Blog: Bent legacy oh so tragic Michael Graham | 26/04/2012 | http://www.footyplace.com/features/blog-bent-legacy-oh-so-tragic/ Bent: Swapped Sunderland for Villa Sunderland fan Michael Graham will have little sympathy for Darren Bent if the former Black Cats striker is relegated with Aston Villa this season. It’s official. Aston Villa have landed themselves in a relegation scrap. Bolton’s win at Villa Park on Tuesday means that barely three points separate the Midlands giants with the bottom three, and when you can’t seem to buy a win whilst surrounded by teams in form, that is not an enviable position in which to find yourself. I am fairly sure this wasn’t exactly what Darren Bent had in mind when he abdicated his Sunderland crown. . It is fair to say that Bent’s transfer to Aston Villa is one of the most surprising in recent times. After all, it is not often that huge money and marquis talent changes hands between clubs outside of the elite. At the time, Bent’s stock had probably never been higher. He had just made a long-awaited international breakthrough, scoring his first goal for England in a European Championships qualifier in Switzerland, and was spearheading a Sunderland side sat comfortably in the top six of the Premier League. It was all a far cry from the humiliating public taunts he had endured from his manager at Spurs. So when he chose to throw all that away to join a club who were just a single place above the relegation zone, eyebrows were understandably raised. His post-move comments, in which he stressed what a ‘massive club’ Aston Villa are, were, generally, met with a special level of cynicism that is only really reserved for someone who stares down a TV camera and says with the straightest of poker faces “Emile (Heskey) is one of the best strikers in the country”. The move was about the pay rise. Nothing more, and we all knew it. Unfortunately for Bent, he wasn’t the only one at that press conference making lavish statements that were difficult to substantiate. His new manager, Gerard Houllier promised that key creative duo Ashley Young and Stuart Downing were ‘not for sale’. A year or so later, Young is battling it out for a Premier League winners medal whilst Downing is preparing for an FA Cup final. And where is Bent? On the treatment table of a selling club, sweating over his involvement in the European Championships, and praying he will still be a Premier League footballer this time next month. Sympathy? No chance. So much about the modern game is brilliant. The passion it evokes, the wide-scale availability on TV, the partisan sense of belonging that following your team provides, its ability to unify and inspire, and plenty more. But Bent, sadly, is someone who encapsulates everything that is lamentable about it. When offered the choice between being the revered goalscoring talisman at a good club and greedily sucking every last penny he possibly could out of the game, he chose the latter. He is a player blessed with the gifts of goals, pace, and a little physical presence. Fans immortalise their goalscorers unlike anyone else, and he has had more than enough fine clubs to lay down some roots and bask in the legacy of legend. But what is his legacy now? Relegated with Ipswich and Charlton, humiliated at Tottenham, loathed at Sunderland, twice discarded by England, and now abandoned at Aston Villa. Someone who has taken more money than responsibility. Made more broken promises than he has friends. A lecherous mercenary in what could have so easily been legend’s boots. What a tragic waste AM I GLAD,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,NO ECSTATIC MORE LIKE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,NICE ONE JUDAS
Looking at villas fixtures I think they will go down. They remind me of the mags a couple of seasons ago when they were deemed too good to go down, and we know how that ended. As for bent, it is a tragic waste, & Capello is equally as much to blame for his move. I think he wanted to be close to London in all honesty. I will laugh if they go, bent will be moving on and as long as he can get top dollar wages he will give a **** less.
Bent is good, his record for us speaks for itself. But his attitude? We gave him a chance to resurrect his career (which he took) and then he buggered off for more cash as soon as he got the chance. The article's right. He could have been a legend here, but now he just looks like a mercenary git. Which he is.
