YOU ASK THE QUESTIONS
DARREN BENT
“I like Theo Walcott, but being left out of the World Cup for him felt like a slap in the face. He hadn’t even made his debut for Arsenal”
Interview Chris Flanagan
w hen England begin their Euro 2020 campaign this month, Darren Bent will spare a thought for the players whose dreams were dashed at the last moment. While the squad prepares at St George’s Park, others will be sat back at home, disconsolate after missing out on selection for the tournament. Bent knows that feeling all too well: few players have been quite as unlucky as he was.
The marksman netted 106 Premier League goals in his career – 24 of them in a single season, with Sunderland in 2009-10, but even that didn’t earn him a call-up for the 2010 World Cup.
It had been a similar story four years earlier, when the top flight’s leading English goalscorer saw a 17-year-old Theo Walcott go to Germany 2006 in his place, and then play zero minutes. There have been few more surprising selections in English sporting history.
Bent never did go to a tournament with the Three Lions. Now, aged 37 and working as a pundit for talkSPORT, he is ready to reflect on his career and tackle FourFourTwo readers’ questions. As well as those England heartbreaks, he has a few things to say about beach balls, infamous tweets, and the day he was unfavourably compared to Harry Redknapp’s missus…
I met your father once and we had a really good conversation about his time following Chelsea. Are you also a Chelsea fan?
George Downs, via Instagram
No, I’m not! He’s a massive Chelsea supporter, and I remember him taking me there as a surprise for my first ever game. He said, “I’m going to take you somewhere” –I asked if it was Chelsea, and he said no. We were driving over there and I said, “Dad, I can see the floodlights – are we going to Chelsea?” He still said no! I was very young and he managed to fool me the whole way until we got inside the turnstiles.
He’d take me to sit in the Matthew Harding Stand or the Shed Lower, but Ian Wright was my big hero. I grew up in Crystal Palace territory and when Wright signed for Arsenal, I was an Arsenal fan through and through. My dad has been trying to get my kids to support Chelsea. It’s such a joke! Every single birthday and Christmas, it’s full Chelsea kits, Chelsea dressing gowns, water bottles, lunch boxes, pyjamas, pencil cases... he’s trying his hardest!
Is it true that you were a good long jumper growing up?
Annabel Parker,
Southwold
That is true. I did athletics for England as a youngster and it got to the point where I had to choose one: I couldn’t be long jumping and playing football, because of injuries. I chose football, but I loved athletics as a kid and I still do. Whenever it’s on TV, I’ll always sit down and watch it.
Did you enjoy coming through the Ipswich youth system? How did you find the step up to the first team?
@spursdab, via Twitter
I loved it. Ipswich was perfect for me [below] and I had the perfect manager because George Burley’s motto was, ‘If you’re good enough, you’re old enough’. I began training with the first team at 16 and made my debut at 17, against Helsingborg in the UEFA Cup – the only annoying thing is that I had an unbelievable chance to score and didn’t bloody take it! They were some of the best times. We played Inter and I travelled with the first team to San Siro, watching Ronaldo come back, and Christian Vieri. And scoring my first goal was an unbelievable feeling, even though we were 4-0 down at St James’ Park! Everything just felt right for me at Ipswich. I still look at that club with very fond memories – Charlton, as well, as I made a permanent step up to the Premier League, scored goals and made my England debut there.
How gut-wrenching was it to be the top-scoring English player in the Premier League in 2005-06, but still miss out on the World Cup squad?