, this summer in the transfer market is a huge test for Rafa. I'd imagine he's going to have a similar budget to last year to work with so I'd like to see a signifcant percentage of that spent on a genuine world class player (Diego from Bremen would be a class signing, in my eyes) and a number of youngsters promoted from the reserves to supplement the first team, rather than spend £7-8m here and there on mediocre squad players.

[TK421]

I'd replace Pennant with Bentley, so that's a 'yes'. I think the importance of pace is overstated sometimes, there are good fast players and good slow players, like Alonso. Bentley is no slower than the likes of Ljungberg, Pires and Beckham who were very good players.

[spider-neil]

Originally Posted by Faustus

I do like him as a player and think he's had a good season but, ideally, we should be signing players of better quality than him to bridge the gap between us and the Mancs. We've already signed too many squad players in the past so I wouldn't even have him to make up the numbers.

For me, this summer in the transfer market is a huge test for Rafa. I'd imagine he's going to have a similar budget to last year to work with so I'd like to see a signifcant percentage of that spent on a genuine world class player (Diego from Bremen would be a class signing, in my eyes) and a number of youngsters promoted from the reserves to supplement the first team, rather than spend £7-8m here and there on mediocre squad players.

our big signings should be fullbacks, this is where the majority of our funds should be spent, bring in world class players who have pace, power and the ability to take on players and cross or get to the byline and cut the ball back.

[silverlining]

Originally Posted by TK421

I'd replace Pennant with Bentley, so that's a 'yes'. I think the importance of pace is overstated sometimes, there are good fast players and good slow players, like Alonso. Bentley is no slower than the likes of Ljungberg, Pires and Beckham who were very good players.

Ljungberg was fast as fuck over the first 5 yards, faster than anyone else at Arsenal.
And Pires was also deceptively quick.

So that's two of your named examples who you don't appear to have ever seen play football.

[stringvest]

If it's him or nothing, then yes, as he would improve the team, but I would much rather we bought a wing-back like Alves

[TK421]

Originally Posted by silverlining

So that's two of your named examples who you don't appear to have ever seen play football.

Piss up a rope, fuckstick.

[WaltonRed]

Lets have another thread slagging off a player before he's even pulled on a red shirt.

I bet the players hark for the days when they signed for someone they were given a little time to perform.

We wont be in for him anyway so I dont know why people are worrying.