Darren Bent

[eastie]

£6m could have been the total of add-ons payable should everything in the contract become payable.

The first payment, £1.5m-£3m, would have been paid when we stayed up, the remainder at 30 games?



Whatever, when you look at the clubs he's played for, which are mostly not that good, he has a good strike rate but the team was poor. At Spurs it was a lower ratio, but they were a better team.

I'd say this points to him being selfish and banging them in but that the overall team performance suffers as a result.

In the hundreds of posts I have read about Darren Bent, noone seems to have mentioned his record at international level.

He's scored 4 in 13 appearances. Worse than his club record anywhere and you'd have to say that comparatively, England are better Internationally than any of his clubs have been in the competitions they've been in. He scored against Switzerland, Wales, Denmark and Montenegro.

Still not bad when you think one of our forwards currently in the team  has scored once in the his last 31 league games!

[Matt Collins]

What's the highest position a side has finished in with bent? Our deceptive 9th place under houllier?

[eastie]

Article from the mirror website

It has to be one of the most bewildering sagas of the season - just why is Darren Bent being frozen out by Paul Lambert?

Do not expect the Aston Villa boss to give any more answers for the ongoing absence of the club's £24m record signing.

Despite being asked 22 questions about the forward, his future and the reasons for his axing after Tuesday's win over Reading, the media still departed none the wiser.

Sunderland have denied one rumour that there is a clause in Bent's contract requiring Villa to pay the remaining £3m if he plays three more matches, taking him to 50 appearances.

What I find particularly interesting about this affair is that Bent's situation is not like that of other senior pros like Stephen Warnock or Alan Hutton - now both out on loan in the Championship - whom Lambert soon decided were not for him.

Bent, on the other hand, was made his CAPTAIN at the start of the season - before it was stripped from him and handed to Ron Vlaar.

The million dollar question (or should that be £24m?) is what has happened to change Lambert's mind quite so dramatically?

Will we ever see the like again? Darren Bent celebrates a Villa goal
 
From skipper to sub to squad player to not even in the squad is quite some dramatic fall from grace in the space of two months.

Bent's demise can be traced back to a 4-1 defeat to Southampton - the only time Bent has started alongside Christian Benteke.

But surely that alone is not reason enough for his absence - Villa were collectively poor that day and Bent even scored.

Benteke has done reasonably well spearheading the attack - he might not be as good a finisher but he brings others into play more.

Lambert has settled on a 4-2-3-1 formation of late and whereas Gabby Agbonlahor and Andreas Weimann can perform the wider roles Bent is just not cut out to play anywhere except leading the line.

What is puzzling is that Lambert cannot find room for Bent on his bench. It is hardly as if Villa are spoilt for choice.

Leaving Bent out for what was Villa's biggest game of the season - the Royals were at the time one of just two sides below them - was a huge gamble by Lambert.

Anything but a victory and fingers would be pointed at the boss over why he was leaving out Villa's biggest star.

 
As it turned out, Christian Benteke got Villa out of jail with 10 minutes to go.

But that only came after Villa wasted a hatful of chances - the sort you would have expected Bent to at least stick some of away.

Whether a Villa side who look short on goals - Benteke's was their first in three matches and only QPR have managed less all season - escape every time remains to be seen.

Another crunch six-pointer with the Hoops awaits on Saturday and, as revealed on Thursday, Harry Redknapp has added further intrigue by indicating he is willing to offer Bent an olive branch.
 
It seems the most unlikely of link-ups after Bent left Tottenham in a sulk in 2009 after that now infamous Redknapp remark that even his "missus could have scored that" after Bent missed a chance in a draw with Portsmouth.

But marriages based of convenience are nothing new in football. Look at Neil Warnock signing El Hadji Diouf for Leeds after previously branding him a sewer rat!

Redknapp needs a goalscorer to keep QPR up, Bent will be desperate to play football again and kickstart a career beginning to stall.

And, when the alternative is playing under a manager giving him the cold shoulder, playing under Redknapp might not seem so bad.

[Fin Feds Dad]

£6m could have been the total of add-ons payable should everything in the contract become payable.

The first payment, £1.5m-£3m, would have been paid when we stayed up, the remainder at 30 games?



Whatever, when you look at the clubs he's played for, which are mostly not that good, he has a good strike rate but the team was poor. At Spurs it was a lower ratio, but they were a better team.

I'd say this points to him being selfish and banging them in but that the overall team performance suffers as a result.

In the hundreds of posts I have read about Darren Bent, noone seems to have mentioned his record at international level.

He's scored 4 in 13 appearances. Worse than his club record anywhere and you'd have to say that comparatively, England are better Internationally than any of his clubs have been in the competitions they've been in. He scored against Switzerland, Wales, Denmark and Montenegro.

Still not bad when you think one of our forwards currently in the team  has scored once in the his last 31 league games!

Nail on head mate - completely agree.

[LeeB]

Funny how now he's got no problem with Bent, Redknapp is a c*** pure and simple

Well he can "laugh at himself" when he's questioning someone else's ability in public, the twat.

[hawkeye]

Not a bad bit of gamesman ship by Arry, cant see us selling to them though.

[JJ-AV]

What's the highest position a side has finished in with bent? Our deceptive 9th place under houllier?

Quick look at Wiki says:

13th - Charlton - 18 goals in 36 games
19th - Charlton - 13 goals in 32 games (IIRC he captained the side this season too)
11th - Tottenham - 6 in 27
8th - Tottenham - 12 in 33
13th - Sunderland - 24 in 38

Half season with Sunderland before he moved to us he scored 8 in 20, but I think he was playing second fiddle to Gyan around then? Sunderland were 6th and us struggling, we finished 9th and he scored 9 in 16 for us.

He's a good striker, and one of the best poachers in the league (I think probably only Hernandez is comfortably better than him) - but he's always struggled in teams when it's not been built around him and tended to sulk (at Spurs and at Sunderland when Bruce played him on the right and then when he brought Gyan in).

Also, his goal record is fantastic, but he was on penalties at Charlton, Sunderland and Villa. I'd like to see his statistics without penalties.

[JJ-AV]

In fact, does anyone know where you can find a list of Premier League forwards goals tally without penalties and only including starts?

Still wouldn't prove anything, but it'll be a closer indication of strikers ability than the stats we generally use. I also reckon Carew's minutes to goals ratio would shit all over Bent's without sub appearances and penalties.

[Michel Sibble]

"I tell you wot, i' would be great to get Ben' in January, 'e's a good lad, top strikah. Reckon them Villa caants would be daahn by February."

"'Ere, son, do me a favah and do somefink abaht if I get 'im in and the club stays up, I would let him put one in me missus', if you know what I mean... yer cheeky caant."

"Ha, ha. Faacking gold, that..."

[eamonn]

Carew took a fair few penalties too. Now that we're resigned to losing him I guess it's easy to try and make arguments for how average/shit he is.

[PaulTheVillan]

Maybe Lambert knows we're going down and knows it's easier to shift him now

[eastie]

What's the highest position a side has finished in with bent? Our deceptive 9th place under houllier?

Quick look at Wiki says:

13th - Charlton - 18 goals in 36 games
19th - Charlton - 13 goals in 32 games (IIRC he captained the side this season too)
11th - Tottenham - 6 in 27
8th - Tottenham - 12 in 33
13th - Sunderland - 24 in 38

Half season with Sunderland before he moved to us he scored 8 in 20, but I think he was playing second fiddle to Gyan around then? Sunderland were 6th and us struggling, we finished 9th and he scored 9 in 16 for us.

He's a good striker, and one of the best poachers in the league (I think probably only Hernandez is comfortably better than him) - but he's always struggled in teams when it's not been built around him and tended to sulk (at Spurs and at Sunderland when Bruce played him on the right and then when he brought Gyan in).

Also, his goal record is fantastic, but he was on penalties at Charlton, Sunderland and Villa. I'd like to see his statistics without penalties.

Equally it could be said that scoring so many goals  in average sides is even more impressive, than scoring them for teams at the top.

[curiousorange]

I was just thinking that "22 Questions" is a future fanzine name.

[Ron Manager]

Bentys agent is a Neil Fewings .Anybody know anything about him.

Im getting nostalgic for those days when all agents seemed to be Eric Hall!

[oldtimernow]

or a catchy book title on conspiracy theories.....like the 39 steps