Aston Villa have confirmed the signing of striker Darren Bent on a four-and-a-half-year deal from Sunderland.
The Midlands outfit have revealed their shock swoop will be a club record signing, for a fee believed to be £18million.
Bent will be available to make his debut for Gerard Houllier's side in Saturday's Premier League clash with Manchester City.
The 26-year-old, who will now stay with Villa until summer of 2015, will be unveiled at a news conference later on Tuesday night. Massive club
"Aston Villa is a massive club and as soon as I knew they were interested in signing me I wanted to join," Bent told the club's official website.
"The size of the football club and the history of the club are major reasons for me coming here.
"There are some top, top players here too, real quality, and I've been able to speak to the manager and the chairman about their ambitions for the club, so I'm very excited about being a part of what we hope to achieve."
The former Ipswich, Charlton and Tottenham player joined the Black Cats in the summer of 2009 and has been a prolific scorer in the top-flight in recent years.
Got to pay good money for a proven striker and that exactly was Bent is, only Drogba and Rooney infront of him for goals in the last couple of seasons. I think £24million is pushing it abit but i suppose it depends what the add on's are. If he ends up keeping Villa up i suppose he will be worth every penny to them. Could get better for the money from the continent though.
[quote="Wolves88"]Got to pay good money for a proven striker and that exactly was Bent is, only Drogba and Rooney infront of him for goals in the last couple of seasons. I think £24million is pushing it abit but i suppose it depends what the add on's are. If he ends up keeping Villa up i suppose he will be worth every penny to them. Could get better for the money from the continent though.[/quote]
Thinking along the same sort of lines Coops,he is proven but for that money you could get better abroad i`m sure.
Only time will tell, but a good striker and did very well for Sunderland [ by the fans reaction up there they are not happy he has gone] . A lot of money and he must score at least 16/17 league goals a season to justify the price. Paid to much IMO about 16 million after all the add ons max.
Only time will tell if he's worth the money. At the moment though I am delighted with him, yes a lot of money but as has been said the third highest league scorer in the last few years and a lot less of a gamble than paying half as much for a foreign player who has never played in the Premier League before. Villa have a good squad , we've been unlucky with injuries,loss of form and our manager walking out at the start of the season knocked us massively. Signed Makoun from Lyon this week who by all accounts is a good holding midfielder and the rumour in Birmingham is that the Charlie Adam deal is going through very soon. Add those to Agbonlahor ,Petrov and Delph returning the squad looks a lot better .
As for Villa not having money well this is the Milner money that Lerner didn't let O'Neill have plus still have the budget from the last 2 transfer windows. There is only 1 club in Birmingham who are skint and they play in Blue.
He's started to repay it already it seems. In today's market he has to be worth close to £20m due to his very decent goalscoring record in the Premiership, and obviously if he helps keep them up then they'd earn that money back in TV rights etc next season.
If it was up to me however, I'd prefer to see the Premiership and a few of the larger clubs go bust - money grabbing bastards that are making a working man's sport move into the higher sectors of the British public.
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Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:49 pm
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