Bent - on loan until January
If Marcus Bent had brought Danielle Lloyd to Molineux with him after signing on loan, I’d be mildly excited as a Wolves fan right now.
Unfortunately, the busty Scouser moved on to better things some time ago and is no longer with the Birmingham City reject. I’d have thought we’d have done likewise.
The 32 year-old nomad is our much discussed fourth striker and will be playing for his 14th club when he pulls on the old gold shirt in the near future. Surely that says something?
However, without wanting to bemoan the acquisition without giving him a chance, it is time to welcome the big man to the bosom of our squad and hope he notches some important goals for us, like he used to for Sheffield United all those years ago.
The problem has always been: How much quality can you attract to a club when the manager is selling a position on the subs bench? Maybe our new, sunken dugouts look a bit more cosy than those harsh looking blue ones at St Andrews?
The plus points: Bent will score more goals and put himself about more than Andy Keogh if given half a chance. He has Premiership experience (bloody loads of it!) and he will not need to settle in the area as he is already living here (scratching the barrel a bit now).
I can only go on what I have seen, which was actually quite encouraging. He bullied Michael Mancienne all over Molineux when we dew with the Blues 1-1 in our Championship winning season, and looked surprisingly mobile too.
If Mick thinks he can do a job, then let’s get behind Marcus and wish him all the best.
If it was down to me, I’d have kept Iwelumo, who is younger, statistically more prolific, and more likely to mess up an opposing centre half like Andy Carroll did to us on Saturday.
Better still, I’d have phoned Danielle Lloyd up and asked her what her current boyfriend is up to once his back gets better!
See story from official site: http://www.wolves.co.uk/page/News/0,,10307~2140122,00.html
Although this isn’t a signing that is likely to be widely celebrated, we have to be realistic about the situation.
With Kevin Doyle, SEB and Steven Fletcher all vying for first team places, not many strikers would accept the position of coming in as a nailed on fourth choice.
On a positive note, what Bent does offer is a different option to the trio of forwards we already have on the books. I’ve watched him a few times and his ability in the air and hold-up play might well prove a useful asset over the next four months or so.
Do I expect him to start many games? Probably not, but he’ll no doubt be given his chance from the subs bench to show what he can do. I for one will be reserving judgment until I’ve seen him play.
And of course, if January comes around and it hasn’t worked out, we can send him back to Blues and see who else is available in the next window.
That’s not the worst situation to be in.
Rubbish signing – I’d rather see Vokes get a few games (when fit) then some bloke who’s had more clubs then hot dinners. And I would have even prefered a return of Jason Roberts – at least he has proved he can score goals in the Prem.
Bent hasn’t started a game for Blues since April 2009 and failed to score in the championship on loan at two clubs last season.
Let’s face it, Blues will be down in the relegation scrap with us for most of the season and they wouldn’t let someone leave to a rival if they were any good. Just got to hope Doyle, SEB and (poppadom) Fletch all stay fit!
What happened to the £3million that was being reported?
Roll on Hunt being fit – a signing we can all look forward to!
So if I’ve got this right, our 25 man squad consists of:
1. Hahnemann
2. Hennessy
3. Zubar
4. Foley
5. Ward
6. van Damme
7. Elokobi
8. Craddock
9. Berra
10. Mouyokolo
11. Stearman
12. Mancienne
13. Henry
14. Jones
15. Guedioura
16. Milijas
17. Edwards
18. Jarvis
19. Kightly
20. Hunt
21. Halford
22. SEB
23. Doyle
24. Fletcher
25. Bent
Hasn’t that Mujangi-Bia (who looked poor from the brief bits i’ve seen) got to be in there somewhere – although for who I’m not sure! Or is he really just here to look after Guedioura.
He’s young enough to be allowed to play without having to be included in the official 25.
A bonus player if you will.
He looked quite useful in the 45 minutes he played at Fratton Park at the end of last season.
If anything happened to Jarvis, god forbid, we’d have to think about using him because he’s the only other (fit) out and out winger we have.
Aha, didn’t realise he was that young! Thanks for clearing that up. Agree, Jarvis is probably our most irreplaceable player at the moment given the injuries to Kightly and Hunt. As Bia hasn’t been on the bench though I doubt Mick sees him as the first replacement. I dread the day that Stephen Ward returns to left midfield us once more, but that would probably be what Mick would do.
I agree with you Ben, our dugouts do look much cozier and protective from the elements. I would hope we could get some of those nice Ricaro seats in for the subs.
I think you’re right, Iwelumo is prefered. I recon this is a wages thing. We would obviously only be paying a proportion of Bents wages in comparison to what we would be paying Iwelumo or indeed Keogh so I smell a Moxey cutprice special here.
But as far as a squad improvement…..nah, not in my book.
I suspect, even though it was never confirmed, that Iwelumo signing for Burnley was in someway tied to Fletcher coming to Wolves.
But like you and Ben say, Iwelumo would have been better. He’s actually the ideal kind of fourth forward you need who can come on and influence a game merely by his presence.
He also had a brilliant attitude and was great for squad morale.
Oh well. Let’s give this bloke a chance before writing him off though.
To be fair big Chris never looked like scoring in the Prem either, IMO I think his time had come!
Bring back the Hof! (joke)
Couple of mildly amusing quotes from the Daily Telegraph Deadline Day live text:-
“10.45: Marcus Bent will move from Birmingham to Wolves on loan until January. This is the currency we are dealing in at the moment people. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
And in a round-up, a little later:
“11.07: We’ve hit a late morning lull. Time for a recap.
The big players today have been, erm, Schalke. First they signed Klaas Jan Huntelaar from Milan for 13m euros, then followed that up with Atletico Madrid’s Jose Manuel Jurado for the same fee.
On these shores the big spenders, almost, have been Blackpool, having agreed a fee of £1.25m doe DJ Campbell. That needs personal terms to be settled, as does what looks to be the biggest deal of the day involving a British club, with Sunderland crossing the ‘i’s and dotting the ‘t’s on a £12m deal for Asamoah Gyan as we speak.
After that we fall away sharply to Marcus Bent moving from Birmingham to Wolves on loan and precious little else. There’s still time though…”
Absolute load of bollocks, waste of time, money and ink to sign the paperwork.
As said above, if he was any good, they would have kept him.
But more to the point, why are we not strengthening our defense?
Is CL turning into Matt Busby, with the attitude, if we let in four, we can always score five or six?
That was great back in the sixties, when defenses were bigger and slower,
and if you had the players up front of the likes of Law, Best, Charlton etc.
This signing is total bullshit, a pathetic attempt to pull wool over our eyes, that “we’ve signed someone, anyone, before deadline time”
The man just doesn’t get it, or understand, or is even watching the same games,
STRENGTHEN THE DEFENSE, McCARTHY, OR WE’LL GET RELEGATED.
FOWB.
He did strengthen the defence Clive…he got Shackell…Friend….Hill….Moyoukoulo…. oh yeah… he didn’t did he?
The best thing I can say about this signing is that I don’t think he’ll play.
Agree, and I’d add… ‘can he really be any worse than Keogh?’
I guess he’ll play in the league cup and the odd sub appearance hen we want to lump it up to someone for the last ten minutes
Can’t help but agree with Ben that we should have just kept Iwelumo, though Thomas is probably right about the Fletcher deal. He’s just back up in case the worst happens.
We sign Bent while Blues sign Hleb (how the hell did they manage that?!). Hmm, didn’t they finish below us in the champ?
I suppose from Hleb’s standpoint, he would maybe just choose the club which is bankrolled by a Hong Kong tycoon over a club which might appear to be relatively frugal.
Good point Rich…Blues have got quality in Hleb, we have got quantity with bent. Atrocious signing…come back Colin Taylor !!
Didn`t jump for joy when I heard the news, even Moxey had to do a bit of justification – saying he offers something no other striker we have does. This was a physical presence and i`d consider that as Fletch apart we have no height or muscle up front. Thats why Halford plays, to win headers from the freekicks and goalkicks, if Bent on the bench means Halford doesn`t play – thats ok with me.
The bench on Sat was the best since MM arrived, however too many players of similar ability, no stand outs, its still MM`s favourites who get picked. Seem other teams have tried to sign quality in order to improve the squad, are we doing that? It doesn`t seem so for me. What happened to the £3m we had to buy Mancienne with, is it still in the coffers for January?