No doubt, Darren Bent is a talented goal scorer. He’s a member of the Premier League’s 100 goals club and resultantly, the 15th top-scoring Englishman in the competition’s history.
So when Aston Villa signed him in January 2011 after a 32-in-58 spell at Sunderland, the Birmingham outfit assumed they’d made a safe investment, even at the rather audacious price of £18million.
But the former England international went on to make just 61 appearances for the Villains, scoring 21, and spent two of his four-and-a-half campaigns at Villa Park on loan to other clubs; namely Fulham in the Premier League and Championship duo Brighton and Derby County; in no small part due to a series of bust-ups with manager Paul Lambert.
Earlier this summer, Bent signed for the Rams on a free transfer, meaning he cost Villa £875k per league goal.