No price for loyalty

As the news broke on Monday lunch time that Darren Bent was heading for a medical at Aston Villa after Sunderland had accepted an offer of £18 million rising to a staggering £24 million, my first reaction was to check Twitter to see if he had tweeted about his move. Of course I was not expecting another F-word rant from Bent that earnt him a £120,000 fine for his outburst against Daniel Levy when moving from Spurs to Wearside.

On July 30^th 2009 Bent tweeted "Do I wanna  go Hull City NO. Do I wanna  go Stoke NO.  Do I wanna go Sunderland YES. So stop f*****g around, Levy. Why can't anything be simple? It's so frustrating hanging round doing jack s**t. Seriously getting p***ed off now. Sunderland are not the problem in the slightest."

After handing in a transfer request following Sunday`s 1-1 draw with Newcastle, I`d imagine the loyal Sunderland fans would have been asking their own questions about his loyalty with some strong words for his motives themselves.   

Perhaps when Aston Villa were challenging for a place in the Champions League under previous manager Martin’O Neill then maybe Randy Lerner splashing 18 million on a striker who has scored goals wherever he has been including Ipswich, Charlton and Tottenham would not have been met with such shock and confusion.

Some will say it is a sideways step as Villa languishes 4^th from bottom in the Premiership and only a couple of weeks ago entered the relegation zone for the first time since 2002. Gerard Houiller then became under increased pressure as his team lost 2-1 to fierce rivals Birmingham City in the Carling Cup Quarter finals.

Looking at the bigger picture though and Bent has moved to a club with great tradition, history, a set of supporters who will sing and applaud his name if he does the business on the pitch and least not forgetting that he has doubled his weekly wage from £40,000 to £80,000. Previous manager Roy Keane said that Wearside is a hard place to attract players to come to and it seems Steve Bruce has found out the hard way.   

Sunderland supporters were becoming concerned with his recent form, no coincidence that Bent had got a sniff of the interest in him from Villa and abroad. It wasn`t that long ago that Bent said he could see himself staying at Sunderland for many years to come. A similar situation to the Wayne Rooney saga which ended up in him earning £250,000 at Manchester United, the only difference being that when players leave Old Trafford, not many prosper, whereas Bent who leaves the Stadium of Light for Villa Park will thrive on service from Ashley Young and Marc Albrighton.

Good business all round seems to be the mood from both clubs with Aston Villa getting a proven striker in the Premiership, although not at International level. If Aston Villa were to be relegated then with staggering wage bills the club would be crippled and forced to sell their star names so if Bent scores the goals to climb the table, £18 million will seem a bargain.    

Sunderland have nearly doubled their money they paid Spurs and now can reinvest that money in buying 3 or 4 quality players to bolster a team in a strong position for Europe. Some of the Sunderland faithful may question the purchase of Asamoah Gyan for £12 million pounds in the summer if the club was not financially stable.

When at Spurs, manager Harry Redknapp said that his wife Sandra could have scored some of the chances that Bent missed at White Hart Lane, Randy Lerner will hope that Bent doesn’t fancy another Twitter rant come the end of the season.