Darren Bent - so what now?

[old man villa fan]

I would try and sell him to one of the leading Championship sides.

How much would they pay him, £20,000/week?  If we could get £1m for him but give that to Bent as part of a pay off.  That would leave him about £25,000-£30,000/week short of his current salary, or £1.25-£1.5m.  We pay him off £1.5m but add a clause in contract that if the club he goes to get promoted, they pay an extra £1.5m transfer fee.  This would cost us £1.5m and the loss of any transfer fee, against £3.5m less any loan contribution from another club, with a long shot of getting our money back.

A permanent move might give him more motivation than another loan to get his career back on track, albeit at a lower level.

[cdbearsfan]

I expect he'll end up at the Milwaukee Mindbenders, the Little Rock Phantoms, the Razorback State Pandawobblers or some such franchise.

[PaulWinch again]

I think we'll really struggle to sell him due to his financial package at the club, so either he'll sit the season out or be out on loan.

[SoccerHQ]

Try Stoke again seeing as they took Ireland off us.

[Dave]

Try Stoke again seeing as they took Ireland off us.

A long time ago, but weren't Stoke the club that he slated on Tw*tter before moving to Sunderland?

Can't imagine that will endear him to their supporters.

[MoetVillan]

Boil down for glue

[brian green]

I would keep him and attempt to rehabilitate him.   It would be the most dignified and least small time thing to do.   If we can't be a big club at least we should try to behave like one.   IMO the whole ethos of the Bomb Squad has done nothing but harm to the morale of the squad and should be consigned to history immediately and any future Villa manager forbidden ever to resurrect it.

[Matt C]

We might well need him.

[brian green]

We may indeed.

[PeterWithesShin]

Are we short a programme seller then?

[bertlambshank]

He will go to Oz.

[Jon Crofts]

He will go to Oz.

The retirement home for ex Villa centre forwards

[Ron Manager]

He will go to Oz.

The retirement home for ex Villa centre forwards

As Benty is on 65,00-70,000 per week for his last season his financial advisor/agent would have offered this advice

Sit tight Darren,you will never earn that kind of money again.  That is exactly what he will do at this late stage of his career.

[LeeS]

I'm not trying to re-write history, but I dont buy this "without him we'd have gone down" stuff.

If we'd bought a striker in the last window and he'd scored 9 goals we'd all be claiming for ever more that his goals kept us up. But we didnt and we still secured our Prem status with games to spare. So we may have gone down a few years ago without Bent or we may have stayed up like we did this year.

What is irrefutable, is that he is now well past his best and should never pull on a Villa shirt again. Except maybe in that new B-team league they are planning.

[eamonn]

I would have him ahead of Holt and if we cant shift him a new gaffer might have a need for him.