Darren Bent joining Brighton on loan

[Monty]

This notion that Bent 'just needs service' inadvertently sums up why he is, in fact, useless. This is a player who requires the entire team to be set up to give him the ball how and where he likes it, and he does nothing else for anyone else. The stats bear this out - whenever Bent has scored more for a club, the team overall has scored fewer (check his seasons at Spurs).

[supertom]

I really do question Bents attitude and motivation these days, and most definitely his fitness. However I think a large part of him seeming so sombre about playing football is down to Lamberts treatment of him. Bent could certainly do more and should be fitter, but if he is half assing it for this manager, I don't entirely blame him.

That said Benty kept us up for two seasons, in just half a season of each. I think he proved valuable all told. But for his goals in Houlliers run in and McLeish first half season, we'd have been absolutely done for. And if you recall in McLeish's season there was a stat that came out saying Bent had the fewest touches of any Premier League regular in the league. Yet he still hit 9 league goals in 22 games that season.

I like Bent, and part of me still wants him to come back in a month and finally hit form again, but it's a shame to see someone at just 30, playing like he's a 38 year old desperately clinging on to the last few months of league football he'll play in League 2. He should still be in his pomp.

The funny thing is though. Get Pulis in by January, and Bent back from his loan looking sharper and fitter, and I think he'd possibly start hammering in goals, because he'd be getting service.

The last bit - not going to happen, he's broken, I doubt he'll find another club once his contract finishes.

The bit about not playing for this manager - he was the same at Fulham last season so it's not just down to Lambert.

The reality is he picked up 2-3 injuries fairly close together and all pretty nasty and between them they've taken his pace and with it he's lost the desire needed to be a top player. If he really wanted to he could get himself the fittest he's ever been and adapt his game and get a few more years at the top but I just don't see it in him.

The reality is true. I've always held small glimmars of hope that certain players would turn it around, like Savo (toward the tail end of his time here), SVC, Daveed Ginola. I wanted Lee Hendrie to get a chance for O Neill as well, and I felt Phillips was let go too early when he might have done quite well for Pubehead.
Sadly it rarely works out that way. Bent will likely be no different. Likewise I think we're all aware Joe Cole is pretty much a busted flush.

[Ron Manager]

He doesnt look motivated and hasnt done since the loan move to Fulham. The injuries have done for him Im afraid. Benty is a very rich man
and the desire to put himself out in training every day has gone. He still thinks he should be playing at the highest level but his body knows
that is impossible.

Never slagged the fans off or the club. As I have said before deserved better treatment from the Villa management. Hope he gets a few for Brighton and gets a contract somewhere else.

[Matt Collins]

Apparently a meaning evil poll had 80% of fans wanting bent in the team

Listening to football phone ins makes me think a good chunk of football fans are complete idiots. But this has topped even that!

[David_Nab]

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/30247417

Darren Bent says he joined Championship side Brighton on loan from Aston Villa "because there are only so many slaps in the face you can take".
The 30-year-old striker joined Villa from Sunderland for an initial £18m in January 2011, but since Paul Lambert became manager in 2012 he has made just 13 Premier League appearances for them.
Bent, who has 13 England caps, spent last season on loan at Fulham.
"I just want to play and I'd reached my boiling point," he told BBC Sussex.
"It was hard not playing in Paul's first season, but this was worse. The team was struggling, not scoring goals and you still don't get a chance. There are only so many slaps in the face you can take."

Lambert's side have managed just six goals in 12 Premier League games this season, and sit 16th, with a league-low 24 shots on target.
Sami Hyypia's Brighton have problems of their own, having struggled to recover from the sale of Leonardo Ulloa, who scored 26 times in 58 games for them, and are languishing in 20th in the Championship.
Their top-scorer this term is centre-half Lewis Dunk on five.
This week, summer signing Chris O'Grady was loaned to Sheffield United after failing to find the net in 11 matches, while Craig Mackail-Smith returned to former club Peterborough United.
"Anyone who knows me knows I just want to work hard all week and play on Saturday," added Bent.
"I want to slot in at Brighton and do everything I can to help them improve. I'm just desperate to play football because it's been far too long."

[Toronto Villa]

I don't really blame him for being fucked off with being dumped into the bomb squad having been bought for so much money and been made captain of the side albeit temporarily. Someone will write a thesis about this one day because the whole thing is so bizarre. Bent has had a pretty good career and part of him probably has mentally retired and is just seeing out his time in the game. He's made a lot of money, scored a lot of goals in the PL, played for his country and been fucked around by us. I don't blame him really for wanting out.

[Duncan Shaw]

That's not what he's saying there though is it?  He's saying he's hungy (though he'd be pretty full by the look of him) and just wants to play.

[LeeB]

This notion that Bent 'just needs service' inadvertently sums up why he is, in fact, useless. This is a player who requires the entire team to be set up to give him the ball how and where he likes it, and he does nothing else for anyone else. The stats bear this out - whenever Bent has scored more for a club, the team overall has scored fewer (check his seasons at Spurs).

Hoddle always had the same bugbear about Steve Archibald.

He was onto something, but didn't have the stats to back it up. Plus he was a big faith-healing loon, and his message got lost in that a bit.

[ciggiesnbeer]

The team was struggling, not scoring goals and you still don't get a chance. There are only so many slaps in the face you can take.

Funny this season Darren has been played pretty frequently and even when coming on as a sub has looked rather below par.

Last season Fulham fans towards the end booed him when he played with some scary vitriol. These are Fulham fans we are talking about, some of the most laid back and easy going fans in the league and yet he was so half arsed he got even them angry.

Sorry Darren, Lambert is not popular with us but you can't pin the blame on him for your lack of effort.

[Toronto Villa]

That's not what he's saying there though is it?  He's saying he's hungy (though he'd be pretty full by the look of him) and just wants to play.

By reaching his boiling point I imagine it means he was rather fucked off with everything and is glad to be out.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

But it's only a month's loan and Villa are still paying a big part of his wages and he has got to come back to us, Lambert and all.
Hardly doing himself any favours saying what he has.

[old man villa fan]

Bent was given one last chance this season to make it work.  It suited both the player and the club to try and get him to be an integral part of the 1st team squad.

For Bent to be at his best, you have to set the team up to entirely focus on him as Monty said above.  We do not have the money to be able to bring the players in that would be necessary to play his style (or the style that he used to play when he was effective).

He is an experienced player and the eye for when to move on the pitch does not go, it is only the speed of getting to the ball that diminishes.  Although he has not had many chances this season, he has generally been in the match day squad.  In football you have to take the opportunities when they come around but I do not think Bent has the desire to adapt.

I think that for the best for player and club, he should move on permanently in January or we pay his contract up so that all cam move on rather than waiting and hoping.

[brian green]

We all know by now that Lambert makes it up as he goes along.   He is winging it currently with the claim that our style of play is based on pace.   That gives him the excuse to say Bent is not quick enough to fit in with his current master plan.   When Benteke comes back we also know what comes next.   Twenty two carat Route One.   It is absolutely inevitable with a midfield devoid of creativity and imagination.

[old man villa fan]

We all know by now that Lambert makes it up as he goes along.   He is winging it currently with the claim that our style of play is based on pace.   That gives him the excuse to say Bent is not quick enough to fit in with his current master plan.   When Benteke comes back we also know what comes next.   Twenty two carat Route One.   It is absolutely inevitable with a midfield devoid of creativity and imagination.

The problem we have is that with any way we want to play, our midfield lacks what is required.  If we want to play counter attacking football it can only be played by the forwards as the midfield play too deep and are not quick enough to get up in support.

[eamonn]

Feelings very similar to Supertom on this. I feel he was jettisoned too early by Lambert in his first season. I remember September two years ago when he was dropped for the home game against the Baggies for Benteke who was still finding his feet, and after an hour of being pissed-off on the bench he came on, scored (think he cleared a shot off the line too) and you could tell he was motivated to prove how good he was. That was the time for Lambert to keep him involved but Benteke's rise to prominence and in my view, which obviously can't be proven, Lambert's unease and inexperience at managing players with big price-tags/reputation did for Bent. Add in the fact that he's the type of player that thrives on a side that gets plenty of crosses into the box as well as through balls for a striker playing on the shoulder of the last defender, which we only started managing to do on a regular basis from Feb to May '13, and at that stage Benteke's star was shining bright and Bent was truly on the wane. A real mis-use of an expensive asset.

Here's the Guardian report of that Baggies game:

Darren Bent's late landmark earns Aston Villa draw with West Brom

Aston Villa 1 West Brom 1

Premier League

Aston Villa   
Darren Bent 80

West Brom   
Shane Long 51

Stuart James at Villa Park
 
The Guardian, Sunday 30 September 2012 18.15 BST

On a day when Darren Bent endured the disappointment of being dropped in front of the England manager, the Aston Villa striker provided the best possible riposte as he came off the substitutes' bench to score 10 minutes from time and deny West Bromwich Albion the victory that would have lifted them to third in the table.

All the frustration that Bent had been bottling up on the sidelines, where he had a face like thunder at times as he watched the two strikers picked ahead of him huff and puff without success, came to the surface as he celebrated the 150th league goal of his career.

Having also lost the captaincy earlier in the month, it was easy to understand why Bent was so fired up as he set off in the direction of the dugout before being mobbed by team-mates.

It was a big call for Paul Lambert to leave out the club's record signing, especially as Bent scored against Southampton last weekend, and it looked as though the Villa manager's decision would backfire when Shane Long, returning to the ground where he was on the receiving end of a dreadful tackle from Alan Hutton last season, put Albion ahead in the 51st minute.
 
There was a sense that Villa were beginning to run out of ideas when Lambert replaced Christian Benteke with Bent in the 69th minute. Neither Benteke nor Gabriel Agbonlahor, who kept his place after scoring twice against Manchester City in midweek, looked particularly threatening, and it was easy to imagine Bent relishing the chance to prove Lambert wrong.

His eyes must have lit up when Albion failed to deal with Barry Bannan's corner and the loose ball dropped invitingly for him to sweep a left-footed volley beyond Ben Foster with what was only his third touch of the game, to give Villa the point they deserved.

Roy Hodgson, the England manager, was still in the ground at that point. "It was fantastic," said Bent, who was omitted from the England squad last month. "Obviously it would have been nice to play from the start of the game but I managed to get the goal so it gets us a point."

Asked whether his goal was the perfect response to being placed on the bench, Bent replied: "Yeah, maybe. It's obviously been a difficult couple of weeks, losing the captaincy first off then finding out I wasn't playing today. But at the same time I thought the boys played fantastically well and battled all through the game, and we deserved a point."

Lambert, who showed his ruthless edge when he dropped Shay Given after the second game of the season, insisted there was no ill-feeling between him and Bent. "He's got nothing to prove to me, Darren, because I know what he can do," Lambert said. "As I've said before, I'll need everybody at the football club."

Although Albion started brightly and could have gone ahead when Long headed wide in profligate fashion, Villa looked the more accomplished side in the first half. Ben Foster, poor in midweek against Liverpool, tipped Brett Holman's 30-yard half-volley over the bar and produced an even better save to deny the same player later in the half, when the Australian's angled shot took a wicked deflection. "I said there were no worries about Ben Foster," said Steve Clarke, Albion's head coach, who had to reorganise after Chris Brunt pulled his hamstring and Billy Jones picked up a knee injury.

Long's goal arrived after Zoltan Gera's perfectly weighted pass released Morrison in the inside right channel. Played onside by Matthew Lowton, Morrison delivered a low centre that Long tapped in at the far post after Ron Vlaar had tried and failed to sweep the ball behind.

In a frantic finish, Romelu Lukaku twice came close to restoring Albion's lead, only to be denied by the post and Brad Guzan's reflexes – while at the other end Bent's whipped effort flashed inches over. By that point, though, the striker had already made his mark. "His goal was brilliant, it was a world-class finish – that's what he does," Lambert said. "I explained that the captaincy thing was to let him do what he did there, which is to concentrate on scoring."