I still remember the day we signed Darren Bent from Sunderland. It was a surprise to say the least, because at the time we were fourth from bottom and Sunderland were in the top six. I was in shock but ecstatic at the same time. As I said, we were struggling, and the capture of Darren Bent, despite the hefty £18million price tag (subject to add-ons), would more than likely ensure our Premiership survival—and it did.
Bent got off to a flyer, making a dream debut and scoring in a 1-0 home win over money bags Manchester City and earning us a much needed three points at the same time. Bent’s goal scoring carried on for the remainder of the season, with a further eight goals, giving him an impressive total of nine goals in 16 appearances for Aston Villa in the second half of the 2011 season. We went on to finish in a respectable 9th, with many crediting the arrival of Bent as the reason why we finished so high up the table.
During the summer of 2011, the supply line for a majority of Bent’s goals—in the form of wide men Ashley Young and Stewart Downing—left the club. Both had been massive players for us and replacing them with the budget we had was going to be very hard.
In came Charles N’Zogbia from Wigan, after a long drawn-out negotiation process, to try and fill the massive void left by fellow wingers Young and Downing. It was to be a big ask. N’Zogbia failed to live up to the massive expectations thrust upon him and like many of the team, did not get out of third gear last season. We didn’t create the chances that a player like Bent not only thrives on, but needs, however Bent still managed to finish last season as our top scorer again, bagging nine goals despite missing a large chunk of the season through injury.
On to the current campaign.
Paul Lambert joins the club and in Stiliyan Petrov’s absence hands the England talisman Bent the prestigious captain’s arm band. There has always been a big question mark over Darren Bent’s work ethic. Many have called him lazy, but to be fair, when handed the arm band, his work rate did improve—not substantially and he never really stood out by embracing his new role—but he did seem more willing to work and was on a par with his team mates.
Hardly the traits of a captain in my eyes. A captain for me needs to bust a gut for the team, rally the troops and lead by example. Bent’s inability to live up to his job description did not go unnoticed by Paul Lambert and he soon lost the arm band to new boy and fan favourite, Ron Vlaar. But I am not writing this piece to focus on Bent’s leadership qualities.
As the season gathered momentum, Lambert started to implement his own style of play and the service from wings that Darren Bent thrives upon promptly stopped in favour of a narrower and direct style of play.
Bent was struggling to adapt and did not get off the mark in the league until late September, which by his standards was a slow start. Bent, for reasons only know to Lambert, was then exiled from the team and reduced to cameo appearances, quite a fall from grace for a man who for many would be the first name on the Aston Villa team sheet.
Despite coming off the bench a week after breaking his duck for the season and scoring a late equaliser vs. West Brom, Bent did not start for the next 13 league or cup games until the midweek clash with Norwich, which saw him limp off with a hamstring injury. His omission from the squad, let alone the starting eleven, has caused many to question Lambert’s motives.
Many seem to think that it is some sort of witch hunt on Lambert’s part and that he simply doesn’t like Bent. I have to disagree. if Lambert didn’t like Bent, then why would he have handed him the captaincy in the first place?
For me it is just a case of Darren Bent not clicking with the team. Like I have said earlier, it’s all about supply for him and there is no doubt that if you put him in and around the 18-yard box with the ball at his feet, he will undoubtedly pop up with a goal as he is one of the best poachers in the league.
Herein lies the problem though—our style of play and our work ethic has changed. Gone are the days when we can afford to have 10 players all busting a gut for the team and one individual waiting for the ball to be placed at or fall at his feet to grab the headlines. We need all our players to be putting in a massive shift when playing.
A perfect example of this would be in the 1-0 win away at Sunderland. For the last half-hour of that game, every player was grafting for the team, bodies were being put on the line, and although we rode our luck, some cavalier defending saw us grind a hard-fought result out. Results like this will be essential if we are to ensure our premier league survival.
Now I am not writing Bent off as a player. He has shown against West Brom that he can pop up with a vital goal when needed. He is a useful option to have.
But to utilise his talents, we would in my opinion have to change the way we play, in a sense building the team around one man, which no club in the world does. Barcelona don’t build their team around Messi or Real Madrid around Ronaldo, so I don’t see why Darren Bent should get a free ride into the team.
Like I have said, he is an option that we could use, a plan B. We could use Darren Bent in games like the bore draw with Arsenal to give us a new dimension, but to do this, it will need to bring in players who can give him the service he needs from the flanks, assuming that Bent would be happy to be used as a 100K per week super sub of course.
For me, Bent’s days at the club are numbered, not because I dislike him as a player—he has scored some very important goals for us, but the club is changing. You can see the style of play slowly changing—we have strikers tracking back, defenders pushing forward and the work ethic as a whole has for the most part changed throughout.
If you look at Bent, Benteke, Weimann or Agbonlahor, you can see that in terms of work ethic, Bent is severely lacking. If you compare him to Benteke you will see where I am coming from. Ok, Bent is the better finisher when the ball drops at his feet, no doubt, but how many chances will he make out of nothing? Make for other people? Will Bent create space by drawing defenders out? Win balls in the air? Make runs into the channels? Will he link up play?
The answer to all of these questions for me is no; the team as a whole works better without Darren Bent in it.
As I have said, he is a very useful option to have, but he is also a very expensive, one-dimensional option at that. For me, Darren Bent’s days at the club are numbered. For the wages we pay him and the fee we could get for him, we could bring in two or three better, more willing all-round players who would offer the team a lot more than the ability to pop up in the right place at the right time, making us a more effective unit, with more options and more importantly, more effort—lots more.
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