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I would imagine he still wants more than Leeds can afford........a PL team will probably panic buy him at some point
Redknapp will go in for him next
Bentley has always had not one ounce of common sense.
Half my mates are gooners (spit) so Ive seen my share of Woolwich over the years when meeting up for beers etc. Bentley for them was excellent (more promising than the much fabled Wilshire thats for sure - different position of course)
They were grooming him to replace Bergkamp, and like him or loathe him that guy is a legend. If Bentley had any sense he would have kept his head down, learned from one of the best and stepped into a team (at the time) at the top of their game and tailor made for him.
Instead he had a successful loan at Norwich (scored a worldy iirc) and suddenly got too big for his socks demanding games etc.
At Blackburn I genuinely thought he was excellent. Then once he joined us (and didnt to badly to be fair, just didnt set the world alight) he basically unravelled. His flimsy psyche robbing him of form or the ability to do the basics right.
I do believe he has the skills be an excellent footballer. He has superb technique in striking the ball and vision to make use of it, in the right team he could be pivotal. Sadly I do not believe he has the head to be even a "decent" footballer. Always tries to be too clever, not focused enough, too interested in being a Beckham clone...
Perfect example of why young athletes need mental support. It's a lot of pressure and often the only thing holding you where you are is your ego. Not surprising that the biggest successes are the most pig-headed, stubborn wankers who back themselves no matter what. And no surprise that these individuals are rarely great managers, despite the droves of them making that switch. The flexibility you require as a manager is exactly what has been driven out of them at the playing stage of the game.
Wasn't Redknapp basically dumping him out the team after Gatoradegate the place where it all suddenly started to go badly wrong for him?...
Blatant.
Redknapp has plenty of previous for basically dumping players. Always seemed to me with him, if you are in you are on top of the world, if you are out you dont even exist...
Yeah, but separate to that, was that or was that not where things when wrong for Bentley? I seem to remember him being pretty solid for the whole season before that fateful presser invasion...
The gatorade over the head was the year we first finished 4th, iirc Bentley was nowhere near the team until the end of the season.
We regularly played Modric - Palacios - Huddlestone - Lennon and Bentley didnt get near the side.
Toward the end of the year Lennon and Palacios got injured and so Modric came central and Bentley played RW the last handful of games. And did pretty well as I recall, solid if unspectacular.
Redknapp never really held faith with him in the side though, and I certainly dont think he was a regular that year
We regularly played Modric - Palacios - Huddlestone - Lennon and Bentley didnt get near the side.
Toward the end of the year Lennon and Palacios got injured and so Modric came central and Bentley played RW the last handful of games. And did pretty well as I recall, solid if unspectacular.
Redknapp never really held faith with him in the side though, and I certainly dont think he was a regular that year
Sadly, he was hardly unique in that regard. Played about 14 players that year, didn't we?
Poor Nico...I miss him.
Could have had world class ability, however he didn't have the mentality to match his potential. Very sad.
Lennon got injured at Christmas that season iirc and Bentley played quite a few games RW in the 2nd half of the season - not Woolwich at home though (Danny Rose on his Premier League debut etc...)
His form, along with other much maligned figures - Pav and Gomes in particular - were as much do with that top 4 as Bale's emergence and the Modric/Huddlestone axis we stumbled upon after Palacios was suspended after the Pompey semi-final (shudder).
As a couple have mentioned, he was better when he didn't try to be "flash" - which, unfortunately he seemed to think he needed to be all the time at Spurs.
Always have a fond memory of the 45 yard lob vs the gooners. We were getting hammered, definition of smash and grab
pretty much.
Many people credit him with bringing Bale into the first team, but what else could he do when BAE was injured? Plus, before that point he had made quite a few first team appearances at LB anyway...
Bentley is fucking shit