I watched Darren on Saturday talking about this.
Clearly he was hurt by what happened, as was everyone involved with Charlton.
What Sven did to Darren Bent was an absolute travesty.
To disregard the top English scorer in the Premier for a 17 year old with only a handful of games was outrageous.
From the moment I heard what had happened I immediately stopped supporting England, and I have never supported them since.
We should have taken Defoe and Bent (instead of Walcott and one of the 9 midfielders - Downing probably).
Owen and Rooney were both coming back from injury so 5 strikers made sense, and taking Crouch and a 17 year old as the only properly fit strikers was really stupid.
I remember Bent not even being on the standby list, diver Johnson was.
we missed 3 out of 4 pens against portugal Lampard Gerrard Carragher all missed Hargreaves scored Portugal scored 2 of their 5 Benty would have smashed one away ffs
Always remember with still bemused fury - we cruised the group winning our first two games. In the 3rd game against Sweden , already qualified, Owen went off injured early on with his hamstring I think.
Dead rubber group game with our pacey forward going off injured. Didn’t even try Walcott then - brought Crouch on instead. If you’re not going to try him there then clearly you have no intention of using him at any point in the tournament. What on earth is he doing there!! I think we could even have lost to sweden and still would’ve finished top of the group!
All that said, and as much as I would never have admitted it at the time, I never really believed Bent was of the level needed to be a successful international striker. A great finisher with electric pace effective for a midtable prem team, but lacked the overall quality / cutting edge / all round game needed to be top level.
Walcott preferred and he didn’t even play ... Darren was the top English scorer ... deplorable.
And worse because he was top scorer despite playing for us and (if we are honest) therefore getting fewer chances / opportunities each game. In other words way and above the in form striker.
At least Southgate appears to want to use players in form and not based on the club they play for.
No comfort for Bent at all and only highlights why players simply have to move on to different clubs sometimes for their career prospects.
Just to think that Steve Bull played for England when he was playing in the 2nd tier.......and Benty couldnt get picked when he was the top ENGLISH goalscorer that season.
Still rankled to this day. Nepotism at its finest.
Always remember with still bemused fury - we cruised the group winning our first two games. In the 3rd game against Sweden , already qualified, Owen went off injured early on with his hamstring I think.
Dead rubber group game with our pacey forward going off injured. Didn’t even try Walcott then - brought Crouch on instead. If you’re not going to try him there then clearly you have no intention of using him at any point in the tournament. What on earth is he doing there!! I think we could even have lost to sweden and still would’ve finished top of the group!
All that said, and as much as I would never have admitted it at the time, I never really believed Bent was of the level needed to be a successful international striker. A great finisher with electric pace effective for a midtable prem team, but lacked the overall quality / cutting edge / all round game needed to be top level.
Total travesty that Bent wasn't picked.
Wenger was like a worm in the ear of SGE, & SGE got duped.
He realised that Walcott was not up for the task (though way too late), & sticking him on - even in a dead rubber - would've most likely hit Walcotts confidence at a young age, because he would've been shown up for the inexperienced kid he was.
SGE has admitted that the then Arsenal chairman David Dein - an FA board member - lobbied him to include Theo Walcott in the squad.
It was an epic demonstration of the moral corruption at the heart of English football where a teenager with zero experience gets picked over the PL's leading English goal scorer because he played for the 'right' club.
The decision arguably cost England big time with Owen and Rooney injured during the tournament and then Rooney getting sent off against Portugal - that meant our only attacking options were Peter Crouch and a 17 year old kid who had never played an international.
A scandalous decision and arguably professionally negligent - but SGE had long since stuffed his pockets with filthy lucre so could not have cared less.
Comments
I'll always despise Sven for not taking Bent to the World Cup.
Was Sven a great manager, or did he get multiple lucky breaks?
One of those decision which angers me still. Absolute stupid decision which shouldn’t have happened.
Owen and Rooney were both coming back from injury so 5 strikers made sense, and taking Crouch and a 17 year old as the only properly fit strikers was really stupid.
I remember Bent not even being on the standby list, diver Johnson was.
A more interesting question though would have been though about the shambles of the following season, and what he thought about the 3 managers...
Always felt he put pressure on Sven to include Walcott
Lampard
Gerrard
Carragher all missed
Hargreaves scored Portugal scored 2 of their 5
Benty would have smashed one away ffs
All that said, and as much as I would never have admitted it at the time, I never really believed Bent was of the level needed to be a successful international striker. A great finisher with electric pace effective for a midtable prem team, but lacked the overall quality / cutting edge / all round game needed to be top level.
Still rankled to this day. Nepotism at its finest.
Wenger was like a worm in the ear of SGE, & SGE got duped.
He realised that Walcott was not up for the task (though way too late), & sticking him on - even in a dead rubber - would've most likely hit Walcotts confidence at a young age, because he would've been shown up for the inexperienced kid he was.
It was an epic demonstration of the moral corruption at the heart of English football where a teenager with zero experience gets picked over the PL's leading English goal scorer because he played for the 'right' club.
The decision arguably cost England big time with Owen and Rooney injured during the tournament and then Rooney getting sent off against Portugal - that meant our only attacking options were Peter Crouch and a 17 year old kid who had never played an international.
A scandalous decision and arguably professionally negligent - but SGE had long since stuffed his pockets with filthy lucre so could not have cared less.