Darren Bent joining Brighton on loan

[joe_c]

I'm not surprised he's been loaned out, after all we have an embarrassment of riches up front.

If he'd ever featured in the starting XI, we'd have had a rich embarrassment up front.

*exits stage left wielding straw boater and cane*

[john e]

Is he really on 60k a week, and if so I wonder how much that will drop when his contract runs out and where he will end up
Not that he will have to worry anymore about financial security

[Matt Collins]

Have his kind of player really been that popular down the Villa? you could argue that we have rarely seen his kind of goalscorer in my time, since the early to mid 80s, but we always seem to favour graft over guile, not that there is owt wrong with that.

I'm not sure I'd associate bent with guile!

[bob]

An enigma almost from the start. Him at £18 million was "overpriced" yet in the same window £50 million for Torres and £35 million for Andy Carroll were perfectly fine. He ht the ground running, scored goals at a rate we hadn't seen since Andy Gray at his peak, yet for some reason he was never idolised by our supporters like he should have been. What was even stranger was that somehow, during his first summer, we started saying he cost too much as well. He was always about to be sold, right up until the injury which in hindsight ruined his career. And if he hadn't got injured we would probably have finished a few places higher up the league and McLeish may well have stayed. The best natural goalscorer England could boast, finished at thirty. 

He was very popular when he first arrived. Although he scored at a very fine rate he didn't do it for long enough to be idolised, as you put it. It became apparent too quickly that we didn't have the players to supply him with enough service, and that he wasn't going to do a whole lot for the team other than goal hang.

The bit about him being "always about to be sold" is just wrong.

Look back at the transfer speculation every window between his arrival and his injury. He must have had at least six medicals at Liverpool for a start.

I'll take your word for it. My memory is not what it used to be.

[Rigadon]

Is Darren Bent still a footballer then? 

[brian green]

So the loping and jogging in the last quarter of an hour when we let the Southampton game slip was his swansong.
Very appropriate.

[adrenachrome]

Very true,  BG.

As somebody shouted out on Monday night,  "I've seen more life in a bottle of pop!".

[ADVILLAFAN]

We had them in the cup in the 2004/5 era ? I think ?

It may have been more recently than that. Have a feeling we won 2-1 at Villa Park Nicky Forster scored for them.

[adrenachrome]

We had them in the cup in the 2004/5 era ? I think ?

It may have been more recently than that. Have a feeling we won 2-1 at Villa Park Nicky Forster scored for them.

Yep. 23 October 2010.

Great goal from Delph. Forster scored at the death. 3-2.

[Gregorys Boy]

As some of you will know I live in Brighton and am on their mailling list.  When I saw the e-mail I thought it was a surreal dream, then I saw the image of him in the Brighton kit and was in dream land!   I will let you guys know if I spot him around town you stumbling out of Weatherspoons or KFC

Anyway, am pleased with this move.  Lambert doesn't fancy him, he is not the Darren Bent of old, and never will be, and we have enough better attacking options anyway. 

I wish him no ill halm, but still find it funny that you lot are now wishing him well having slaughtered him for months.  You fickle lot!

[ADVILLAFAN]

I don't mind Bent and wish him well, will always remember his debut and winner against Citeh in particular.

However, he seems to have lost quite a bit of pace, which makes all the difference to his style of play. Should still be a good finisher though.

[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.

[Villafirst]

I don't blame Bent, after all, he was 'bombed out', loaned out, stripped of the captaincy; shocking treatment from Lambert and the club. He thrived on good service, particularly when Young and Downing were supplying him with plenty of good crosses - what width is there now to supply him the service? Lambert OUT!!

[paul_e]

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.

[pauliewalnuts]

He looks to me like, at least mentally, he has retired.