Sean Kesluk

Summer of 2007: Under the managerial prowess of Dutch "teddy bear" Martin Jol Tottenham Hotspur have progressed from mid-table mediocrity to two consecutive successive fifth place finishes in the English Premier League. The future looks bright for the North London club; a host of good cup runs, somewhat regular European football, and the blossoming squad has contributed to growing expectation of breaking into the so called ‘big four’ and bringing Champions League football to the Lane - a feat on which they so narrowly missed out only a few years before.

Up steps Damien Comolli, Tottenham’s Director of Football following Frank Arneson’s departure to London rivals Chelsea, the position notorious for causing boardroom bust-ups and conflict with coaches throughout the game. Credited with bringing players such as Didier Zokora, Pascal Chimbonda, and of course the talismanic Dimitar Berbatov to the club, Comolli set out to find more young talent. Despite Martin Jol’s pleas for a left-sided midfielder and further defensive cover with the absence of injury-prone captain Ledley King, Tottenham signed five footballers, none of whom were Jol signings: young Adel Taarabt (19), French U-21 Captain Younes Kaboul (20), Kevin-Prince

Boateng (20), the stunning Welsh left-back Gareth Bale (18), and of course the crux of this article Darren Bent, a 23 year old Englishman possessing one of the fiercest scoring records in the Premiership.

 

And yet his time in North London has largely been a flop according to most pundits. But despite being a rather moan-happy and cynical Spurs fan myself, I’d consider my perspective toward Bent more on the optimistic side.

His quality and goalscoring ability cannot be denied; for the past two seasons he has been the highest-scoring Englishman in the Premiership. Actually despite this fact, he’s been consistently left out of the England line-up. Many were surprised when Bent was left out of the squad entirely for the 2006 World Cup in favour of Arsenal’s Theo Walcott, this when the Spurs striker scoring 18  Premiership goals in the 05/06 campaign. Does the world just not like Darren Bent? Maybe, but I don’t love ‘em either.

The fact is that he’s had a rough time at the Lane, and it’s largely because of several obstacles inevitably put in his way. For starters his £16.5 million price-tag must be a terrible burden, bringing with it a weight of expectations and clearly the result of the all too well known inflated price of English players. And for the record, the £16.5 million only gets paid when and if Bent becomes a £16.5 million pound player (which means trophies and England caps etc)….so not yet.

Then there’s the Robbie Keane-Dimitar Berbatov partnership, which is quite frankly a gift from above. With 22 goals apiece between them this term, there was little chance that Bent would be given an extended run on the pitch, especially with Jermaine Defoe (now departed to Portsmouth) being above him in the pecking order for most of the season.

It is also an often overlooked fact that Darren Bent does not play his football quite like they do at White Hart Lane, and despite being a potent finisher he thrives on being left up front solo, a formation that is not likely going to be utilised in the Lilywhite part of London where the traditional 4-4-2 is usually always preferred. Remember too that Bent has linked well with neither Berbatov nor Keane, the forward with whom Bent would be most likely to form a complimentary partnership.

I’d also like to bring up a story which appeared that suggested the 23 year old ordered himself a ham and cheese sandwich from the team hotel’s room service (certainly not on Ramos’ diet plan) the night before an away match…..Fatty.

And lastly, let’s face it, the footballing community hasn’t exactly been peachy to Mr. Bent. A poll recently surfaced placing Bent narrowly behind Dong-Gook Lee on the "worst strikers in the Premiership" list. That is just ridiculous. No one has been hesitant to brand Bent a failure, and his confidence has clearly been suffering.  

 

All that said, he remains the 3rd top scorer at Tottenham this season….Not convinced yet? Neither am I to be honest, but he’s done a pretty decent job putting the ball in the back of the net when given the chance. I do believe Bent will remain a ‘Yiddo’ next season, and although he may struggle to recover the goal scoring record that brought him to the Lane, his consistency, pace, and finishing should ultimately prove lethal in a Lilywhite kit. Also with the likely departure of Berbatov, Bent will certainly be given his chance, and should he take it he could suddenly find himself enjoying regular Premier League football once again.

At the end of the day though, my real loathing for Darren Bent lies in what he represents, the power struggle that cost Martin Jol his job and the squad their chance of success this Premiership campaign. Darren Bent symbolises the tyranny of French Director of Football Damien Comolli, the footballers that Jol had shoved down his throat by bureaucracy at the Lane.

The squad had done very well to secure successive 5th place finishes, and Jol knew where the squad’s weakness lay; there was an obvious lack of balance on the left side of the attack and even worse there was a lack of defensive cover. So what does Comolli do? Buy two teenage, unproven, untested, and inexperienced defenders and a fourth striker (Bent) when already there were three world class forwards in the squad. How does the season progress? Poorly, our attack functioning fantastically without Bent, while the defence leaks goal after goal. And then, who gets the sack? Martin Jol. I rest my case. But I do like Ramos, who is rather ironically, a Comolli signing.

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