Player Focus: Why Teams Should Be Looking To Darren Bent

The day Aston Villa confirmed the arrival of Christian Benteke, many would never have imagined the Belgium international taking to his new surroundings as well as he did. Ending the season with 19 goals - only Robin van Persie (26), Luis Suárez (23) and Gareth Bale (21) netted more - has seen his value skyrocket, with reports suggesting the Villains would only accept offers of around £30m for their prized asset.

While Villa benefitted tremendously, as did Benteke on a personal level, Darren Bent saw his first team opportunities diminish significantly. Manager Paul Lambert was regularly questioned as to his decision to continuously persist with the Belgian, only for his faith in the 22-year-old to be repaid, so much so that Bent must surely have considered scribbling “eke” to the end of his name on the back of his shirt in order to convince Lambert to hand him back a starting role.

Nevertheless, despite the club looking likely to struggle to to hold onto the young striker, the likelihood of Bent departing Villa Park this summer still increases with each passing day, regardless of Benteke recently handing in a transfer request. The England international will be expected to turn out for the sixth senior team of his career once the new season kicks off, with the reported £5m price being mooted set to push his collective transfer fees over the £50m mark.

Netting just three goals in 16 Premier League appearances - only eight of which were starts - wouldn’t have aided his striking cause, but only five players - van Persie (83), Wayne Rooney (76), Frank Lampard (58), Carlos Tévez (58) and Dimitar Berbatov (54) - have netted more goals than Bent (53) over the last four seasons. Take away his forgettable 2012/13 year and it’s only Rooney (64) and Van Persie (57) that have found the back of the net more times than the 29-year-old (50) between the season beginning 2009 and ending 2012.

More importantly, Bent has scored for teams that regularly haven’t been challenging for top honours. Those ahead of him in the scoring ranks have either been winning the Premier League or regular contesters for a top four place, with the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal boasting more creative players that can be utilised and provide the ammunition for the strikers. With no offence to Sunderland or Villa supporters: the playmakers of the top teams far outweigh those of Bent's last two employers.

His striking credentials are reinforced in that over the last four years, Sunderland have created just 109 clear-cut goalscoring opportunities - an average of 0.69 per game - and Villa 149, averaging 0.94 per game. Yet, in two of those four years, Bent reached double figures for Premier League goals, with his highest tally in the period - 24 - coming with Sunderland, a further testament to his ability in front of goal.

Furthermore, over the 48-month period of every player to have scored 20 or more goals, there have also only been three strikers - Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández (49.8), Jermain Defoe (60.7) and van Persie (63.4) - that have required fewer touches per goal than Bent (64.2), exhibiting his prowess in and around the 18-yard box. Considering the low price being reported, a team requiring goals would do well to bring in a player of his ilk.

Newcastle United are supposedly interested in taking him to St. James’ Park and having netted just 45 goals last season, a drop from the 54 the previous year, Bent could well be an astute acquisition by Alan Pardew and co. This is further evidenced in that only bottom team QPR (17.2) required more shots per goal than the Magpies (12.4) in the Premier League last season. The January departure of Demba Ba and questionable form of Papiss Demba Cissé, the latter of which only netted eight times over the year, certainly proved to be a significant factor in the drop in goals.

The real concern, however, would be that both occupy a similar position on the pitch and with Pardew favouring a 4-2-3-1 - a formation he used 16 times in the Premier League last year - one of the two strikers would be moved out of position, much like Ba regularly was before moving to Chelsea. Yet, it’s seemingly crucial that Newcastle bring in a striker before the beginning of the new season in order to avoid a relegation scrap similar to that of the previous campaign.

When compared to every Premier League team, only four - Manchester City (29%), Everton (29%), West Ham United (30.2%) and QPR (32%) - boasted a worse clear-cut goalscoring chance conversion than Newcastle (33.3%), with some believing a clinical striker is a necessity in order to compensate for the loss of Ba. Bent’s conversion rate of 15.8% is also a fairly respectable figure when taking into account his lack of first team action, especially when compared to Cissé’s poor return of 9.3%.

Either way, with Bent set to depart Villa Park before the transfer window slams shut, his capability of the finding the net on a consistent basis certainly stands him in good stead as he aims to find a new team. Villa, following the acquisition of Nicklas Helenius, will be keen to shift the Englishman off the wage bill and with the player being available for as little as £5m, Bent could certainly improve a team aiming to score more should he be able to build upon the meagre 805 minutes of first team football he accumulated with the Midlands side last season.

As the rumours continue to circulate surrounding a potential switch to Newcastle, it's somewhat evident that Bent could ameliorate the club in their pursuit for goals and a much improved domestic campaign. The striker can certainly provide that, given the chance, and for the low asking price, wouldn't be seen as too much of a gamble for a team that will undoubtedly aim to spend big this summer.