What are the odds Darren Bent has a new club next season? Derek McGovern's Bets of the Day

By Derek McGovern in Betting Blog

Published 22:30 20/12/11

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Rumour has it Darren Bent could be heading out of Aston Villa in January.

On Sunday, he literally put himself in the shop window.

There’s only one place I’ve ever gone window shopping and that was in Amsterdam – it cost me £1,000!

While Villa are in the market for a new striker their current one was actually in the market.

He was spotted in ­Poundland by a Villa fan and, on current form, that would still be considered an expensive gamble.

Villa were handicapped by three setbacks in their 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at the weekend. Agbonlahor was suspended, Bent was shopping and Heskey started.

Cynics believe Bent wants a move to a London club for the shopping and Hills offer 11-4 for him to have left Villa Park by the start of next season.

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BET OF THE DAY

Archaeologists have dug up a book called Irish Dancing: Part Two – What To Do With Your Arms.

Get on Swansea at 11-8 with a one-goal start at Everton on Wednesday night.

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Coleen and Wayne have bought each other a racehorse for Christmas. That’s what married couples do to each other – nag, nag.

Rooney spent the day at Michael Owen’s yard before paying £63,000 for a colt. It’s not known if the sale followed a game of poker.

“It was a magic day,” tweeted Owen, who has moved into training horses practically full-time now.

Initially it was thought this was because horse placenta might help his hamstrings, which are pulled more often than Jodie Marsh.

Owen denied these rumours, citing his difficulties getting the horses pregnant. Where’s Ryan Giggs when you need him?

Rooney has called his horse Tomway after his father, who is not called Tomway.

The father is Bahamian Bounty – a dual Group 1 winner. He is also a half-brother to Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Boylesports offer evens about Tomway winning in 2012 – that’s a decent bet unless anything owned by Manchester City is running in the same race.

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Doctor Who has been heavily backed to be the top Christmas TV show because EastEnders­ and Downton Abbey, screened at the same time, will cut each other’s throats.

Where EastEnders is concerned that makes a nice change from cutting your own throat.

Those two heavyweights were the early front-runners, but Dr Who is now 5-4 jolly with Hills (from an early 5-1) because of the time clash.

In fact, it’s such a ­fortunate time clash for the Doctor that it may well have been arranged by the Time Lord himself.

Dr Who, with a time slot of 7pm, two hours before the other two, is up against Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, and he’s easily up to that challenge.

As a matter of fact, he defeated them in episode two of an earlier series.

Also up against Dr Who is All Star Family Fortunes, hosted by Vernon Kay.

As a kid you would watch Dr Who from behind the sofa. As an adult, that is how you watch Kay.

If 5-4 odds are too short for you, have a little speculative­ dabble at 14-1 on The Gruffalo’s Child.

A Gruffalo is half buffalo/half grump, as is a child.

The Gruffalo drew an audience­ of nine million when it aired on Christmas Day 2009, so the sequel won’t have to do too much better to top the charts.

Yes, it is up against Emmerdale, but the only people who care about Emmerdale are Yorkshire folk.

And by Christmas Day they will all have had their tellies nicked.

Top Christmas Day TV programme (Hills): 5-4 Doctor Who, 5-4 EastEnders, 5-1 Downton Abbey, 14-1 The Gruffalo’s Child, 16-1 ­Coronation Street, 20-1 Strictly Come Dancing, 25-1 Absolutely Fabulous, 50-1 bar (humbug).

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