Liverpool FC Forum

by **Owzat** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 10:04 am

Number 9 wrote:
ruskiy playmaker wrote:I'd be very disappointed if these two guys were our primary targets.

David Bentley would be an asset to any team mate.

Given the way he has came on over the last couple of years i'd say Arsene Wenger is quietly kicking himself for letting him go.

Why do we even need "primary targets". Surely we need players to fill certain positions, to assume that someone better than Bentley is available would be silly and at a reasonable price. We've long talked up plenty of alternatives, they generally end at being talked up.

Bentley is realistic, we know he is a good player, we know he can cope with the Premiership, we know Blackburn will not make it impossible to sign him and we know that other top clubs would love to have him. We could sign a bigger reputation foreigner, probably at a higher price and with no knowing if he will settle readily in English football. Saying that Bellamy and Pennant have hardly blossomed, then again Bentley is better than Pennant as their respective England caps confirm.

by **Bad Bob** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 11:39 am

Owzat wrote:They sold us Bellamy for £6m, a key striker for them

Wasn't that the value that triggered a release clause in Bellamy's contract? I've not heard of Bentley having anything like that. If not, we may be looking at paying Blackburn a pretty hefty fee for him.

by **HacksawJimDuggin** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 1:43 pm

Is it set in stone that Alonso will leave in the summer?? I would go for Barry but only if Alonso is leaving. £12m is inflated but he would slot right into the Alonso type role alongside Mascha.

Bentley would fit into the 'Kuyt' role in the current formation and also offers a replacement for Stevie G long term. He is a class act, has a great attitude and offers all sorts of threats from set pieces.

I think both would be excellent signings.

These signings are going to have to be funded by the sale of a few players. My thoughts -

Crouch - £10m
Pennant - £5m
Voronin - £2m
Kewell - £0
Riise - £5m (I'd like to see him stay but I get the impression he is not in Rafa's plans..)
Finnan - £3-4m (dont think he's in Rafa's plans either, still has something to offer)

Assuming Agger will return to full fitness we would then be looking to sign 2 fullbacks over and above Bentley and (possibly) Barry.

by **Almighty Red** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 7:56 pm

Not sure about £3-4m for Finnan, he's 31 or 32, right? I'd like to see us keep him though...
Bentley and Barry would be great. Valencia would be good too and more affordable than Bentley. As we need a striker I'm thinking we'd need a good 10-20 million for anyone half decent, or even 20-30 IF Valencia would be up for selling Villa... sounds like we'd be spending at least 30-40 million on Bentley, Barry and a striker, then Lahm would bring us to or over £50m... and selling Crouch, Pennant, Riise and Voronin won't be much higher than £20m. Sounds like the yanks would have to reach into their pockets again, and that doesn't very likely, I fear...

by **Futura** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 8:43 pm

Toffeehater wrote:Also on ur point on modric , well i rather go for someone who has been excellent for villa in the coming years and is adapted to this league rather then take risks that we can't clearly afford to.

I know that Modric is now a spurs player but reading this point of yours makes me think that you would of preferred us buying say Darren Bent instead of Fernando Torres? Watch next season how good Modric will be in the premier league he will easily adapt, he recently laughed off these suggestions himself stating that people forget he played in the bullish Bosnian league (not a comparison of quality just physically) at just 17.

by **HacksawJimDuggin** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:59 am

Almighty Red wrote:Not sure about £3-4m for Finnan, he's 31 or 32, right? I'd like to see us keep him though...
Bentley and Barry would be great. Valencia would be good too and more affordable than Bentley. As we need a striker I'm thinking we'd need a good 10-20 million for anyone half decent, or even 20-30 IF Valencia would be up for selling Villa... sounds like we'd be spending at least 30-40 million on Bentley, Barry and a striker, then Lahm would bring us to or over £50m... and selling Crouch, Pennant, Riise and Voronin won't be much higher than £20m. Sounds like the yanks would have to reach into their pockets again, and that doesn't very likely, I fear...

OK. £2m for Finnan then.

I dont know much about Valencia so cant comment. Bentley is ready made for the current Liverpool formation so Rafa should go out and get him. Use Pennant as a makeweight for the deal as he would offer a replacement option to Blackburn.

I would also have a look at Aiden McGeady at Celtic. It wouldn't cost a lot to prize him away from Celtic and he would offer us an option in left midfield.

Defensive midfield options - Mascha, Alonso (or Barry is we sell Xabi), Lucas, Plessis(unproven yet but I like what I see) and Gerrard

Attacking midfield options - Gerrard, Babel, Bentley, McGeady, Kuyt, Benayoun, Lucas (yes I see him as an attacking option as well as defensive)

Striker options - Torres, Babel, Kuyt + ANother

That offers us a quality, flexible midfield.

by **stmichael** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 11:03 am

On Bentley, he isn't worth what it would cost to buy him, although if he was left footed I'd be well up for signing him as he'd vastly improve us if he could play on that side.

by **RUSHIE#9** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 11:38 am

I think the prospect of signing Bentley is becoming less and less if yuo listen to what Mark Hughes has supposedly said, apparently he'd rather let Bentley rot in the reserves than let him sign for one of the bigger clubs!

Make what you will of that but it sounds like they'd be wanting big bucks if anyone were to have a chance of getting him.

by **Almighty Red** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:19 pm

I'm afraid I wouldn't blame Villa or Blackburn to demand inflated prices for Barry or Bentley. 'Smaller' clubs always lose their quality players so quickly and often for unfair, low prices...

by **Reg** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:47 pm

The Manhattan Project wrote:Once that loan comes through from Lloyds TSB, Hicks will give Rafa loads of money to spend.

Which branch is that mate because if they´re willing to sub Hicks then I´m round there straight away.

by **ConnO'var** » Mon May 05, 2008 5:56 am

I voted for Barry at 12 million.

But in truth, this is a bit of a quandry for me.

I really rate Barry and think that he's an excellent player with a lot of maturity and ability. I feel he's got an excellent 1st touch and ample vision. His short game is exceptionally good and overall would be an excellent purchase. He's extremely versatile and can cover a few positions most notably in defense and midfield on the left. However, I'm one of those that feel that whenever possible, you should always play a player in his best position to get the most out of him..... And IMO, Barry's best position is in central midfield as a holding midfielder. We have an abundance of riches in central midifield with Gerrard, Mascherano, Alonso, Lucas and even Plessis (in the future). Based on the premise in the original topic starter's post that we don't sell anyone.... we're gonna be inundated with another player to compete for the slot. In which case, I simply don't see the point of buying Barry to be a squad player as he's definitely 1st team material. And to play him out wide would be a case of not maximising his talents. He'll still be very good out on the left and is definitely better that the players we do have there at the mo. As such, he'd be worth the price tag even if we did play him out on the left. If we bought him to play defensive mid and still kept all of the current players we have there, it would be foolhardy IMO..... If this is the position we have in mind for him, we need to sell someone.

As far as Bentley is concerned, I'm sorry but I just don't see what the fuss is all about. I think he's a good player but he's excelling in a team eminently suited to him and IMO, he'd struggle to make it with us as I don't see what it is about his game that have people gushing. There is no doubt that we need a right winger. The thing people should be asking themselves is whether or not the player we have there is going to be better than Stevie in that same role. If not, then why bother? We have an abundance of riches in central mid... May as well just move Stevie out wide... (I'm not advocating this btw as I feel Stevie is wasted anywhere but in a central midfield role).... Bentley coming over would be a stop gap solution yet again and not dissimilar to the Pennant signing IMO.

We need better out wide.

by **whylongball?** » Thu May 08, 2008 8:03 am

accurate assessment. Thats what i think.
Rafa has always liked players able to play multiple positions. A few of them would be good but in the end you must have specialist in very thing

by **Owzat** » Sun May 11, 2008 10:06 am

Right so we pay silly money for Barry because he can play LB or LM, but we want him for his current role of DM which we have covered. I can't see how you voted for Barry based on that, £12m is one hell of a price to pay for a utility player. And I can't see Barry wanting to play LB if he wants to play CM for England, if he is much better than Aurelio at LB or anyone we could sign there anyway.

I don't mind having players who can play several positions, but like in cricket you don't include lots of batsmen who 'can bowl' and bowlers who 'can bat' because you then end up with players who aren't all rounders and in some cases 'bits n pieces' players. We have Gerrard who can cover several positions in midfield, Carra who covers across the back four and Rafa will play players out of position anyway as he's shown this season. We want the best possible player in each position, not a player who's ok at LB, ok at LM and is 'just another CM' who's not the very best in his position (compared to what we have) If he was better than Alonso, Gerrard and Mascherano then fair enough, having six strings to your bow ain't much good with only one arrow and better archers around.

by **Owzat** » Sun May 11, 2008 10:09 am

It is interesting most have leaned towards Bentley, both or neither.

by **ConnO'var** » Mon May 12, 2008 1:59 am

Owzat wrote:Right so we pay silly money for Barry because he can play LB or LM, but we want him for his current role of DM which we have covered. I can't see how you voted for Barry based on that, £12m is one hell of a price to pay for a utility player. And I can't see Barry wanting to play LB if he wants to play CM for England, if he is much better than Aurelio at LB or anyone we could sign there anyway.

I don't mind having players who can play several positions, but like in cricket you don't include lots of batsmen who 'can bowl' and bowlers who 'can bat' because you then end up with players who aren't all rounders and in some cases 'bits n pieces' players. We have Gerrard who can cover several positions in midfield, Carra who covers across the back four and Rafa will play players out of position anyway as he's shown this season. We want the best possible player in each position, not a player who's ok at LB, ok at LM and is 'just another CM' who's not the very best in his position (compared to what we have) If he was better than Alonso, Gerrard and Mascherano then fair enough, having six strings to your bow ain't much good with only one arrow and better archers around.

I know what you mean, Owzat and to be fair I did say that it was a bit of a quandry for me......

As far as I'm concerned, he's best position is central midfield. Having said that, he is much better than all the players we currently have in left mid and left back (with the possible exception of Aurelio) at the moment..... and I feel that these are 2 of 4 positions which we desperately need to strengthen if we wish to continue in a a 4-4-2 formation. If Rafa wishes to continue with the 4-2-3-1 formation, Barry could easily fit in as the 2nd defensive central midfielder which would leave us with 5 players competing for 3 positions (possibly 6 with Plesis continues to grow in the role)....

12 million for a player of his quality is not too high imo. He'd do a better job than Babel out on the left and Babel cost 13 million quid.... though granted, he's got a longer career ahead of him.

As far as him wanting to (or not) play in the left sided role as it may affect his chances in the England set-up..... it's hard to say.....

In England, he's competing with Gerrard, Lampard, Carrick, Hargreaves for 2 slots in central midfield (40% chance). Down the left, theres only really him and Joe Cole (50% chance) in left midfield and Ashley Cole, Wayne Bridge and himself (33% chance but closer to 50% if you consider Wayne Bridge's untenable situation right now). So if you look purely at the numbers, he's probably better off to specialize in left midfield/defense if his national team ambitions are that important.

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Bentley or barry? - Who would you want? (@prices in (£) )

Bentley or barry? - Who would you want? (@prices in (£) )

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