are we eating our words

Are we eating our words over Darren Bent?
What would we give for a striker who scores at a rate of two goals in every three Premiership games? Well sadly we gave him away the vast majority of fans applauded the decision.

As we yet again see Darren Bent score an away double over the weekend, there is more egg on the faces of three Spurs managers and thousands of Tottenham fans who seemingly didn`t want or rate the striker we bought from Charlton, seemingly from day one.

Now I can put myself forward as someone who actively wanted him to get his chance and was amazed that so many people didn`t recognise the qualities he had and is a player who, if given the chance, will always score at a very healthy rate.

Aside from questioning his attitude at times, it was difficult to question his ability to score, and not just as a flat track bully or in nice friendly home games. Bent is a player who`s game seems to be stronger against the big boys and unusually away from home, if you don`t believe me take a look at his stats over the last few years.

Since joining Sunderland last summer, Bent has scored an astonishing 29 goals in 44 Prem games, which compares with the very best, especially when he will never get the service of the likes of Drogba or last season, Rooney, whilst I am sure it won`t take long for some to argue that he takes his sides Penalties, but how many of those are caused by his own nagging enthusiasm?

Compare his record with our current fit strikers, who have scored a combined ONE GOAL this season and TWENTY since the start of last season and it is difficult to argue that Bent is the better striker and what would we give to have him playing the lone role for us today?

Of course I conveniently ignore the 18 Premiership goals scored by Jermain Defoe in the same period, but are we truly convinced that he will shine in this new 4-5-1 formation, whereas Darren Bent is well established in the role as a solitary striker and I don`t think there is a better one in terms of his work off the ball and his strike-rate on it.

Perhaps Darren didn`t do himself any favours, with his seemingly sulky attitude, but when we consider that in Martin Jol and Harry Redknapp we have had two managers famed for being great man managers, but both failed to get the best from the player, whilst the reputation of Juande Ramos is seemingly soiled forever.

However I seem to recall that Robbie, Pav and previously Jermain, have all expressed disappointment at not playing football, but perhaps did it in a manner more acceptable to management and fans, or is it simply a case of he wasn`t liked by the fans and he was always an acceptable scapegoat for the manager because of it?

I have always found it incredible that our fans who have always been seduced by a large price-tag, never accepted the fee we paid Charlton for Bent and used the pathetic reasoning that he wasn`t a Tottenham player or didn`t have a great touch, well surely his goal record counters every negative, there is.

If I am to defend Harry here it is possibly that he didn`t really want to sell Bent and perhaps would have preferred to sell Pavlyuchenko or Keane instead. With the signing of Crouch, he seemed the ideal replacement for Pav and would have probably worked very well with Bent, as he did with Defoe, similarly we knew there was chemistry between Bent and Keane and a pairing of Defoe and Bent, could be either Brilliant or useless, but with two other strikers of contrasting styles you have a great balance, something we sadly lack now.

This clearly isn`t an article to suggest we buy the player back, because it will never happen, but perhaps it is more of a time to consider our own rash judgements on players and even managers....

omg vis what a stupid statement. he scored 18goals for us. most from the bench

crouch 2010 league games 4
defoe league games 2010 4 1pen
pav 6 goals in 2010 in less starts

darren bent already got 7 goals this term.
darren bent scored 2 at anfeild . he scores aganst big teams.
how can you say he wouldnt cut it in a big team. surley at man u or arsneal he would get so many chances then he gets atsunderland.

the 451 we play now would suit bent

Loughtonlegend wrote:omg vis what a stupid statement. he scored 18goals for us. most from the bench

crouch 2010 league games 4
defoe league games 2010 4 1pen
pav 6 goals in 2010 in less starts

darren bent already got 7 goals this term.
darren bent scored 2 at anfeild . he scores aganst big teams.
how can you say he wouldnt cut it in a big team. surley at man u or arsneal he would get so many chances then he gets atsunderland.

the 451 we play now would suit bent

But he has gone lought ! maybe you are right but he has gone.....whats the point in keep yearning for old players that spurs have sold.?

I wouldnt want to see Bent back at spurs i dont really rate him to be honest , dont get me wrong he is a good striker but nothing special

found hes level. scoring for every club hes played for.

since hes been in the prem hes been english top goalscorer apart from last season behind rooney.

the guy is full of goals and at the end of the day thats what a striker job is

I must admit that its hard to get away from the stats and he does score goals but at clubs like Sunderland and Charlton. Where perhaps their style of play suits him but for us when he played he looked like a fish out of water and in an England shirt he looks completely lost.
He will go on scoring goals for Sunderland or wherever if he moves on to, providing it's not at a top club.
I wish him well and he's having a great season but he was not for us the same way that half the Sunderland team we sold them a couple of seasons ago were not for us. So lets move on.


Mikey M

Loughtonlegend wrote:found hes level. scoring for every club hes played for.

since hes been in the prem hes been english top goalscorer apart from last season behind rooney.

the guy is full of goals and at the end of the day thats what a striker job is

But you cant make them on your own Lought, he gets good early service from Sunderland, Crouch, whatever his limitations has had poor service, but put the ball in the right area and he will score.

bent maybe scoring now but i saw him miss to many easy chances at the lane. yeah he got some goals for us but i think he blew a hell of a lot more.

I think Bent cant handle playing at the higher levels. He couldnt handle playing for Spurs and when called up by England, he looks a lost cause. I agree that he is a natural goal scorer, but that would only happen at a club like Sunderland or the lower league teams. Its a confidence problem.

if you look at rooney record for england in the tourmnets its nuffin short of a disgrace. all we ever here is he needs games to get hes fitness back. well hes had so many games now. i wonder if any manger will have the balls to drop him.

england should be about the best team not the best indivduals

SuneJim wrote:Darren Bent is a good goal scorer as i've always said, give him the ball in front of goal & he can get a good shot or header away. His way of playing is tailor made for Sunderland.

But the bloke can not play football,,,,,,,, simple as. He can't play with his back to goal to bring others into play he can't run the channels & create for others. His technical ability is all most zero as well.

He's certainly a good enough goal scorer for the Premiership, but he's not a good enough player for Spurs. Plus look at his England Career he's only in when all else are injured. At the top level you need more to your game.

I think that's a fairly good assessment of Bent, he's not a footballer he's a finisher.

But there is something to be said for a finisher. Gary Lineker, Robbie fowler, michael owen all come under that bracket. They all did it at the highest level, not sure Bent has bollox for it.

sarflondonar wrote:

SuneJim wrote:Darren Bent is a good goal scorer as i've always said, give him the ball in front of goal & he can get a good shot or header away. His way of playing is tailor made for Sunderland.

But the bloke can not play football,,,,,,,, simple as. He can't play with his back to goal to bring others into play he can't run the channels & create for others. His technical ability is all most zero as well.

He's certainly a good enough goal scorer for the Premiership, but he's not a good enough player for Spurs. Plus look at his England Career he's only in when all else are injured. At the top level you need more to your game.

I think that's a fairly good assessment of Bent, he's not a footballer he's a finisher.

But there is something to be said for a finisher. Gary Lineker, Robbie fowler, michael owen all come under that bracket. They all did it at the highest level, not sure Bent has bollox for it.

Thing is Sarf all the finishers you've mentioned had some natural skill and the ability to involve the rest of team. Young Dazza the Twitterer dosen't have either . . . . . .

in lineker own words he said all he could do was finish. How can bent be that bad if hes constantly scoring goals aganst good teams.

if he was spanish we would all be going mad about him.