Aston Villa had a challenging season last season. With a young squad and a manager looking to build a team for the future in Paul Lambert, they certainly had their ups and downs and I was actually surprised by the manner in which they improved over the final months of the season to secure safety. I couldn’t help but wonder if their battle against relegation would have been made that bit easier if they’d had more experience in the side, particularly in the final third. As good as Christian Benteke was last season, how much better would he have been if he’d had an experienced, proven goalscorer to play alongside him?
Of course, as we all know, Villa did have that option. Yet for some reason, Lambert opted to only use Darren Bent sparingly, with the former England international only finding the net three times in sixteen league appearances last season. He had been linked with a move away from the club during last January’s transfer window, yet nothing serious ever materialised from the speculation, and this summer so far has been much of the same.
Bent clearly does not figure prominently in Lambert’s plans this season, as displayed by Villa’s acquisition of Nicklas Helenius from Aalborg as well as the fact that Bent has also spent time training away from the rest of the first team squad during pre-season. Yet a departure from Villa Park does not seem particularly imminent.
Why is this so? Is it that Villa are asking too much money for the player – something which I think is a persistent problem in the current transfer market. If you take Andy Carroll as an example of another England striker who found his services were no longer required, but still it took the sum of £15M for West Ham to secure his services from Liverpool. If Carroll is worth that, how much is Bent worth? Is he worth the same sort of price? More? Does anybody actually know?
Or could it be a more terminal problem for the player’s career, in that there is genuinely no interest from anywhere else? For a player who has a century of Premier League goals to his name and has not yet hit the age of 30, that would be a tragic fall of grace for a player who narrowly missed out on the opportunity of representing his country at each of the last two international tournaments.
I don’t believe this is the case. I think Bent has found himself stuck at a club where his talents have either been undervalued, underappreciated or somehow completely forgotten about. He needs to get away from Villa Park and he needs to do so this summer. At 29, he still has years left in him, but while he continues to be marginalised by Lambert, the window of opportunity for him to resurrect his career is getting smaller and smaller, and it certainly wouldn’t be in his best interests to sit around for another year and hope to force his way back into the team when it is becoming more and more obvious that Lambert has no desire to make him an integral part of his side.
So what needs to happen? Simply, Villa need to cut their losses and accept they’re going to take a loss on a player they spent an initial £18M on in January 2011. They have a player on their hands which they don’t have much of a use for, while the player can’t surely be happy with the position he finds himself in. Yet Villa don’t seem in any particular rush to sell, and nor does the player seem particularly bothered about trying to force a move elsewhere. It’s a curious case, and it’s one that needs resolving.
The best thing for all parties involved would be for Darren Bent to be playing in new colours before the end of August, and if Villa lose some cash in the process, so be it.
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Darren Bent has never let Villa down on the pitch. However, his style does not fit in with Paul Lambert’s tactics.
Villa are quite right to price Bent at £6 to £8 million when you compare his record with say Andy Carroll. However, the only way Bent will get a move is if he reduces his salary demands.
He is lazy, does very little for the team, a large portion of his Premier League goals have been penalties …….. plus his wage demands are high. It has nothing to do with Villa, they will sell and take the loss.
What is it with you people who keep on about Darren Bent? Can you not accept that he is total rubbish! He would not even get a game right back behind the goal in the 500th Reserve League if I was the Manager.
Why don’t you get behind out top manager and enjoy the great football that Villa play! This season we will be top 8 and maybe even more! Benteke is the complete Centre Forward and his stats show that he is better than Van Persie and all the others. Or perhaps you did not take notice of that table.
So there is nothing curious about Darren Bent just simply that he is not good even enough to play for Aston Villa!
He is lazy but has never let villa down good luck to him. I hope he stays weiman gabby benteke helunis bent scares me lol
Thanks for the comments. I have to agree that his wage demands are probably the biggest stumbling block for him finding a move, especially given his most likely destination would be a team in a similar area to the table to where Villa were last season. Makes you wonder whether he’d be willing to compromise on that to start playing football again – at 29, he’s still young enough to force his way back into contention to play for his country (theoretically at least!)
And Malcolm, I’m taking nothing away from Benteke – he was probably the best signing of last summer (alongside Michu) and the fact he’s committed to a new contract is probably more important than any new signing Lambert makes. Not sure I entirely agree with your summation of his ability though!
Hi! I think the situation for Bent is unfortunate, do not know what rift might have been created between him and Lambert. Initially he got the chance ans even the armband, so Lambert gave him his chance but somehow he could not produce what Lambert expected.
When it comed to his abilities, he might play a different game than Benteke, the difference is his class in front of goal. He is clinical, “NEVER” miss an opportunity. There where severarl, several chanses that Benteke and Weimann had last year that he would NOT have missed. Thus, yes, maybe lazy as some say, but he nakes goals. Is that not what fotball-matches are about in the end?
I hope Bent gets a new chance somewhere else where goals, instead of a certain way of running and meeting the ball, is more appreciated.