Darren Bent Signs for Tottenham
Charlton Athletic Transfer England Striker to Spurs for £16.5million
Darren Bent, the Charlton Athletic and England international striker has signed for Tottenham Hotspur for a club record £16.5 million - their fifth international striker.
Darren Bent has signed for Tottenham Hotspur for a club record £16.5 million. Spurs have been eager to sign Bent for some time and had enquired about his availability in the January transfer window but a combination of injury to the player and Charlton Athletic wanting to keep their star player as they battled against relegation meant that no deal was concluded.
Darren Bent at Charlton Athletic
Charlton Athletic signed Bent from Ipswich Town in June, 2005 for £2.5 million and in his two seasons at the club he scored 32 goals. He made an immediate impression in his first season in the Premier League scoring 18 goals but injury during last season reduced his number of appearances. He has made two appearances for England but wasn’t included in Sven Goran Eriksson’s final World Cup squad last summer and has only appeared once under new manager Steve McLaren.
Competition to Sign Bent
Since Charlton’s relegation from the Premier League was confirmed, there has been much speculation about which club would sign Darren Bent. Tottenham, West Ham and Liverpool were known to be interested but Charlton set a high valuation on their player.
West Ham United, intent on putting last season’s relegation scrap behind them, and with former Charlton manager, Alan Curbishley, in charge seemed to have made the break through. They agreed a fee with Charlton and had talks with the player but were turned down in spite of their reported £75,000/week salary. Bent wanted a club where his England prospects would be improved and seemed to indicate that he preferred Tottenham.
Any Liverpool interest was tempered with the fact that they were also looking at foreign players and their recent move for Fernando Torres left Bent as an outsider.
Bent Signs for Spurs
Meanwhile Spurs eventually reached agreement with Charlton and Bent moved to White Hart Lane, accepting a lower salary that had been on offer from West Ham. He joins that increasing group of English players at Spurs and he also joins a strike force that would satisfy the supporters of most clubs - Dimitar Berbatov, the Bulgarian international, Robbie Keane who recently signed a new five year contract at Tottenham, Jermain Defoe the England international and Egyptian international, Mido.
Martin Jol, the Tottenham manager was keen to sign Darren Bent whom he expects to form an exciting partnership with Berbatov.
Five International Strikers at White Hart Lane
With five international strikers, it is expected that there will be departures from Tottenham – with Mido and Defoe the most likely to leave White Hart Lane. One other possibility is that Berbatov could leave for a Champions League team. Manchester United are known to be interested but Spurs will fend off all possible approaches. Mido has only played a bit-part at Spurs since the arrival of Berbatov and as he almost joined Manchester City in a last minute deal in January, it is most likely that he will be transferred. Fulham had a bid accepted but wouldn’t meet the players wage demands.
Defoe was third choice striker at Tottenham for most of last season, with Jol preferring Keane as partner for Berbatov. It was a frustrating season for him with many substitute appearances and only brief cameo roles for a player who is anxious to break into the England team. Defoe has many admirers but will they want to meet Spurs asking price for the player who has two years left on his contract? He may leave if a top club comes for him but otherwise may remain at White Hart Lane and fight for his place.
Future Aspirations for Bent and Tottenham
Darren Bent hopes that his arrival at Spurs will improve his international prospects as he benefits from the experience of playing in European competition with Spurs competing in the UEFA Cup this season. The transfer fee is a huge investment by the club as they strive to break into the top four cartel of English football dominated for the past number of years by United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.
