Bent gets massive disrespect. He's one of the most consistent scorers our league has ever seen.
This whole argument about him doing well because he's the focus of bad teams, I don't buy. Look at the goal-scoring charts, and tell me which other player from bad teams consistently pops up near the top. Bent is no David Villa, but he's a proven performer.

Given the option of a) Bent to finish off the moves of our numerous tippy-tappy types, or b) Hazard to add to the tippy-tappy build up play, I'd take Bent.

Agree fully. What was that stat that came out around the time he moved to Villa? Something like over the last 5 years he's only behind Rooney and Drogba in premier league goals, and there were only a couple of goals or so in it from memory. Something like that anyway.

Would love to have Bent here either with Van Persie in the number 10 role behind him or alongside him in a 2 up front formation. He's just a proper natuarl goal scorer. Sure he's not likely to win the ball on the half way line and play an inch perfect through ball, or dribble down the touchline and cut inside and set someone else up etc. But I don't want my fucking centre forward starting moves on the half way line or the touch line. I want him busting his arse to get into the box to score goals and finish off moves instead of Van Persie doing something out wide, then one of our wingers or full backs pumping the ball into a penalty area containing 3 or 4 defenders and generally not a single Arsenal player.

That 1st goal he scored against us the other day, was that really a goal a "limited/mediocre/average/shit player who is the only focus of a bad team" would score? Bergkamp would have been fucking proud of that goal. That was a player who knows how to find the goal when the chance is there.

invisibleman18 wrote:

But I don't want my fucking centre forward starting moves on the half way line or the touch line. I want him busting his arse to get into the box to score goals and finish off moves instead of Van Persie doing something out wide, then one of our wingers or full backs pumping the ball into a penalty area containing 3 or 4 defenders and generally not a single Arsenal player.

That 1st goal he scored against us the other day, was that really a goal a "limited/mediocre/average/shit player who is the only focus of a bad team" would score? Bergkamp would have been fucking proud of that goal. That was a player who knows how to find the goal when the chance is there.

Your post speaks to getting players who do different and complementary things. Something which Wenger has missed completely with his current one-for-all and all-for-one approach.

If we dont get the defence sorted and the central midfield in front of it, no amount of Hazard's, Bent's, Cesc's and Van Persie's are gonna win us this league.

I'd also add that if we dont get some experience and character in to this club we'll more than likely bottle the big games next season even if we do construct a functioning team.

Caligula wrote:

Given the option of a) Bent to finish off the moves of our numerous tippy-tappy types, or b) Hazard to add to the tippy-tappy build up play, I'd take Bent.

Hazard doesn't do build up play. He dribbles straight to goal. And beats three or four players on a fairly consistent basis.

qs! wrote:
Ricky1985 wrote:

but I put a lot of that down to him playing in a poor team.

A poor team? They're top of Ligue 1. They've also got the leagues top striker in Sow.

They lack quality big time, and Sow is nothing special at all. Just the beneficiary of Hazard, and to a much lesser extent, Gervinho's creative efforts. They have one or two decent players like Obraniak and Cabaye, but they really don't have a lot of quality in their team.

Machete wrote:

I think we'll get cahill

What makes you think that mate? I just can't see it happening.

Ricky1985 wrote:
qs! wrote:

A poor team? They're top of Ligue 1. They've also got the leagues top striker in Sow.

They lack quality big time, and Sow is nothing special at all. Just the beneficiary of Hazard, and to a much lesser extent, Gervinho's creative efforts. They have one or two decent players like Obraniak and Cabaye, but they really don't have a lot of quality in their team.

WEll the league must have even less quality.

Heard Auclair saying the other day that he thought Gervinho had been better than Hazard too. What do you make of that?

Really not much of a fan of Gervinho. He reminds me a lot of Kalou. Hazard is 10 times the talent.

Hats off to Lille's coach, Rudi Garcia. In my opinion, Lyon and Marseilles have quite a bit more talent, but it looks as if he's guiding them to the Title.

Hazard is young and inconsistent, also likes to showboat a little too much. Still a massive improvement over Arshavin, who is old and fat and slow and inconsistent.

invisibleman18 wrote:

Agree fully. What was that stat that came out around the time he moved to Villa? Something like over the last 5 years he's only behind Rooney and Drogba in premier league goals, and there were only a couple of goals or so in it from memory. Something like that anyway.

In all comps

Bent - 236 apps 118 goals
Rooney - 397 apps 163 goals
Drogba - 301 apps 144 goals
RVP - 223 apps 94 goals

Ricky1985 wrote:
Machete wrote:

I think we'll get cahill

What makes you think that mate? I just can't see it happening.

Well I'm not so keen as I was but just think he'll jump at the chance to sign for us and I think we will show some sort of interest and it will snowball

What would you think of a Cahill-Vermaelen partnership next season?

I'd like it! We'd certainly be better on set pieces both defensively and attacking wise. He'd be on my list were I looking for a centreback.

I'd rather we look for a left back, centremid and a forward before that tho

Yeah, I got the feeling you were only quiet on Cahill because you think we will only make 3 or so proper changes and felt others positions were more important.

Caligula wrote:

Given the option of a) Bent to finish off the moves of our numerous tippy-tappy types, or b) Hazard to add to the tippy-tappy build up play, I'd take Bent.

Sure, but we are talking about a left sided midfielder/forward here, not a striker. That player has to be able to perform some of the jobs that would come under the "tippy-tappy build up play".

For what it's worth I completely understand where you're coming from on this. I don't want another post-Christmas Nasri on our wing. We need serious pace and a desire to score goals and get in behind from the man in those two positions.

I just think Hazard has the capacity to give us what we need.

Ricky1985 wrote:

For what it's worth I completely understand where you're coming from on this. I don't want another post-Christmas Nasri on our wing. We need serious pace and a desire to score goals and get in behind from the man in those two positions.

Ricky, we're on the same page here. If you think Hazard can give us the width and the threat of goals, then cool, bring him in. But we do still need to get that true number 9 in to remove the burden from RVP.

I'd like to see what percentage of our goals RvP has scored in 2011 and how many other players chipped in. One wonders what would have happened if RvP had broken down in January or February.

Machete wrote:

What would you make of that partnership ricky?

I'm all over that.