Bruce confident Darren Bent will make World Cup squad
Nov 6 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal
Bent has won four England caps, but lost his way in two years at Spurs where he struggled to hold down a regular starting berth. His confidence suffered as a result, but Bruce always knew he would flourish if he was playing for the right manager.
He said: “His record, though he hadn’t played a lot for Spurs, still stands up. I will never forget the season at Charlton – for me he should have gone to the World Cup when he (Sven Goran Eriksson) took (Theo) Walcott instead. He had 22 goals for Charlton when they got relegated, which is quite an unbelievable achievement. I have always liked him from the first time I saw him.
“Darren Bent is good in the air, he is quick, he works hard and he is probably a better footballer than I thought he was. And he is young and he was desperate to do well, so all those attributes appealed to me.
“Did I nick him at £10m? I don’t know. Is £10m nicked? But make no mistake, the whole deal adds up to £15m and we’ll get there because it is all related to goals, England appearances and this that and the other. At the time for me I had never paid £10m for a player so it is a colossal sum of money to me.”
Bent has been ignored by Capello so far this season, despite his excellent form for the Wearsiders where he has scored eight goals in 11 appearances. But, with West Ham’s Carlton Cole picking up a hamstring problem this week the 25-year-old could finally get an opportunity to impress the national coach in the friendly against Brazil in Qatar next weekend. Bruce said: “He obviously wants to get in there. The kid wants to play for England. I don’t know whether he will get his chance, whether it opens up a door.
“I hope so for Darren’s sake. If not, he will just have to keep plugging away. There’s is always one that comes through and Theo Walcott was the last one at Darren’s expense I believe. He’s got to make sure he stays focused.
“We’re getting into November now and there’s still a pile (of games) to go. Somebody will come out of nowhere and grab a place.
“I think he (Capello) knows 16 of them. There’s probably seven places up for grabs.”
