Club that cannot stop scoring lets yesterday's man go forth.

[dekko]

This might be the only thing that I'm 100% behind Lambert on.

[pauliewalnuts]

Paul Lambert has hit back at claims by Darren Bent he froze the striker out over a “personal” feud.

Striker Bent, 30, who cost Villa £24million in 2011, has not started a Premier League game for the club for 21 months.

Bent has been loaned out to top-flight Fulham last term and both Brighton and now Derby this season despite Villa struggling for goals.

But Villa boss Lambert responded: “I think Darren has got to be honest with himself. If you ask anyone here, or any of his team-mates, they’d tell you it’s nothing personal.


“I never stood in his way to go to any other club. The only clubs that came in for him were Championship clubs - not one Premier League club. That says a lot, so it was never personal.

“He went to Brighton for a month and never wanted to renew it. Went to Derby and never started a game.

“At Fulham, he never played a lot of games towards the tail end. Was it personal with me when he was at Fulham? It is what it is, but it was never personal.”

*shudder*

[Clampy]

Paul Lambert has hit back at claims by Darren Bent he froze the striker out over a “personal” feud.

Striker Bent, 30, who cost Villa £24million in 2011, has not started a Premier League game for the club for 21 months.

Bent has been loaned out to top-flight Fulham last term and both Brighton and now Derby this season despite Villa struggling for goals.

But Villa boss Lambert responded: “I think Darren has got to be honest with himself. If you ask anyone here, or any of his team-mates, they’d tell you it’s nothing personal.


“I never stood in his way to go to any other club. The only clubs that came in for him were Championship clubs - not one Premier League club. That says a lot, so it was never personal.

“He went to Brighton for a month and never wanted to renew it. Went to Derby and never started a game.

“At Fulham, he never played a lot of games towards the tail end. Was it personal with me when he was at Fulham? It is what it is, but it was never personal.”

*shudder*

But he made him captain?

[Clampy]

Paul Lambert has hit back at claims by Darren Bent he froze the striker out over a “personal” feud.

Striker Bent, 30, who cost Villa £24million in 2011, has not started a Premier League game for the club for 21 months.

Bent has been loaned out to top-flight Fulham last term and both Brighton and now Derby this season despite Villa struggling for goals.

But Villa boss Lambert responded: “I think Darren has got to be honest with himself. If you ask anyone here, or any of his team-mates, they’d tell you it’s nothing personal.


“I never stood in his way to go to any other club. The only clubs that came in for him were Championship clubs - not one Premier League club. That says a lot, so it was never personal.

“He went to Brighton for a month and never wanted to renew it. Went to Derby and never started a game.

“At Fulham, he never played a lot of games towards the tail end. Was it personal with me when he was at Fulham? It is what it is, but it was never personal.”

*shudder*

You could argue it's a bit of an unprofessional way to speak about someone who's still in effect a Villa player.

[PeterWithesShin]

I was delighted when we signed Bent, and i'll be delighted in a few months when he leaves.

[eamonn]

Saw a bit of the Derby game yesterday, he came on for the last 15 minutes and I really can't remember him touching the ball.

The bloke's a busted flush at most levels now.

He didn't do much in fifteen minutes but he scored two in five for a crap Brighton team just last month so it's a bit much to say he's finished altogether.

He should get his agent to tout him to teams in the US or Canada...didn't Randy bond with him over the NFL or something?

[LTA]

Darren Bent is finished at PL level, but the manager has handled this so unprofesionally its unreal.

The reality is that Darren might have the last laugh if Derby replace us in the PL next season.

Yet another colossal cock up by the club.

[dekko]

Darren Bent is finished at PL level, but the manager has handled this so unprofesionally its unreal.

The reality is that Darren might have the last laugh if Derby replace us in the PL next season.

Yet another colossal cock up by the club.

How so?

Lambert made him captain.  He was contributing nothing on the pitch and so Lambert replaced him with someone better.

He couldn't get a game here so he got loaned to another club (where he was shit).

He came back into the reckoning this season, did ok in preseason, but whenever he came on contributed the sum total of fuck all.  So now he's on loan again.


I'm not sure what Lambert could've done any different (short of playing a non-contributing player in a relegation battle on the off chance he might add a few million to his transfer value).

[LTA]

Darren Bent is finished at PL level, but the manager has handled this so unprofesionally its unreal.

The reality is that Darren might have the last laugh if Derby replace us in the PL next season.

Yet another colossal cock up by the club.

How so?

Lambert made him captain.  He was contributing nothing on the pitch and so Lambert replaced him with someone better.

He couldn't get a game here so he got loaned to another club (where he was shit).

He came back into the reckoning this season, did ok in preseason, but whenever he came on contributed the sum total of fuck all.  So now he's on loan again.


I'm not sure what Lambert could've done any different (short of playing a non-contributing player in a relegation battle on the off chance he might add a few million to his transfer value).

But surely if you make someone captain then you stick with them for a time, not just take it off them after 2 or 3 games and then bomb the player out all together.

Lambert clearly sees what we all see in that Bent is not good enough for this league now. Yet we all can see the same for Agbonlahor, who doesn't work hard enough, yet he seems to have a free pass into the first 11.

The guy is a hypocrite.

[UK Redsox]

I'm with LTA on this. Gabby has been no less shite than Benty and yet has been deemed undropable and made captain.

[Chico Hamilton III]

I was delighted when we signed Bent, and i'll be delighted in a few months when he leaves.

Substitute the words "Bent" for "Lambert" in the above sentence.

[dekko]

But surely if you make someone captain then you stick with them for a time, not just take it off them after 2 or 3 games and then bomb the player out all together.

Lambert clearly sees what we all see in that Bent is not good enough for this league now. Yet we all can see the same for Agbonlahor, who doesn't work hard enough, yet he seems to have a free pass into the first 11.

The guy is a hypocrite.

He probably shouldn't have made him captain at all, but having done it, Lambert still couldn't very well leave him in the team when he wasn't really adding anything and we had a much better player ready to replace him.

I agree with you on Gabby not really being good enough, but the differences between the two are:

a) Gabby will occasionally put the effort into helping the team by tracking back etc and occasionally-when-he-can-be-bothered is better than the never-at-all that you'll get from Bent.  Also, from Lambert's point of view, Gabby has sometimes put in good performances for him, whereas Bent really hasn't, even when given the opportunity.

b) Unlike Bent/Benteke, we don't have a significant upgrade/replacement on Gabby ready to fit right into the team (although hopefully Grealish will be that player eventually.)

Of course it's Lambert and Lerner's fault that we have to have the conversation about which of our useless players are slightly less useless than the others, but like I said, I don't think Lambert was massively in the wrong on this one.

[martin o`who??]

We, as a club, no longer have anything like the Player resources to be able to afford to let a proven goalscorer like Darren Bent fade into obscurity in the way we are, Lambert and the coaching staff will, i fear, have a lot to answer for when eventually DB writes his autobiography.

[AV82EC]

We, as a club, no longer have anything like the Player resources to be able to afford to let a proven goalscorer like Darren Bent fade into obscurity in the way we are, Lambert and the coaching staff will, i fear, have a lot to answer for when eventually DB writes his autobiography.

Utter tosh. He was a busted flush following the injury against Wigan and has delivered the grand total of bugger all since. When are people going to accept the guy is finished at the highest level? I'd concede it could have been handled better but this constant whinging that Darren Bent would be some sort of saviour is frankly bizarre. Does anyone think we would actually be better with him in the team?!

[dave.woodhall]

I get the feeling that after his injury Bent had lost his England place, lost his chance of playing at the World Cup, knew he was never going to get a Champions League club and couldn't be bothered to push  himself anymore.