Breaking News: Bent Signs

[Mazrim]

It's the North East air. It goes to their heads and must be mostly oxygen.
Delusions of grandeur or impending doom and not much in between.

[Holy Trinity]

lol could be worse. they could be smoggies

[KevinGage]

The last time he went to a high profile club for big money, he seemed cowed by the experience and there is a theory that he is best as a big fish in smaller pools, as happened at Ipswich Town, Charlton and Sunderland.
Put under the spotlight, as he will be now, he wilts. There is certainly belief within the England international set-up that Bent's unfortunate run of injuries when called up to the squad may be an adverse reaction to pressure.

Amidst all that there is at least the acknowledgement from Samuel that we are a step up, we're a high profile club compared Sunderland, Charlton and co.

[Michel Sibble]

Oooh, so close Martin Samuel, but still traces of bulls***.

Youthful promise and sound economics is Arsenal's motto. Any criticism from him then? Didn't think so...

Then he states RL spending £24m on Bent is a huge risk, after closing the checkbook which was a risk to open up in the first place.

I don't know about you lot but spending the Milner money on the Premier League's 3rd best striker seems to have a lot of common sense.

The fat Honey Monster cocksocket*.

[pablopicasso_10]

the media really hate seeing us do something positive...

its funny to watch them all being proven to be clueless agenda fuelled gobshites now our actions go against their rubbish over the past 6 months...

the squirming now is to save face...

bring it on you bunch of pre cum wank dribbles...

[SteveD]

I think Samuel has it pretty much spot on where Villa are at the moment and I don't read anything critical in it. I'm sure he wishes his beloved West Ham had similar owners and resources. Circumstances mean Randy, as a businessman, needed to deliver and he has. We can be paranoid about the media or complain it ignores the club but we can be pretty sure it won't be on Saturday. I'm actually relieved it's Man City because the pressure will be on Bent.

[TimTheVillain]

I'm getting pretty pissed off with the constant 'is he worth it ?' bollocks to be honest..........

[john e]

I'm getting pretty pissed off with the constant 'is he worth it ?' bollocks to be honest..........

if he scores goals Yes,
if he doesnt No,
it would be the same if we only paid 10mill for him

[TimTheVillain]

.............and SVC's insistence that we will sell now to fund the deal.

These are all 'small club' comments.

[dave.woodhall]

Randy's made a few people look stupid. They don't like it.

[pablopicasso_10]

Randy's made a few people look stupid. They don't like it.

amen to that..

[Merv]

I wish these journalists would stop quoting £24m..... the fee was £18m. The rest are add-ons, and for the amount to reach £6m, making the final eventual fee £24m, Bent will probably have had to have scored 100-plus league goals for us, shot us into Champions League football, made 200 PL appearances and reached 50 caps for England. In which case, we'd have the best striker in the country.

And Martin Samuel... I liked him when he wrote for the Times, gone off him now he's at the Mail. I wonder why he switched papers. It can't have been about the quality of the product.

[TheSandman]

Holt's article in the Mirror was brilliant today. The vitriol in it was incredible.

[john e]

Holt's article in the Mirror was brilliant today. The vitriol in it was incredible.

i agree,
 i would normaly stick up for Holt a bit, as i've taken the mirror for ever, but he was incredibly bias this morning, and what he said was rubbish

[Michel Sibble]

Sorry Villa fans, but I am a tweet… an absolute tweet
By "Ringpiece" Oliver Holt
Has Oliver Holt tweeted yet?

It is my favourite form of communication, after all, the one I used when I was itching to get away from The Times all of 8 years ago? I pretty much pioneered the apopletic journalist. The rate I'm going, it's probably all we'll remember me for. You recall it, don't you. "Sports Columnist of the Year..again!"

And more self-serving garbage like that, ending with Aston Villa fans ordering the Mirror journalist to 'stop writing s**t'.

So I'm waiting for the next missive from the Heroes and Villains website. The latest in a series they call "The Darrent Bent Signs For Villa" thread. Perhaps that's my's next shot at history. The compilation of a tome of my Pulitzer-prize winning masterpieces. A footballing first. A world first. Beating Martin Samuel to the punch. My sad existence chronicled in pithiness.

It could be called @OH_fistf***sM*N or whatever my twitter identity is these days.

Actually, I know what it is. It used to be @OH_is_always_right. But now it's @OH_bitterbastard. 'OH' stands for 'on heat' as well. Although I'm sure Villa fans are thinking of a different word for the second H. (insert your own joke here)

Presumably, now that I'm forsaking sanity, my Twitter username will have to change again. Anything to do with the truth might make for rather uncomfortable reading so here are a couple of suggestions.

How about:
@OH_ihatevilla.
Or @OH_igotitcompletelywrong.
Or @OH_iwriteshitedaily.
Or @OH_mirrortiligetabiggerwagefrommurdoch.

Any of them would fit nicely but there's still one initial problem to circumvent: can you get the story of one man's love of an out-of-work football manager into a 140-character cough? I don't know, but I'm sure I will have a good go.

In fact, I'm sure I'm working on it right now. It's just taking a while to get the letters in the right order. Here's another suggestion: 'Sorry' would be a good start.

*Sorry to all the Villa fans I've upset with my bile.
*Sorry for the impression I gave that I resembled a competent, level-headed journalist.
*Sorry for leading Villa supporters to believe that I knew what I was talking about and I valued their well-informed opinions.
*Sorry for allowing them to think they had found a decent person worthy of my respect, a guy who was masquerading as an intelligent person for a long time.
*Sorry for letting everyone think the Mirror newspaper was more than a sounding board to write bitter bile about a leading English footballer when, actually, as soon as a national press award came along, My ego was off quicker than you can put fist to keyboard.


Until yesterday, I had a lot of respect for myself. I admired the dignity with which I wrote another anti-Villa article despite the comments section pointing out the various glaring holes in my arguments and showing me up to be a complete tool. I liked the way I had settled at the Mirror. I admired the way I was writing. I was happy I was on to a good thing at Trinity Mirror's head office.

But I don't feel like that now.

I'm just another London-based idiot. Another journalist with no work ethic. No loyalty. No common sense.

Sorry @OH_imalwaysright, but you're a tweet… an absolute tweet.