do you want us to sign David Bentley?

[Unrighteous]

Let's put it this way... We sell Pennant and have Kuyt/Bentley for that right forward position; We'll have two players without dynamic pace.

That also leaves us with a left flank of JUST right Ryan Babel with Yossi Benayuon to back him up(who is better off coming off the right flank).

Let's face it. We have an extremely thin left flank and a wealth of options on the right.

Finnan, Arbeloa, Carragher for right back. Pennant, Yossi, Kuyt, Ste for right forward if needed.

We have Torres, Babel, or maybe Nemeth as advanced striker.

Babel... or Babel... for left Forward. We could play Voronin there but half of the apes on this board would rain fire from the heavens if we kept him and sold that waste of space Crouch.

Left back? In theory we are deep, except Riise is pants and Aurelio is often injured. Insua could definately do a job, if he is ready.

Crouch, flat out, does not fit into this formation as he has no ability to beat players and will rely on Babel to cause a pacey threat. We'll be toothless down the middle and on the right with him for cracking open a well-organised defence.

CM, we are deep. Period. No need to go through it all. We are also very deep at CB now: Skrtel, Hyypia, Carragher, Agger, San Jose, etc.

[PaulMcC]

Originally Posted by Unrighteous

Let's put it this way... We sell Pennant and have Kuyt/Bentley for that right forward position; We'll have two players without dynamic pace.

That also leaves us with a left flank of JUST right Ryan Babel with Yossi Benayuon to back him up(who is better off coming off the right flank).

Let's face it. We have an extremely thin left flank and a wealth of options on the right.

Finnan, Arbeloa, Carragher for right back. Pennant, Yossi, Kuyt, Ste for right forward if needed.

We have Torres, Babel, or maybe Nemeth as advanced striker.

Babel... or Babel... for left Forward. We could play Voronin there but half of the apes on this board would rain fire from the heavens if we kept him and sold that waste of space Crouch.

Left back? In theory we are deep, except Riise is pants and Aurelio is often injured. Insua could definately do a job, if he is ready.

Crouch, flat out, does not fit into this formation as he has no ability to beat players and will rely on Babel to cause a pacey threat. We'll be toothless down the middle and on the right with him for cracking open a well-organised defence.

CM, we are deep. Period. No need to go through it all. We are also very deep at CB now: Skrtel, Hyypia, Carragher, Agger, San Jose, etc.

So who would you like us to sign?

[Unrighteous]

Someone who can play the wide forward positions, a team player, creative, skilled, and is pacey... I don't care about nationality, star quality, has a great hair...

[PaulMcC]

Originally Posted by Unrighteous

Someone who can play the wide forward positions, a team player, creative, skilled, and is pacey... I don't care about nationality, star quality, has a great hair...

I think we'd all be happy with someone like that.

No one has ever mentioned anyone that everyone agrees with tho.

Wonder if Farfan could do a job.

[Unrighteous]

Farfan is definately pacey. How is his delivery? I can't say that I've watched him often. Just noticed him a few times.

[Unrighteous]

I think that pace and skill what we absolutely must focus on bringing into our squad.

[PaulMcC]

Not too sure.

I used to think he was crap then watched him a few times and his touch looked better than i thought it would be (i had him down as another Cisse) and he was pacey and direct.

Only seen him a few times tho.

[Unrighteous]

I dunno... I just think that we need more pace first and foremost...

Even Riise wouldn't be absolute crap if he was fast.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Moschops II

I think Bentley's one of the most intelligent players in the Premiership (in football terms...) and he'd do very well for us. Most of the criticism of him on here seems to be made a) by people who have barely seen him play and b) by people who think any British player not already playing for Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd is automatically not good enough for us. Or both.

All this stamping of feet about "pace and power" reminds me of the kind of thinking which had Emile Heskey in our team ahead of Jari Litmanen.

I certainly haven't seen loads of David Bentley, but I have seen enough to form an impression of his game. I agree with your assertion that he's intelligent and I also think he's got good feet. However, the stumbling block for me is his mobility. I certainly think he would be a much better option than Pennant, but I'm far from convinced that he'd become a third match-winner, which is what we should be looking for if we're going to sign forwards.

I reckon my instincts about players are reasonably good and certainly my first impressions of Bellamy, Pennant and Benayoun, who were all signed from Premiership clubs, were born out. I just don't think he's good enough to dramatically improve us in the way Torres has - because that's the level of impact new attacking players will need to have if we're ever going to challenge for the title.

[spider-neil]

Originally Posted by Paul

I certainly haven't seen loads of David Bentley, but I have seen enough to form an impression of his game. I agree with your assertion that he's intelligent and I also think he's got good feet. However, the stumbling block for me is his mobility. I certainly think he would be a much better option than Pennant, but I'm far from convinced that he'd become a third match-winner, which is what we should be looking for if we're going to sign forwards.

I reckon my instincts about players are reasonably good and certainly my first impressions of Bellamy, Pennant and Benayoun, who were all signed from Premiership clubs, were born out. I just don't think he's good enough to dramatically improve us in the way Torres has - because that's the level of impact new attacking players will need to have if we're ever going to challenge for the title.

what do you want paul a match winger or someone to provide better service?
I've already gone at lengths to show if its a match winer you are after bentley is currently outscoring the glamour wide players and the wide players that ARE outscoring bentley would cost an absolute fortune.
if the dic come then we can talk about robinho until that happens...

[Paul]

Originally Posted by spider-neil

what do you want paul a match winger or someone to provide better service?
I've already gone at lengths to show if its a match winer you are after bentley is currently outscoring the glamour wide players and the wide players that ARE outscoring bentley would cost an absolute fortune.
if the dic come then we can talk about robinho until that happens...

You know what I want: two top class full backs with pace. However, I don't think we can afford even them with £30m debt to service, nevermind buy forwards as well. If the status quo was changed and we did have big money, I wouldn't spend it on David Bentley - we need better; if the status quo is maintained, a forward is not the priority anyway. Ergo, we shouldn't sign David Bentley.

[spider-neil]

Originally Posted by Paul

You know what I want: two top class full backs with pace. However, I don't think we can afford even them with £30m debt to service, nevermind buy forwards as well. If the status quo was changed and we did have big money, I wouldn't spend it on David Bentley - we need better; if the status quo is maintained, a forward is not the priority anyway. Ergo, we shouldn't sign David Bentley.

I think even with our huge loan to service we can get alves and lahm (if they want to come here) and bentley, who we sell though is key.

[Scouse Missionary]

Silverlining - why do you have a username that espouses optimism, when in fact you are consistently negative about everything? Just wondering like.

Oh, and while you may be a nice person in the flesh, you're coming across as a bit of a twat on here. There's no need for the rush to insults.

[Unrighteous]

Originally Posted by spider-neil

what do you want paul a match winger or someone to provide better service?
I've already gone at lengths to show if its a match winer you are after bentley is currently outscoring the glamour wide players and the wide players that ARE outscoring bentley would cost an absolute fortune.
if the dic come then we can talk about robinho until that happens...

Bentley has been doing well and he's an intelligent player but we'd have to ONCE AGAIN change fucking formation to suit him because he'll cause us to limits options on the right flank without offering some decent pace. If signing him is our big saving grace then we are further from 19 than we all assume.

[Duff Man]

Originally Posted by Unrighteous

Someone who can play the wide forward positions, a team player, creative, skilled, and is pacey... I don't care about nationality, star quality, has a great hair...

Don't understimate the value of good hair.

[silverlining]

Originally Posted by Unrighteous

Bentley has been doing well and he's an intelligent player but we'd have to ONCE AGAIN change fucking formation to suit him because he'll cause us to limits options on the right flank without offering some decent pace. If signing him is our big saving grace then we are further from 19 than we all assume.

This isn;t directly related to Bentley's quality (or lack thereof), but while I do love to see us signing players like Torres and Mascherano, we can't really expect to have players like Gerrard and those two in EVERY single position.

It just isn't that feasible.

Now, before I get burnt at the stake, in no way am I suggesting our squad and first team XI is good enough yet, but castigating the likes of Bentley simply because he isn't at the level of Joe Cole/ Quaresma/ Robinho/ Ribery/ whoever is unfair and unrealistic.

There is NO TEAM in the Premiership that has blisteringly superb players in every position. Arsenal have Eboue and Flamini in their first XI. We'd hardly fall over ourselves to buy them. Chelsea still can't find a top-quality RB and give the lumbering Alex games. United won the title last season with a half-fit Saha after selling their world-class finisher. They played Fletcher now and then. Carrick gets plenty of games.

Look at the last truly great team we had, way back in the late 80s: Ray fucking Houghton at RM.

So that's why we need to be cognisant of the fact that it's the *team* that wins you titles, and no team can have a superstar, multi-million pound talent in every single position, in every single game.

[Unrighteous]

Originally Posted by Duff Man

Don't understimate the value of good hair.

We can always ask Dave U to have a talk with the new signing.

[Tom R]

Don't rate him at all. It's only cos he's English anybody even notices him.