- Apr 6, 2006
- 1,695
- 998
I do feel a little sorry for him, he is though the epitome of our season, completely inconsistent :-|
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/article2233753.ece
DARREN BENT has scored more times this season than Wayne Rooney, Emile Heskey, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Michael Owen and Carlton Cole.
In fact, the only top-flight Englishman to have bettered Bent’s 14-goal tally so far is Steven Gerrard.
Yet when England played in Spain this week the £16million Spurs striker was not even considered for the squad.
Bent, though, was not surprised to be left out. If you are not playing for your club, you are not going to play for your country.
And the former Charlton and Ipswich ace knows he might have to leave White Hart Lane this summer if he is going to achieve all his ambitions in football.
He said: “I’ve spoken to the manager a couple of times about my position but I can only hear the same thing so many times.
“I’m not one of those players who will just sit back and let his career pass him by.
“I’ll bang on his door. At least I’m still involved. I’m not being left out of the squad or anything like that.
Suspicion
“But I’m only 25 and there is so much more to come from me as a player. I’m not the finished article and I will get better.
“I’d like to think that improvement will be with Tottenham. But if nothing is happening for me by the end of the season then I will look to go elsewhere.
“I need to play more games. I want to play football. I don’t want another season where I’m in and out of the team all the time.
“I’ve actually scored quite a lot of goals this season, considering I’m not playing regularly.
“So I’m going to have to weigh up my options in the summer.”
Bent has hardly been helped by the fact that he has played for three different managers and with six different strike partners since his big-money move from Charlton 20 months ago.
He added: “The constant change has definitely made things more difficult.
"I’ve played with Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane, Jermain Defoe, Giovani Dos Santos, Fraizer Campbell and Roman Pavlyuchenko and not really had time to develop an understanding with any of them.
“Last year, we sold three of our strikers and now most of them are back at the club — which is strange.”
Now there is the suspicion that current boss Harry Redknapp does not really rate Bent, who has started just three of Tottenham’s last 16 games.
Within days of arriving at White Hart Lane, Redknapp said Bent and Pavlyuchenko could not play together.
Bent added: “It was a bit of a silly thing to say because we hadn’t really had time to gel as a partnership.”
Yet Redknapp had not finished there and recently declared “my missus could have scored that one” after Bent squandered a glorious chance during the 1-1 draw against Portsmouth.
Bent said: “Those comments were quite hard to take because I knew better than anyone that I should have scored.
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“But the next game I played, I came on and scored twice.”
Bent admits this season has a been a huge disappointment and added: “I really thought this was going to be my big chance. Pre-season went really well for me and I felt so sharp. But, for whatever reasons, I just haven’t played as much as I’d hoped.
“There were huge expectations at the club at the start of the season. But it was the same situation when I joined in 2007. And it hasn’t happened on either occasion.
“Villa are having a fantastic season and, when you look at what they’re doing, it’s something Spurs should be capable of.
“There’s no doubt we’ve got the quality. We’re just far too inconsistent. At times we’ve been brilliant but at other times we’ve been really poor.
“We’ve been too easy to beat, too fragile — and conceded a lot of silly goals from set-plays.
“The signs are there that we’re slowly starting to turn it around but we really need to kick on from here. We’ve got a massive couple of months coming up and if a few results go against us we’ll be back in the bottom three.”
Redknapp has already declared that Premier League survival is his only concern this season but Bent still has aspirations of achieving cup glory.
He said: “I was on the bench for last season’s Carling Cup final and didn’t get on, which was disappointing. So I hope I’ll be involved this time against Manchester United.
“And then there’s the UEFA Cup. Jermain is injured and Robbie and Pav are ineligible. So next week’s game in Donetsk is definitely a chance for me.
“I have never lost faith in my ability and I know for a fact that I can do well at the highest level. I’ve already proved that. But you get frustrated when you’re not playing regularly.
“All I can do is keep working as hard as possible and grab every opportunity I get. Because any manager in the world will like you if you put the ball in the net.”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/article2233753.ece
DARREN BENT has scored more times this season than Wayne Rooney, Emile Heskey, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Michael Owen and Carlton Cole.
In fact, the only top-flight Englishman to have bettered Bent’s 14-goal tally so far is Steven Gerrard.
Yet when England played in Spain this week the £16million Spurs striker was not even considered for the squad.
Bent, though, was not surprised to be left out. If you are not playing for your club, you are not going to play for your country.
And the former Charlton and Ipswich ace knows he might have to leave White Hart Lane this summer if he is going to achieve all his ambitions in football.
He said: “I’ve spoken to the manager a couple of times about my position but I can only hear the same thing so many times.
“I’m not one of those players who will just sit back and let his career pass him by.
“I’ll bang on his door. At least I’m still involved. I’m not being left out of the squad or anything like that.
Suspicion
“But I’m only 25 and there is so much more to come from me as a player. I’m not the finished article and I will get better.
“I’d like to think that improvement will be with Tottenham. But if nothing is happening for me by the end of the season then I will look to go elsewhere.
“I need to play more games. I want to play football. I don’t want another season where I’m in and out of the team all the time.
“I’ve actually scored quite a lot of goals this season, considering I’m not playing regularly.
“So I’m going to have to weigh up my options in the summer.”
Bent has hardly been helped by the fact that he has played for three different managers and with six different strike partners since his big-money move from Charlton 20 months ago.
He added: “The constant change has definitely made things more difficult.
"I’ve played with Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane, Jermain Defoe, Giovani Dos Santos, Fraizer Campbell and Roman Pavlyuchenko and not really had time to develop an understanding with any of them.
“Last year, we sold three of our strikers and now most of them are back at the club — which is strange.”
Now there is the suspicion that current boss Harry Redknapp does not really rate Bent, who has started just three of Tottenham’s last 16 games.
Within days of arriving at White Hart Lane, Redknapp said Bent and Pavlyuchenko could not play together.
Bent added: “It was a bit of a silly thing to say because we hadn’t really had time to gel as a partnership.”
Yet Redknapp had not finished there and recently declared “my missus could have scored that one” after Bent squandered a glorious chance during the 1-1 draw against Portsmouth.
Bent said: “Those comments were quite hard to take because I knew better than anyone that I should have scored.
Advertisement
“But the next game I played, I came on and scored twice.”
Bent admits this season has a been a huge disappointment and added: “I really thought this was going to be my big chance. Pre-season went really well for me and I felt so sharp. But, for whatever reasons, I just haven’t played as much as I’d hoped.
“There were huge expectations at the club at the start of the season. But it was the same situation when I joined in 2007. And it hasn’t happened on either occasion.
“Villa are having a fantastic season and, when you look at what they’re doing, it’s something Spurs should be capable of.
“There’s no doubt we’ve got the quality. We’re just far too inconsistent. At times we’ve been brilliant but at other times we’ve been really poor.
“We’ve been too easy to beat, too fragile — and conceded a lot of silly goals from set-plays.
“The signs are there that we’re slowly starting to turn it around but we really need to kick on from here. We’ve got a massive couple of months coming up and if a few results go against us we’ll be back in the bottom three.”
Redknapp has already declared that Premier League survival is his only concern this season but Bent still has aspirations of achieving cup glory.
He said: “I was on the bench for last season’s Carling Cup final and didn’t get on, which was disappointing. So I hope I’ll be involved this time against Manchester United.
“And then there’s the UEFA Cup. Jermain is injured and Robbie and Pav are ineligible. So next week’s game in Donetsk is definitely a chance for me.
“I have never lost faith in my ability and I know for a fact that I can do well at the highest level. I’ve already proved that. But you get frustrated when you’re not playing regularly.
“All I can do is keep working as hard as possible and grab every opportunity I get. Because any manager in the world will like you if you put the ball in the net.”