Before a goal scored, an attempt squandered, before a ball kicked or the lilywhite shirt put on, and most importantly, before pen has been put to paper…Darren bent has caused a divide in opinions amongst Tottenham fans that mimic’s the Jenas transfer saga. In the same way as Jermaine Jenas, Darren bent’s purchase is viewed as either a waste of a lot of money or as a luxury to the squad that isn’t needed at this present time.
But how much of an unwanted luxury is it to have in your team the highest scoring English man over the past two seasons?
Standing at 1.80m and weighing approximately 75 kilos. Bent doesn’t posses a typical body that is associated with being a target man. As such one has to ask,
“Why is he being bought in the first place?”
His frame may indicate a particular breed of striker (smaller and agile fox in the box) but Bent’s utilisation over his career indicates a versatility that isn’t inherent in many English strikers in the game today.
Despite Bent’s physique he’s a good target man. Through intelligence, something I fully expect a couple of lads over on Glory-Glory will categorically deny Bent; he is able to make himself one of the biggest nuisances in the league for all types of centre backs. Stealing positions to hold or running into wider channels to make the supply for hold up play easier (something that “The Master” Berbatov does will so much success) all highlight the instinctive intelligence Bent has as a footballer to adapt his lesser than gigantic frame to make his hold up play one of the better ones in the league….certainly better than ALL of our strikers at this precise moment except for Berbatov.
Darren bent is probably faster than all of our current strikers at the moment including Defoe and Keane; he’s also probably a better leaper than ALL of our current strikers except for maybe Mido. Right now Tottenham don’t have a single striker that offers both dangerous pace and power that can give us the option to make our more direct approach very effective on a regular basis. His pace and wide channel movement would worry the stronger /slower / more physical defenders and his strength / leaping ability / hold up play would worry the more finesse and quicker defenders for most teams.
What positives do you get with Bent?
- Balance on the striker rotation: - There is a evidence that Defoe and Keane cannot work together on a regular basis. You could probably count the number of times on 1 hand that they have excelled as a striking partnership for a majority of a game. Defoe can work with Berbatov but this is mainly because the partner of Defoe has to do most of the donkey work in the supplying department, Berbatov can do this if he has to because Berbatov can do everything. He’s an excellent striker gifted beyond anything the premiership has the moment. The supply appears to be one way traffic but to be fair Defoe does try harder and has improved in his link up work over the years and probably attempts to supply Berbatov just as much as Berbatov supplies him. This still doesn’t take away that Berbatov’s role becomes more confined to doing the brunt of the physical work both on the last line and when he drops deeper. Darren bent on the other hand would provide the option of doing a lot more physical work on the offensive end than both Keane and Defoe which would relieve the need for Berbatov to do so. This pairing will allow for a much more fluid and role defined relationship between the two strikers whenever either of the players decides to take up a position on the shoulder of the last man, in the wider channels or when dropping deep. Bents versatility also makes it easier for him to play with either Keane or Defoe. Tottenham would then possess a SECOND player in their ranks capable of playing with ANYONE in the front line (Berbatov being the first)
- Versatility:- Bent can play as a lone striker, can play as a target man , can play off the shoulder of the last defender, has fantastic movement (makes both selfish and unselfish runs with relative ease), can score with both feet (though there is a clear preference for the right foot), is an aerial threat and finally can score from inside and outside the box
- Game winner:- Bent had one less game winning goal than our game winning leader Berbatov and Bent has a knack for scoring goals in those periods that we wish we could kill off teams, half of his goals have come between the 70th to 90th minutes of a game
- Consistency: - He has passed the test of being labelled a one season wonder. Over the past two seasons he has been in the premiership he has accumulated enough goals to make him the highest scoring English man in the premiership, surpassed only by Drogba and Henry. His shots to goal ratio according to Actim Stats for the season 05/06 was 2.67 shots to every goal and this season it was 3.3 shots to every goal
- Keeps the team’s Momentum going: - It’s very simple, when Berbatov isn’t playing, we don’t do as well on most occasions. As such keeping the momentum becomes very important. We probably won’t do as well with Bent coming in for Berbatov but we should certainly do better than a Keane and Defoe partnership or a Keane/ Defoe and Mido of 2006/07 season partnership. Points that would have been dropped would be less likely to be dropped with a good player that can shift into Berbatov’s team sheet slot. Three strikers that working together in any pairing would mimic the trio of Yorke , Sheringham and Cole for United in that all three could play with each other to a very high standard , keeping the goals flowing, the wins coming and 3 points always a good possibility.
Bents possible inclusion brings about the question
“What about Defoe?”
Defoe used to appear invincible and every touch threatened to be a goal. It started out under Santini and carried on for a short period through Jol’s era, before Jol tried to expand Defoe’s natural game because at the time we were playing to the tune of a one man striking team which was obviously not the way Jol wanted to proceed. Until then Defoe was the focal point of most our attacks. An unselfish partner like Kanoute was imperative to allow Defoe’s strengths to be utilised as he would look to hold up first and bring other into the game especially Defoe. The team would benefit from the exceptional support role performances of Kanoute while Defoe would increase his goal tally as the main striker. Jol working on Defoe’s supporting play and making him work for the team was where the deadly striker appeared to fall short and couldn’t incorporate both styles of play into one.
Darren Bent is precisely this striker that Jol wants, a more natural and instinctive finished article of the kind of player Jol intended for Defoe. Bent is the fast and agile predatory striker like Defoe more than capable of doing the donkey work for the rest of the team and his strike partner in a similar way to King Kanoute. Sir Alex Ferguson recognised the need for a player like this with his record breaking purchase of Andy Cole and paying close to 20 million for Ruud Van Nistelrooy...and most likely Damien Commilli and Martin Jol recognise this as well. I fear that Jermain Defoe could fall down another place in striker rotation, ideally he should see this as a challenge and fight for his place, this is what many certainly hope for, but in reality it may signal Defoe's daparture as it could signal even less minutes for him and more minutes for a player that is in direct competion with Defoe and others for place in the England squad.
Of course it wouldn’t be right to ignore the possible downsides to this deal though there should be no reason at all to dwell on them. What could possibly be the downside of the deal?
- The Price: - There is a lot of money going around in the Premiership thanks to the TV deals, plus the prices of successfully tested English premiership players are raised thanks to an inflated market. Combine these two factors with a rich club and what you have is a selling club holding out for as much money as they can get. Should we bow down to the pressure?
- Uneven spread of transfer capital: - Would there be enough money to purchase the top level players we might need in other more urgent positions?
· His Technical ability :- May not be as high as say Berbatov or Keane's, but whose to say it wont improve with us as Andy Cole’s did when he joined united….
· His playing style:-May not be able to execute the "number 10" or “Bergkamp” type passes for his partners / rest of the team in the same way as Keane or Berbatov.
· Berbatov doing midfield chasing? :-A worrying possibility to a Bent / Berbatov partnership would be that one of Bent or Berbatov be required to drop into the early midfield ranks for defensive purposes as Jol likes with Keane. Not easy to tell how successful either will be at doing this.
The positives from a personal humble opinion outweigh the negatives. All in all Bent would be a very welcome addition and is clearly a top 4 calibre player, he may not be fanciful or graceful with the ball at his feet and he may not have a sexy South American ring to his name like Bentinho but the man can put the ball in the back of the net. With hopefully even more games to play in the coming season losing Berbatov for a game here and there shouldn’t stop us pilling on the wins.
So here's hoping that the Bent deal goes through....................