Martyn McFadden
THERE’S a famous quote from Mahatma Gandhi. “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” Sitting here, soaking up the aftermath of the last couple of days, that pearl of wisdom springs to mind.
Darren Bent had it all here at Sunderland. He was one of the top scorer’s in the league. He was adored by the club’s supporters. He was part of a young, exciting side that are on the up and have been comfortably in sixth place for some time. We were going to build that side around him.
Unfortunately, it’s amazing what an extra £20,000 a week can do to turn someone’s head. It seems that Bent has realised that no matter what he does he isn’t going to get a chance with his beloved England (probably due to limitations in his own, all-round game) and he’s unlikely to play for a title challenging club (for the same reason). This has dawned on him and it looks like he decided that he might as well make as much money as he can.
Make no mistake; Bent was outstanding for us at times, particularly in his first season. His 24 Premier League goals played a monumental part in our relatively comfortable survival, and he was a beacon of light during a dire winter where we went four months without a win. He will, undoubtedly, score plenty of goals for Aston Villa.
But he does have his drawbacks. As already mentioned, his all-round play isn’t very good. For him to work best, a team has to play behind him and everything must revolve round supplying him bullets to fire into the back of the net. That plan worked well for us last season, however this season we have tried to expand our style and, subsequently, Bent has struggled.
This also fits with the well-held theory that Bent likes to be the ‘main man’, and that if everything isn’t hunky dory, he gets the hump. The stat of one goal assist in his entire Sunderland career indicates both that his all-round play is very poor, and that he is a very selfish player.
These comments have been briefly murmured this season, due to his stuttering form, but most of us defended him, on the basis he always seemed such a decent bloke, who cared more about the team’s success than his own. But he has truly made mugs of us all.
And that’s the worst thing about all this. In this age of footballers not connecting with supporters, and being all aloof, we thought we had someone different in Bent. He seemed to love the club, and the fans, often talking to supporters on his infamous twitter page about how ‘signing for Sunderland is the best decision of my life’.
We bought into, and thought we had a modern day icon, like what Niall Quinn has been. We thought we had got under his skin. Instead, he is happy to take the money and run, telling you all you want to hear while he gives you five minutes of pleasure and joy before heading off into the night for another pay-day. There’s a name for someone like that. Sadly, this is what best sums up Bent, and this awful, awful affair.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/oOAr7bU3PiY/post.aspx
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