24/01/2010

Benni ready to take on Pompey!

According to Timesonline McCarthy has agreed personal terms with West Ham.
As I said in THIS post Benni suits me fine. Benedict is 32 and I'm hoping he can still score. He has bagged 4 in 10 games for Rovers this season but out of those one was against Forest one in a decided game against Peterborough and one was a penalty against Chelsea when Blackburn sent them out of the league cup ...
£2.5m is supposed to be the fee and his contact runs until the summer of 2012. I can only reiterate the importance of keeping the personal terms on a modest level for the players that are to stay for a while. Timesonline also takes the steam out of the work permit problem talk by pointing out that his wife is Spanish.

This is according to the slightly longer scale "squad deepening" plan. It will not improve our starting XI when all in the squad are fit, but will not leave us naked when players are out.
It also offers us the luxury of not having to be desperate in this and the next window. With one additional striker our hand is improved in the negotiation-poker game with the other striker (Eidur?). Now the negotiators (and we) can be a bit more relaxed and go find a decent right back.

EDIT: According to several reports Benni is not training with Blackburn as of 2 days and a written bid has been handed in...

7 comments:

Prince H said...

Good one I hope!

Hakan said...

I haven't seen a lot of Benni lately but given the constraints, 1:avaliable in January 2:not too expensive and 3:good enough to make an immediate difference, I think he might just be a good signing.

Anonymous said...

Personally I think its a bad buy if it happens, short term Vision, I would rather spend £3M on Leeds's Beckford, young, pacey, good eye for goal 20 in 29 and goals against Man Utd and Spuds this term

Joppe - said...

With very few exceptions no team builds for the future in January. Certainly not relegation candidates.
I think Hakan is spot on.

TBI said...

Beckford will be going to a top 4 side not us, Benni is like that Egyptian player Mido.
Will score goals but will give Zola a massive headache with his attitude problem.

Joppe - said...

TBI: I was afraid someone would say that. I was trying this positive thing and I knew it wouldn't work :D

Prince H said...

Does he have attitude problems as well? It does at least not like so on the pitch,
But if he should be in our team against Pompey he must have signed on the dotted line today (Monday). I doubt that.... So Nouble up front with Cole on the bench then? Will taht be enough. Pompey won against Sunderland the other day...