We knew from the minute Van der Vaart came in that our system would have to change to accommodate the him (Rafa), and we've duly switched to the 4-4-1-1 formation - one in which Defoe isn't best suited.
I like J' a lot, but the system we're now veering towards (and were planning to in away European games even pre-VdV) is never going to get the best out of Defoe, and more importantly the team. A front man in the new set-up has to have the ability to not only hold the ball, but to use it intelligently too. While Defoe has improved both aspects of his game since his return to the club, I still maintain there are more suited strikers out there that could be acquired for £16m.
Bentley's value is down to our original outlay, along with the fact that he is still very much suited to the current set-up (and arguably will be even more should we get in the kind of striker I described above).
The original posted asked for the values that we would be content to sell the players at. He didn't ask what we thought they were worth. Because of the massive outlay we made on Bentley, there's no getting away from the fact that I would be disappointed to take a decent loss on him. At a time when everyone was convinced we were going to get taken to the cleaners over Darren Bent, we managed to recoup a possible £16.5m, albeit in instalments and conditional payments. If we were to manage a similar deal (say, £9m, potentially rising to £14m), I would be content with that.
What has original outlay got to do with it? When we bought him he was good, and hungry. Now, he's pissed up and average. He's worth 7 million top whack. Darren Bent is a different kettle. he came here, scored goals without playing time, so kept his value and his value has been proven since with his bags of goals.