Darren Bent – England’s Best

It seems that popular opinion amongst England fans is that Darren Bent is not good enough to play for England. I heard over the weekend him described by my own father as in the same class as David Nugent. Only when I relayed some facts about Darren’s record did my Dad stop in his tracks and even, rather stupidly, question the credibility of my stats. Now as we all know by now I don’t profess to be John Motson, of course not, i am better than him.

If Fabio Capello takes an England side to the World cup that does not include Sunderland’s top marksmen it would be a tragic injustice that makes a mockery out of the adage, ‘the players in best form get picked.’ And here is a sample of what I mean.

In football you cannot argue with the facts. Manchester United have been the best side in England for twenty years because they have won the most trophies in that time. Fact. Manchester City are the richest club in the world, you only have to look at their bank balance for proof. Fact. No one really cares that Chelsea are out of the Champions League because no one likes John Terry. Fact.

Now Wayne Rooney is in the form of his life (Fact. OK I’ll stop, I wouldn't want to sound like Rafa), proving in the game against AC Milan that he is, right now, the best out and out centre forward in the world. Last season he was used as a striker who played off a target man, whether it be Berbatov or Ronaldo. This year Rooney is the main man and it is paying dividends. His prolific goal scoring form is the result of this change of position.

Now are we seriously saying that come June and England’s big World Cup kick off against the USA, Fabio is going to take the world class Rooney and revert him back to playing as a striker off a target man? Are we seriously saying that target man should be Emile Heskey? If you are you answered yes you’re a either a cricket fan who is annoyed the World Cup is interrupting what is to everyone else a boring summer of test cricket that even the England cricket players would prefer not to be playing in so they could Watch England in South Africa, or you are German. England should have learnt by now that to progress in major tournaments we need to score goals. In all three of the last quarter finals, England have been undone by the fact they could only score once and failed from the penalty spot.

Now to make this point clear let me underling some more FACT.

Darren Bent has not missed a league game since joining Sunderland, meaning that he has been a paragon of reliability as well as his prolific goal scoring. In a Sunderland side that went a staggering 14 games without winning, Bent has never gone more than 3 games without finding the back of the net despite playing in a side hampered by injuries to their most creative players.

Bent has scored more goals in the opening fifteen minutes of games then any other player in the Premiership. So we can rule out the myth that he is a slow starter like, say, Emile Heskey?

This season Bent has scored goals against Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool - who still like to be known as the Big Four - and other top-10 sides in Everton and Birmingham City.

Wayne Rooney has fired home 26 goals in a league that is described as the world’s best, the only English striker to have netted more than Bent.

Of the other four strikers Fabio Capello selected for international duty in the recent friendly against Egypt, Jermaine Defoe has 17, including five against Wigan Athletic and three against Hull City meaning he has scored 9 goals in 27 games – is that good enough? Carlton Cole has nine, Peter Crouch has five and Emile Heskey three.

So, in terms of form - and certainly in the context of the difficulties confronted by the club he represents - Bent’s record not only stands comparison with those of his peers, it is actually far superior, Rooney aside. Crouch’s league goals have come against Birmingham, Wigan, Blackburn Rovers and Fulham and Heskey’s against Burnley and Sunderland.

Now there will still be some skeptics amongst you that will claim Bent is a mediocre player having a good season simply because he is the number one striker. Wrong. Since World Cup 2006, no other English striker has scored more times in the Premier League then Darren Bent.

Bent has made 122 league appearances for Charlton Athletic, Tottenham Hotspur (most as a sub) and Sunderland, scoring 51 goals. Over the same period, Defoe’s tallies are 119 and 49, Crouch’s is 121 and 29, Cole has amassed 25 goals from 97 games and Heskey has 20 from 120. From Rooney’s 121 fixtures, he has scored 64 times (Michael Owen’s is 22 in 79).

Still not won you over? Well how about the fact that Bent is far from being just a goalscorer and nothing else. There is an edge to his game and deeper dimensions. Bent is a constant menace to centre halves, running the channels, winning headers. A point proven by the fact that in the five league games that target man Kenwyne Jones has missed this season, Bent has scored five times, which does not imply over dependence on a regular strike-partner.
Bent has proved capable of scoring goals. He is also a model professional, enthusiastic and eager to succeed, both for club and country.

Five international caps do not represent a fair examination of his qualities, nor does the 55 minutes he spent toiling in Qatar for November’s friendly against Brazil. As always, Bent will keep plugging away, but it would be nice to think that Capello might travel to Wearside - as he did for the Chelsea game in August - before the end of the season, if for no other reason than to offer Bent some deserved recognition.

On Wearside we have already had one of the greatest English strikers never to wear the three lions consistently in Kevin Philips. It is hard to know exactly what more Darren Bent has to do to ensure he doesn’t double our figure. I don’t buy the nonsense stereotype that because he is at Sunderland he won’t get picked. Having just seen Carlton Cole’s performance for West Ham let me tell you, even in Sunderland’s darkest days this season, Bent has been head and shoulders above him and is playing for a bigger club. All I will say, is if England are just moments away from the World Cup Final in Johannesburg and need to score, who do you trust going through one on one to score for England, Peter Crouch, Emile Heskey, Carlton Cole or Darren Bent?

Now it is suggested that in recent history great strikers have never been selected for World Cups. Ian Wright, Andy Cole, Les Ferdinand, Kevin Philips and now it seems Darren Bent. what is most surprising about the fact that England's top marksmen have never been selected is that it is not as though England have been doing so remarkably well that they haven't been able to get a chance. I mean, had Ian Wright had the chance in the Euro 96 semi-final that Gazza had, would he have scored? 99.9% of me thinks yes. If we have goal scorers at our disposal, and a system that has never produced a winning side, then why don't we change it to accomodate our most prized assets?

Sir Geoff Hurst remains the only man to ever score a hatrick in the world cup final, but before that he could barely get a game for West Ham. He was also rarely used for England, yet he was a natural goals corer. Had he been around today, conventional wisdom would suggest Hurst would never have been in the England squad let alone picked to play in the final. We can only hope Fabio Capello doesn’t overlook England’s most dangerous marksmen.

Then again in the modern day, perhaps Bent has more chance if he stops scoring, grows another foot, sleeps with Anton Ferdinand’s missus, is caught out in strip clubs to the earlier hours of the morning, texts prostitutes naked photos of himself, sleeps with his kids nanny, fails a drugs test, sleeps with a granny prostitute or marries Danielle Lloyd.


By Gavin Callaghan