Bent backed to transform lowly Aston Villa
While the belief of many is that a heavier pay packet was what convinced Darren Bent to leave Sunderland for Aston Villa, the striker claims that his motives were purely football-related, the implication being that he views Villa is the bigger club of the two.
The evidence of the last three campaigns supports Bent's stance, as Aston Villa finished all three in the top six, whereas Sunderland followed their return to the Premier League under Roy Keane with three seasons spent in the bottom half, with at least a skirmish with relegation a feature of all three.
It's been a different story this year though, as the sudden departure of Martin O'Neill has seen Villa sink from Champions League contention to a relegation battle, and they currently sit nervously above the bottom three after Gerard Houllier's poor start.
A dozen points higher, in the top-six territory that has so often been the midlands side's domain in recent seasons, Sunderland have lost just five of their first 23 games and are hopeful of exploiting the unexpected struggles of Villa, Liverpool and Everton by qualifying for Europe at [4.5].
Another theory as to why Bent left is that while he was the undoubted star of the Stadium of Light show in his first campaign, the impressive form of new arrivals Asamoah Gyan and Danny Welbeck had lessened his importance, while Steve Bruce no longer set up his team simply to play to Bent's strengths.
In fairness to Bent, one thing he could point to as an indicator of Villa's grandeur is that very few clubs can afford to splash out £18 million on one player and Betfair punters have certainly been impressed by their ambition. They were [3.1] to go down when the rumour first broke but are now out to [6.8].
Has Bent made a shrewd move? Will the forward keep Villa up? He's [3.35] to be top English goalscorer despite trailing former north-east rival Andy Carroll by three...
Published: 19 Jan 2011
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