£9M for Bent. What do you think?

The Prince-e-Paul

i heard on radio that Reed may accept around £9m for Bent in January to boost the squad. i can't see us doing anything in front of goal without him, so why sell as we would be commiting Premiership suicide. he is the only player scoring and he would definately be need for a promotion push if the worst happens.

AFKABartram

he'll only go in January if we are already truely doomed, otherwise the poor lad is stuck with us to the summer. Sorry Darren !

paulbaconsarnie

i think clauses in bents new contract signing must be in place, (ie we as a club have to be in a certain position at a certain timefor him to stay). or if a champions league club come in with a certain offer then he can go.
with the disappointment of him missing out in germany, that must have been a priority with contract negotiations for him.



and i hate to say it but at the moment it looks a good call by him.

cafcpolo

He'd be mad to sell Bent for anything less than 12mil, proven Prem goalscorers are a rare breed. Like AFKA says, if he goes then we're down, simple as.

pickwick

9 million is an OK price, what did Johnson go for was it about 7 million? and has come back to the Prem and started scoring again.

Who would we buy from the championship to replace though?

ThreadKiller

minus the cut to ipswich.

pickwick

Anyone know how much that would be? I hope it does not happen; but if Man Utd do come knocking....

The Prince-e-Paul

i wouldn't blame Bent at all. it's nothing like when Parker left us. then we were a team that 'could' have achieved something. this time around we are a bunch of struggler's that seem to be going down the pan. bent has been our lifeline both seasons so we can honestly say weve had our moneys worth out of him, unlike some other so called big names (Mr Bent Senior - in name only & JFH)

aliwibble

I'd bite their hands off. What's that - 4 1/2 times what we paid Everton for him?

Oh. We're not talking about Marcus then? Damn

Selling Darren mid-season is not an option. We've all seen what happens to our season if we sell our best player in January, and we've got no room for error this year.

StanmoreAddick

[cite]Posted By: aliwibble[/cite] Selling Darren mid-season is not an option. We've all seen what happens to our season if we sell our best player in January, and we've got no room for error this year.

diferent situation Aliwibble, we were pushing for europe at that time- but i still agree with you.

The board has underwritten our overspend this close season with the potential saleability of Darren Bent- can't see them sanctioning a sale until there is no chance of staying up and then they will/should hold out for as much as is possible but respect the fact he didn't move on this summer-
The max transfer fee i think would only be acheived in the summer.

I hope!

ISawLeaburnScore

what do i think if we sell dazza?

championship here we come...

northstandsteve

I think when we spent the money in the summer Murray knew if it didn;t work out we could sell bent to recoup funds,I don't see him going until summer,but I personally now think we have gone already so it wouldn't surprise me if we cash in in Jan.

AFKABartram

agree with the funds point steve, one of the reasons i think we overspent was because we knew we had a saleable asset.

As for we've gone already, it can turn so, so quickly. If we win on Sat, off the bottom and everyone will be talking very differently.

ISawLeaburnScore

all this talk - we are gone already... in reality, a win on saturday could see us out of the bottom three, let alone off of the bottom

we are in a proper fight here, we don't need people turning up to moan and grumble and just shatter the confidence of the lads even more

we need some bloody optimism and passion!

StanmoreAddick

[cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite] but I personally now think we have gone already so it wouldn't surprise me if we cash in in Jan.

We haven't gone yet!

Reality

northstandsteve

We haven't got enough fight in the team,I went to forum last Thursaday when Les Rees said instead of dropping flair players like Rommedahl and Thomas,we need to educate them to work back and win the ball.Why do they need educating on this point it should taken as granted that will do it.I can't see us winning away this season,there is not enough discipline in the team.We need people with the same heart and determination as Kish.If they put the same effort in we wouldn't be in this trouble.

StanmoreAddick

Im not disagreeing with you NSS, I'm just saying that we are not down yet-

It's November and back to back wins takes us easily out of the relegation places.

As hard as it feels at this time, especially after watching the tosh at Reading, that is the fact of the situation.

I accept i don't know everything that goes on at our club, but the little i've picked up say's i still trust the board and therefore their appointment of Reed.

Bloody hard going tho!

northstandsteve

Would we really be gutted if we went down.We would then see the real Charlton fans (Selhurst and Upton Park).We may then get a bit of atmosphere back and see some youth coming through who would play with passion and desire.Maybe the players who have signed over recent seasons don't know the Charlton story and don't seem to have rapour with the fans.I feel over the past few years I have become just a number at the club.10 years ago we were appreciated more and made to feel part of something special.Maybe that will happen again if things go pear shaped.

ISawLeaburnScore

i can see what you're saying nss. obviously relegation to the club would be an absolute disaster, in terms of finances, playing staff, gate receipts, merchandise sales, etc. and it could be many years before we ever return, but everyone knows div one was always more fun - better days out, cheaper tickets, a squad of hardworking, young, british talent and far more passionate and vociferous support. whatever happens, i'll have another seasonticket next year and won't stop following charlton all over the place for the rest of my days. sad ey?

StanmoreAddick

[cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite]Would we really be gutted if we went down.

Damn right i would be- remember the magic of the play- off final and the championship winning year.

[cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite]Maybe the players who have signed over recent seasons don't know the Charlton story and don't seem to have rapour with the fans

Very likely- that's the management of change- they aren't rocket scientists

[cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite]I feel over the past few years I have become just a number at the club.10 years ago we were appreciated more and made to feel part of something special.Maybe that will happen again if things go pear shaped.

Doubt it- We felt special because of what we went through- ground sharing- valley party- back to the valley -target 100000 et al.

Those feelings aren't going to happen again- best channel the vibes towards backing the team rather than trying to find positives from negatives.

pickwick

To get ourselves out of this we need something like 3 wins and a draw in 4 games now before Christmas, 2 wins 2 losses will not pull us out.

StanmoreAddick

True- but, given that all of the bottom 5 teams are averaging 1 point or less per game, i'd settle for 6 points from the next 4 games- especially if 3 of them come at Sheffield.

There needs to be three teams below us at the end of the season- that's it!

LenGlover

[cite]Posted By: stanmoreaddick[/cite]True- but, given that all of the bottom 5 teams are averaging 1 point or less per game, i'd settle for 6 points from the next 4 games- especially if 3 of them come at Sheffield.

There needs to be three teams below us at the end of the season- that's it!

Spot on!

paulbaconsarnie

[cite]Posted By: stanmoreaddick[/cite]Im not disagreeing with you NSS, I'm just saying that we are not down yet-

It's November and back to back wins takes us easily out of the relegation places.

As hard as it feels at this time, especially after watching the tosh at Reading, that is the fact of the situation.

........and the last time we had back to back wins..............august going into september 05, some 47 league games ago.

BlackForestReds

£9m is too cheap for Darren Bent, during the summer the suggested prices were higher and that was before the goals this season proving that he's not a one season wonder. I think we owe Ipswich 25% of any profit. I think the transfer fee was £3m but that included a few clauses - playing for England in a competitive international etc so I don't know what the real transfer price would be, but assuming a sale at £9m that's around £1.5m that we'd lose to Ipswich straight away, giving us ca £7.5m to spend. That could be enhanced with further squad trimming - Holland, Hughes maybe HH. In reality Bent as a proven Premiership player is worth more, if Man U can pay £13m for Louis Saha then Bent has to be worth the same.

As for replacements...that money would cover David Nugent and David Healey and leave some money over.

WSS

The problem is, why would players want to join us?

BlackForestReds

The problem is, why would players want to join us?


Just tell them the training ground is close to China White's...

AFKABartram

[cite]Posted By: WestStandSinger[/cite]The problem is, why would players want to join us?

The secret is we have to get back to signing the right players, for the right reasons. We have regressed 6-7 years in the past 12 months, and we need to get back to what saw us step up to the next level.

When you read Curbs book, you get the understanding just how important the players we would not normally highlight were; Matty Holmes, Bumstead, Keith Jones etc. Not that they were particularly the best, they joined because they wanted to play first-team football and gave their all in every game, every training session. The net result is it rubs off on others and sets the standard. All of a sudden there is a different work ethic and desire amongst the camp.

We need to do our homework and get back to those signings.

WSS

Exactly AFKA, we need players who feel like they have something to prove.

Its no coincidence that Carson (proving to Liverpool), Reid (proving to Spurs fans and other critics), Bent (proving to those who said he was a one season wonder) are our best players this year.

Whereas, Rommedahl, JFH, M.Bent etc think that they have already made it in the footballing world

Mark

We have scored nine league goals this season. D. Bent scored six of them. Without DB that is worse than one goal every four games.

How much did you want for him?

Salad

[cite]Posted By: Mark[/cite]We have scored nine league goals this season. D. Bent scored six of them

One problem is that the other players think Goals=Darren Bent so they play in a way that assumes if we are to score it will probably be Benty - without him they would have to have a different attitude. We have spent years without a goal scorer yet always scored our fair share of goals (if anything our problem has been conceding too many) - eg. we always used to outscore Southampton even though they had Beattie scoring about 20 a season.

As for selling him, Ipswich get a 25% cut - if wer do sell him - I hope we don't, but if we are still bottom we may have little alternative - then we should set our stall out a bit like we did with Parker - we want £10M deposited in the Charlton Athletic bank account - Ipswich's 25% is on top of that as are any agent fees etc. etc. etc.