Playing for Sunderland will cost Bent his World Cup chance

By Simon Bird

Published 13:05 22/03/10

• 

Follow Simon Bird on Twitter

Imagine Darren Bent in a Manchester United shirt.

Picture the 26-year-old in full flow at Old Trafford destroying teams with his goals, racking up 21 already this season.

Imagine that Manchester United’s Bent was sat above Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba in the Golden Boot stakes, and just behind his team-mate Wayne Rooney.

Now tell me that Fabio Capello would NOT be taking Red Devil Bent to the World Cup.

Does Fabio Capello have a secret formula that means goals scored for Sunderland count less than for more fashionable clubs?

Should scoring 21 goals for Steve Bruce’s mid-table team not elevate Bent way above the likes of Emile Heskey (five this season) and Carlton Cole (nine) in the England pecking order?

Is it because Sunderland is 280 miles from London and rarely gets the national coverage of the higher profile Spurs, Aston Villa, and over-hyped West Ham, that there isn’t a national outcry for Bent to go to the World Cup?

Allow me to hoist a large Northern chip on to my shoulder and inject a degree of regional paranoia into the debate: Is it because he is from the North-East?

I raise the question because one striker who has direct experience of having to fight a bit harder than others for recognition reckons geography plays a part.

Kevin Phillips only just scraped into the Euro 2000 squad, then never kicked a ball in the tournament, on the back of a 30-goal season at Sunderland.

In his view: “Playing for Sunderland does come into a little bit. I said that when I was on Wearside.

“If Bent or I were playing for the top four then we would not even be asking that question. The form player should go every time and Darren is in form.

“When you are playing in a team that’s six or seven from bottom .... To have 21 goals in that situation is fantastic.”

Capello is likely to take five strikers to South Africa. Rooney, Jermain Defoe (hamstring injury permitting) and Peter Crouch (on the back of five goals for Capello this season) seem certs.

Cole, nine goals in a labouring West Ham side, and Heskey are the two who appear most likely to get the nod.

Heskey on the basis of his experience and ability to link up play, but certainly not his barren goal record – which stands at five this season in 38 appearances. Hardly a game changer, is he?

If the charge against Bent is that he doesn’t have the experience, then that is the fault of Capello, and previous England managers, and could have been addressed partially by giving him a run out in the last friendly against Egypt.

Perhaps Bent lacks the presence leading the line that Heskey or Cole can offer during build up play?

It would be unfair to judge him on his last appearance – a service-starved run out against imperious Brazil when he touched the ball on a dozen occasions.

But Bent’s qualities, his pace, elusive movement, knack of being in the right place to finish moves, including goals against each of the top four this season, should mean that Cole and Heskey feel vulnerable.

You want a man to have an impact off the bench Fabio? None of the other 19 Premier League teams has scored more goals in the first 15 minutes of matches this season than Bent.

Bent has not been told why or how he can break into the squad: “You never get told why you are in or out,” he revealed.

“Maybe Mr Capello already had his five strikers set and those are the five he had known for a long time. I have no idea, but at the same time that won’t stop me doing what I have been doing. If I get called up I will be more than ready.

“I feel as sharp and as strong as I ever have done. I played in the Brazil game at the end of last year. It was a difficult game and we didn’t have much possession but I still enjoyed it.

“I took a bit of criticism after because we got beaten and people said it wasn’t a good performance, but I kicked on again and I think we [Sunderland] played Arsenal after that and we beat them. People can keep knocking me down but I will keep coming back.

“I don’t think I can do any more than I am doing with England. The moment I stop scoring or stop playing well is when people can start saying, 'oh well, he is not scoring he shouldn’t go to the World Cup'. All I will do is stay positive and keep trying to knock them in and take things from there.

“That is all I can do. That is what I have been doing all this season and there have been times during all that when I have not been picked. The main thing for me is to keep going keep my head up.

“Every time I have been overlooked for a squad I have come back from it again and kept scoring. It won’t be any different this time. Of course I want to go to the World Cup. It is every player's dream to play for their country in a big tournament and I won’t give up on that.”

Follow Simon Bird on Twitter

Fancy winning £3,000 for FREE this month? Play Mirror Football Streak for your chance to win cash prizes! Start predicting now!