By Ollie Irish
The Midlands, here I come
Looks very much like Aston Villa will sign striker Darren Bent from Sunderland this week, for a reported fee of £18m – Sunderland have apparently accepted Villa’s bid, and now Bent only has to agree personal terms (own car-park space etc.) and pass a medical. Who saw this coming!?
Objectively, that is A LOT of money for a player of Bent’s calibre. But the fee is moot, ultimately. The most important thing to remember here: Villa’s current crop of goalscorers is not very good at scoring goals; whereas Bent is pretty good at scoring goals, as he’s proved in the Premier League, and so he is exactly what Villa need – as such, £18m might prove to be a perfectly reasonable price for Bent. And can you see Villa attracting anyone better at that price? I can’t.
An Opta stat morsel: Since August 2005 Bent has scored 81 Premier League goals. Only Wayne Rooney and Didier Drogba (82) have scored more goals in the same period. Impressive.
One can also guess that Sunderland are about to make Danny Welbeck’s loan move permanent, and perhaps Jordan Henderson will move to Old Trafford as part of that equation. After all, we know that Fergie is a big fan of the young English midfielder.
What do you think of this business?