Darren Bent becoming lost in the wilderness?

            Darren Bent is a player that has paid his dues at several clubs varying in levels but he’s never been too far away from the top flight with stints at Ipswich, Charlton, Tottenham and a particularly prolific spell at Sunderland scoring 32 goals in 58 appearances between 2009 and January 2011.

This form led then Aston villa manager Gerard Houllier to bid £18 million for the striker to bolster their own attacking options in the January transfer window which was rejected this upset Bent who wanted to consider the move. This led to him submitting a transfer request and when Villa returned with an improved offer that could rise to £24 million, Sunderland had no choice but to let him go.

After moving to the club Bent scored 9 goals in 16 appearances for Villa to end the season as Villa’s joint top scorer this filled Villa fans with optimism that he would pay back the huge Sum invested in him. In the following season Bent again finished as the clubs top scorer despite missing the last three months of the season with ruptured ligaments after he suffered an awkward fall against Wigan. This injury also meant Darren Bent would miss out on selection for Roy Hodgson’s Euro 2012 squad.  

 Following a tough season Aston Villa sacked Alex McLeish after just one season and in came former Norwich man Paul Lambert. Stiliyan Petrov the club captain was unfortunately diagnosed with leukaemia which means he is unable to take part in this season which left the team without a captain.

Darren Bent was chosen by Paul Lambert to take over the captaincy in an interim capacity, however he only held this role for a month until Dutchman Ron Vlaar was appointed captain for the 2-0 win over Swansea in September. Bent then lost his starting place to new signing Christian Benteke who impressed in a midweek cup draw against Man City.

Since then the Belgian has taken a firm grasp of the starting spot as Bent has fallen further out of favour with Lambert. He has been omitted from the last two match squads against both Arsenal and Reading which has led to questions about the player’s future at the club. Bent apparently even tried to leave the ground on Wednesday night after finding out he wasn’t in the squad.

Bent’s temperament has been questioned in the past and his work rate and dedication have also been issues that have been questioned and this may be the problem here, but it can’t be denied that Bent is a talent that can only improve a side.

Despite the forward being left out, Paul Lambert states that he has ‘no problem whatsoever’ with the player and he says he does have a future at the club. Speculation continues to grow however that Bent is unhappy and will seek football elsewhere, if he is continually left out. There have been rumours of a cut price deal or loan with an option to but to Liverpool which would certainly be something for Brendan Rodgers to think about who has striking problems of his own.

Bent is a player that has proved himself to be a good quality goal scorer and an obvious talent and he should be entering the peak of his career moving into his late twenty’s early thirties but without the first team football he craves he will struggle to gain any sort of form.

The arrival of Christian Benteke at the club has obviously unsettled the strikers position at the club and it now seems that he has become out of favour with Lambert but only people on the inside of the club may know why the two’s relationship has deteriorated to this point.  At this point he may be forced to look elsewhere for first team football.