Signed on this day is former #SAFC striker Darren Bent. Bent was Prolific in his two years on Wearside, notching 36 goals in 63 games, averaging almost a goal every two games, though he is mostly remembered for that goal against Liverpool.
When Sunderland first approached in July of 2009 the deal seemed to go on for a bit, and Darren accused Tottenham Chairman Daniel Levy of halting his move to Wearside, so he took it to social media and then the deal was completed shortly after. He admitted that it was a mistake but he felt like that was the main reason the move was completed, so thank god he did it.
We signed him for £15 million after he had an impressive season with the aforementioned club, Tottenham Hotspur, he ended the 2008/09 season with 17 goals to his name. But even after finishing as Spurs’ top goalscorer that season he was still out of favour at the London side, so when an opportunity came to play with “less politics” he went for it.
It was a match made in heaven, Bent scored on his debut against Bolton in a 1-0 win in the Premier League, and then he scored again in the game after which was against Chelsea in a 3-1 loss.
In his first ten games of the season he found the back of the net on eight occasions and he even set three up too. It was already looking like a shrewd bit of business and a memorable time for Sunderland fans to look back on the time Darren Bent was tearing up the Premier League in the famous red and white stripes.
In one of those first ten matches Darren scored a goal which I can bet my house on will never happen again, mainly thanks to VAR but also because every football fan is terrified to bring a beach ball to a football game now. Cheers Darren.
We hosted Liverpool at the Sol. They were a talented side, but we were on a hot streak and it felt like everything Bent touched went in, and honestly it did. Bent shot right at Pepe Reina but thanks to a genius Liverpool fan who threw a bright red beach ball onto the pitch we somehow scored. Bent’s shot collided with the beach ball and Reina tried to save the wrong ball, thanks to there being no VAR and the officials being blind the goal stood. What makes it even funnier is even though Liverpool fans and players argued the decision to let the goal stand there was one glaring issue, the ball was thrown into the Liverpool box by a LIVERPOOL fan, oh and the ball had a massive LFC badge on it.
It’s fair to say Darren had some memorable games in his first season, whether that was because he scored a good goal, a bad goal (look away Reina) or even a game where he scored two goals but could have scored four. We were playing Bent’s old club, Tottenham, and he managed to score a brace whilst missing two penalties. We won the game 3-1 anyway so it didn’t hurt too much. Regardless of that he ended the season rightfully as our Player Of The Season after he accounted for 50% of our goals in the Prem. It was some year for the Englishman, and even though he didn’t win the Golden Boot he finished the campaign scoring more goals than some of the most elite footballers in the world at the time, he had netted more than the likes of Carlos Tevez and Fernando Torres.
Bent started the following season well, he was still grabbing goals every game or so but he wouldn’t stay with us for the entire duration of the 2010/11 season. He caught wind of a potential big money move and in the winter he made the switch to Aston Villa. Bent was adored by the fans, and he repaid that by leaving the club to go to Villa for what Niall Quinn called a "substantial pay-rise". He left us to chase the money, and in typical Sunderland fashion relegated us to the third division several years later while playing for Burton Albion.
Regardless of how he left, his time at Sunderland was great, I just wish it had gone on for a little bit longer. He never really managed to recapture the form he had at Sunderland and the injuries he suffered didn’t help that, he still grabbed a few goals but in comparison to how prolific he was with us he was a different player. I suppose one good thing that came from it was that, in an extremely rare turn of events, the club actually made some profit on him and actually used it pretty well by signing the likes of Asamoah Gyan and Simon Mignolet.
