SOCCER:THE FAST-fast fading love affair between Darren Bent and Sunderland is likely to come to a formal end with the completion of the striker's transfer to Aston Villa.
Although Sunderland rejected Villa’s initial €21.5 million bid for Bent yesterday and say they are holding out for a sum in excess of €23 million, sources close to the deal last night suggested there was an “inevitability” about the record-breaking move.
Significantly it has emerged that Bent, who has scored 32 goals in 58 Premier League appearances since joining the Wearside club from Tottenham Hotspur, first asked for a transfer last summer. This request – which shattered assumptions about his previously professed adoration for Sunderland – was rejected and hushed up but resubmitted two hours after the end of the 1-1 draw with Newcastle United at the Stadium of Light on Sunday.
By then Bent, who considering he will celebrate his 27th birthday next month and has two and a half years remaining on his contract is approaching peak value, was aware of a Villa offer which had been on the table for nearly a week.
As the two clubs began haggling over a fee and assorted add-ons, the striker was left waiting for permission to travel to Birmingham, meet Gerard Houllier, Villa’s manager, and discuss a switch which would comfortably break the Midlands club’s €14 million record transfer.
Houllier, who is also pursuing the Wigan Athletic left back Maynor Figueroa, has effectively received a huge endorsement from Randy Lerner, Villa’s owner, and his board. Despite the club’s current position one place above the relegation zone, Villa sources indicate their faith in Martin O’Neill’s successor remains unshaken. Only months after O’Neill resigned in exasperation at Lerner’s implementation of a perceived sell-to-buy policy all the indications are the American is ready to splash serious cash as he aims to put Villa back on course for Europe.
Lerner has also resolved to resist offers for Ashley Young and Stewart Downing this month. Instead Young, targeted by Liverpool, and Downing, wanted by Sunderland, are regarded as essential to providing adequate service for Bent. Undaunted by the fact his goals have dried up a little of late, Houllier is conscious the striker has recently lacked service from midfield.
On the pitch, a player keen to be closer to his Cambridgeshire-based family has lately looked out of sorts and struggled to form an attacking partnership with Sunderland’s €15.5 million Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan and the Manchester United loanee Danny Welbeck.
While Bent hopes his ambitions of establishing himself in the England side may be better served by joining Villa, Niall Quinn, Sunderland’s chairman, knows Lerner’s offer for an unhappy player who cost €12 million 18 months ago will be difficult to turn down. Quinn frequently recounts the story of how Bob Murray, his predecessor at Sunderland, rejected a €19 million bid for Kevin Phillips only to sell the striker to Southampton for €3.5 million less than two years later. He has repeatedly vowed not to make a similar mistake.
