Rumour has it that both Liverpool and free-spending QPR may make moves for Darren Bent come January, just two years after he signed for the club. To be honest I’m not entirely sure what to make of these latest reports. Nobody seems to know if they hold any substance whatsoever or whether it’s just idle paper trash-talk and the British tabloids making a mountain out of a molehill on the back of words spoken from one of those reliable “sources” as per.
As a senior player and record signing with a rich goal-scoring pedigree Bent probably feels that he should be one of the first names on the team sheet, and many a manager would happily go along with that on the back of the old cliché “form is temporary, class is permanent”. But not Paul Lambert.
One of the main problems with footballers in today’s age is the power that they exert. Many of them go two or three months performing averagely at best, yet rely on their reputation and, in so doing, imprint their name on the team sheet week-in-week-out regardless of form.
And so no matter what has actually happened behind closed doors, Lambert will have my backing on this. Bent’s lack of movement, sharpness, awareness and endeavour in the opening half-dozen games of the season was simply not good enough, particularly for a man of his ability. He needs to get his head down, work hard, and regain his appetite to be that fox-in-the-box that we all love and adore. Make no mistake, the gaffer would have told him this in no uncertain terms.
January now has the potential to be an important and perhaps critical month for us, more so than usual. If Bent can drop the ego I’d like to see him stay at the club until at least the summer and beyond, because the fact of the matter is he will always bag you crucial goals. Unlike the scenarios we have found ourselves in with many a player in recent years we’re in no rush to sell. Come January Bent will still have two-and-a-half years remaining on his contract.
I speculatively wrote about January in last week’s article. We’ve still got an incredible 1170 minutes of Premier League football to play prior to the madness of the mid-season transfer window. But today, whilst I was going about my normal everyday business, I was thinking about what areas of the squad I think require tinkering and strengthening. And also the names of the players I wouldn’t give two hoots about if they headed for the exit doors tomorrow.
I came to the conclusion that there’s an obvious trio of deadwood: Alan Hutton, Richard Dunne (whose contract will expire next summer), and our Cameroonian misfit Jean Makoun. There were two further players who I certainly wouldn’t miss; the lightweight Fabian Delph and a man who has yet to (and will likely never) settle at the club: Charles N’Zogbia.
In turn I’d like to see a fresh centre half as genuine competition for both Vlaar and Clark, who are, without doubt, the only two of choice right now.
Karim El Ahmadi has made the holding role his own in the absence of Stiliyan Petrov. I sense that the options we currently have at our disposal to partner him in the middle of the park just do not make the grade. One thing that Villa are desperately lacking right now is a rounded midfielder who is equally adept at spraying the ball about the park, playing those needle-type through balls to the forwards, and bringing the ball forward himself.
N’Zog does get an awful lot of stick from me, and the reason is we all know that he’s capable of producing 10 times better than what he has shown in a claret-and-blue shirt to date. We’ve seen over the years just what this guy has in his locker, and he needs to start showing it quick sharp. The most worrying thing for me is that he looks dejected—it’s as if he doesn’t enjoy pulling on the Villa jersey.
I think that it’s about time that we cut our losses on N’Zogbia and accept the highest offer we can possibly squeeze out of somebody. And then go in for a genuinely exciting prospect, somebody like Matt Phillips. We could even use Delph as a make-weight in any deal.
Turning our attentions to something a lot more immediate than the above, Villa travel to Craven Cottage on Saturday to play a somewhat unpredictable Fulham side. This match really could go either way. As a betting man I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. I’ll stick my neck out and predict a score draw, 1-1.
The big question in the build up to this weekend will be whether or not Darren Bent will regain his starting place. And I’m afraid that your guess is as good as mine.
Roll on Saturday, and up the Villa!
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