Benty is one of my all time favourite players, so it really depressed me to read this from Barney Ronay in the Guardian today:
Most striking during Saturday's abject 3-0 defeat at West Ham was the spectacle of England's Darren Bent, scorer of 151 league goals, but just three in the last two years. Bent was not to blame for Fulham's defeat, but he has a symbolic kind of anti-value. At times against West Ham he broke into a jog, most often when finding himself standing significantly offside. For the rest of the match he didn't so much walk around as walk slightly slower than most people walk even when they're not playing a football match. Perhaps he was slowed by the size of his shorts which seem to have grown rather in the last couple of years. Perhaps he was simply waiting to explode into life given the right kind of service. Either way, as the first half began to drag, it was tempting to ponder the interesting philosophical question of whether the presence of Bent in Fulham's attack was having have more or less influence on the match than Andy Carroll's absence from West Ham's.
This is perhaps a little unfair on Modibo Maiga, who was energetic as the lone striker, while Bent, who really should be looking to earn himself an endorsement deal as the face of a popular brand of walking boot, strolled the periphery, starved of the right kind of pass, but also seeming content to remain so. What a waste all round. Bent is still only 29. At a time when possession of a pair of boots and a shirt with the right kind of number on it is enough to earn a call-up, he might have spent the last two years playing for England. Instead his performances at Fulham look like a salutary example of late-career Premier League congealment, not to mention an indictment of Jol's allegedly wondrous contacts book.
0
Comments
Playing in a poor team low on confidence and surprise, surprise an off the shoulder striker isn't doing that well.
Would have him back at the Valley in a second (if we could afford him) but let's wait and see how the new manager uses him at Fulham.
Thought it would have been a great move for him and the chance to prove the doubters wrong but he's not taken the opportunity yet.
He does seem to have gained a few and doesn't seen to have that energy or desire for the ball anymore, hopefully it's just a temporary thing
Now on loan, in a struggling team, I'm guessing the hunger has gone.
In fact, f**k it, i'll drive him myself.............
Come back Benty, please
In a similar vein, there's a piece in todays paper about Spurs' latest striker, they are saying that the way AVB set's up his wingers, he'll never get anything to attack.