Here is a clip from a respected journo with The Times. Might be of interest to Lookingbackwards who may have to bare his **** in Fenwick's window after all.
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Quote:
Bent delivers striking case for England call-up
George Caulkin
THIS column rarely deals in facts. More often, it deals in emotion, conjecture, rumour, North East bias, low-grade humour, whimsy and annoyance. Frequently, it deals in errgror. Sorry, I mean error. There are some facts, however, that cannot be ignored and Darren Bent’s goalscoring record for Sunderland has long since approached that point, reached it and vaulted over it. So, this week ... the facts, ma’am; just the facts.
This is officially Darren Bent’s most productive season in the Barclays Premier League. Courtesy of the brace he nabbed against Birmingham City, the striker now has 20 league goals to his name, two more than the 18 he plundered for Charlton Athletic in 2005-06. In so doing, he became the first Sunderland player to reach that milestone since Kevin Phillips a decade earlier.
Ahead of Wednesday night’s match at Aston Villa, Bent had not missed a league game since joining Sunderland, meaning that he has been a paragon of reliability as well as prolificness. Over the course of a campaign that has seen his club spend the past three months in the bottom half of the table and fretting about relegation, he has not endured a longer spell of three league appearances without scoring.
Bent’s interventions matter. No player in the division has scored more often in the opening 15 minutes of games than he has, at a time when his opponents should theoretically be fit and fresh. He 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 is the only Englishman in the Premier League to have struck with greater regularity than Bent this season and while Rooney is amongst the best players in the world, he also plays for what the league table says is the country’s best team. Even when Sunderland endured a spell of 14 games without a victory, Bent contributed six goals; in four of those matches, they directly earned draws.
Rooney has mustered 26 goals in a league that is described with monotonous regularity as the world’s best. Of the other four strikers Fabio Capello selected for international duty in the recent friendly against Egypt, Jermain Defoe has 17, including five against Wigan Athletic and three against Hull City, Carlon 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.
But form is not everything and, often in the past, mediocre players have enjoyed the type of seasons when everything they touch flies into the net and have afterwards settled back into comfortable anonymity. You cannot pick a World Cup squad, for instance, solely on the basis of good form, no matter how impressive, and we would do well to consider the merits of class.
So ... In the four years since Germany 2006, Bent has made 122 league appearances for Charlton Athletic, Tottenham Hotspur 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).
Right, I’m all facted out (or should that be fact off?) and if you’re beginning to sniff the merest hint of an agenda here, then I’ll hold my hands up and doff my hat (it’s not easy to do both at once). Having spelt out some truths, it’s time to re-embrace bias. You’re absolutely and completely right. I do think Darren Bent should be on the plane to South Africa this summer. No question, no hesitation.
There are people who argue that a forward’s art is about more than a goals-to-game ratio. This column fully agrees. Ten years watching Alan Shearer at Newcastle United was a privilege, but also an education; as well as blistering goals, tap-ins, penalties and headers, points are hoarded through shielding the ball in the dying seconds, winning a timely free kick, defending at corners. Through character and determination.
You can see why Capello, as other England managers before him, would seek out a Heskey or a Crouch, whose varying degrees of height, power or just plain unusualness present defenders with something different and difficult to think about. But then Bent is far from being just a goalscorer and nothing else. There is an edge to his game and deeper dimensions.
Bent’s two years at Spurs were not only a test of his character, but also of his adaptability. “We tended to play with me up there and Robbie Keane just behind,” he has said, and although he admitted “it didn’t quite work” he stuck at it. During a difficult period, he also kept knocking in goals. He views himself as “the first line of defence”, working his opponents, harrying for the ball and running into channels when searching for possession.
The 26-year-old has certainly reveled in reversing that Spurs role at Sunderland, where Kenwyne Jones serves as the primary target-man. Yet in the five league games that Jones has missed this season, Bent has scored five times, which does not imply overdependence on a regular strike-partner. He has also played up front alongside Benjani, Fraizer Campbell or even alone.
A question which Capello must consider is the one he must also dread; what happens if Rooney is injured, ill or suspended (we’ve had a minor taster of that this week)? Against the best teams in the nation, in circumstances good or bad, repeatedly and consistently, at meaningful moments, 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 does 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.
Kevin Phillips spoke last weekend about the geographical isolation which makes it more challenging for North East-based players to break into the England squad. He, of course, should know, but that is no longer an acceptable excuse; ours is a small country anyway and saturation media coverage makes it smaller still. Bent has form, quality and history in his armoury and moving to Sunderland has set him free. Fact
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