Three and in – not just another football blog

They love a goalscorer in the North East, so it was no surprise when the Sunderland fans quickly took southerner Darren Bent to their hearts.  Bent has 81 league goals in the last five seasons – a record bettered only by Didier Drogba and Wayne Rooney. With the Mackems, he found his richest vein of form, first in a powerful partnership with Kenwyne Jones, and latterly alongside Asamoah Gyan and Danny Welbeck.

After Bent completed his surprise move to Aston Villa yesterday, dropping from sixth in the table to seventeenth in the process, Sunderland fans were understandably disappointed.

Until, presumably, they saw the fee.  £24m for a player of Bent’s limitations is a quite extraordinary sum.  Yes, he’s a goalscorer, but most Sunderland fans would admit that both Welbeck and Gyan have been in better form this season.  Selling Bent solves the ‘three into two’ conundrum that has been facing Steve Bruce all season.

Niall Quinn is no fool, and the chairman will remember well that Sunderland once rejected a £15m bid for Kevin Phillips, only to sell him for a fifth of that price two years on.  Bent’s value will never be higher, and Quinn has now turned a hefty profit on a player whose value will never be higher.  With the proceeds, expect him to try and do a permanent deal for Welbeck, as well as looking for a striker who gives the squad greater variation.

At Aston Villa’s press conference this afternoon, Gerrard Houllier called Bent’s signing “a major milestone”.  He’ll have to score an awful lot of goals to prevent the fee from becoming a major millstone.

This Sunday lunchtime, Newcastle and Sunderland face off as the Premier League welcomes back the Tyne-Wear derby. Amidst the melee, however, a private battle will be taking place between two North-East hotshots: Andy Carroll and Darren Bent.

The signs are that, after abortive experiments with a 4-3-3 formation, Fabio Capello is determined to field Wayne Rooney as a number 10. With Emile Heskey now retired from international football and Jermaine Defoe recovering on the sidelines, it opens up a battle for the number nine. Both Carroll and Bent have emerged as leading contenders to partner Rooney.

Carroll has already inherited one famous number nine shirt, facing up to the spectre of Shearer which hangs ominously over St. James’ Park and the Match of the Day sofa. The Winterist wing of the media are in awe of Carroll’s sheer Englishness. His strong-arm, bustling style evokes memory of simpler days; days before the proliferation of mobile phones and the advent of Reggae Reggae Sauce.

Capello seemingly shares this nostalgia for the hurly-burly days of yore: witness first his persistence with Heskey, and latterly his call-up for 33-year old Kevin Davies, the man more effective with his elbows than with his feet. Carroll, despite his limitations, is surely a better long-term bet.

Darren Bent probably ought to have made a breakthrough an international level before now. Left at home when Sven opted to take the 17-year old Theo Walcott in 2006, a mixed few years have finally seen him find his feet (and indeed goalscoring boots) under Steve Bruce at Sunderland.

Bent has recovered from unflattering comparisons with Harry Redknapp’s Mrs to emerge as one of the Premier League’s most reliable finishers – and he already has an England goal to his name this season, firing home with his left foot against Switzerland.

Reading this, some will scoff that neither player is of International calibre. Certainly, I’d concede that I wasn’t clamouring for either player’s involvement at international level a year ago. But England have struggled to produce strikers since the heady days of the mid-90s, when Andy Cole, Les Ferdinand, Teddy Sheringham, Ian Wright, Robbie Fowler, Stan Collymore, Alan Shearer and others all battled for a place in the same squad. In the current climate, neither players’ claim can be easily rejected.

On Sunday, they get a chance to state their case all the clearer, and earn some local pride in the process.

…which, for a man who has spent much of his life having his 6 ft 7 ” frame gawped at, both on account of his fame and his physical oddity, must feel somewhat bizarre.

Yesterday, when Darren Bent pulled out of the England squad, a nation’s media mourned.  Some claim the presenter on duty at Sky Sports News at the time shed a solitary tear.  Radio stations could be heard stating confidently that this meant a guaranteed start for first-time call-up Kevin Davies.  Even Carlton Cole waded in to the debate, via his twitter feed.

The whole thing is absurd.  Carlton Cole, on current form, is about as good at football as he is eloquent*.  Kevin Davies is a journeyman clogger who represents no improvement whatsoever on the maligned Emile Heskey.  Darren Bent, meanwhile, is about as reliable at international level as Concorde.

And all the while, Crouch has been available: a man with an England goalscoring ratio better than a goal every other game.  His form for Spurs is good, and he’s a dependable foil for Wayne Rooney.  Carlton Cole can rest assured he’ll be able to tweet all through tonight’s game: in the absence of Defoe, there oughtn’t be any debate about who should start alongside Rooney.

If, that is, Capello persist with a 4-4-2.  Switching to 4-3-3 would allow Rooney to plough the central furrow alone, supported by two from Adam Johnson, Ashley Young and James Milner.

As it is, we’re likely to see Rooney and Crouch, with a midfield four of Johnson, Milner, Barry and Gerrard.  Joe Hart will play in goal, whilst Rio Ferdinand will be the senior member of a back four including Joleon Lescott, Ashley Cole, and Glen Johnson.  Ferdinand will be glad not only to be playing but to have been spared the ignominy of losing the England armband as well as the United one.

Capello is more likely to start responding to interviews with nuanced colloquialisms than shift from his preferred formation.  That means he needs a target man, and for now Crouch remains the man to step up to the job.

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*if, as part of me suspects, Cole’s account turns out to be a fake, then I apologise for questioning his eloquence.  He is probably a master of rhetoric to rival Wilde, Fry, and Kamara.

Sunderland striker Darren Bent said of his ommision from England’s World Cup squad:

I feel really disappointed. I have always said to myself, if you play well and do your best for Sunderland, then there is a chance you can go to the biggest tournament in the world. But obviously on this occasion it has not worked out.

And his disappointment is completely understandable. After being written off during his time at Spurs, Bent scored a whopping 24 Premier League goals for Sunderland this season. At a big club where you get lots of chances and good service that would be an impressive tally, at Sunderland where goals don’t come as easy it’s even more so.

Only Drogba and Rooney scored more; players like Tevez, Adebayor, Defoe, Berbatov and Torres were all left in his wake. And yet Bent missed out on going to the World Cup as a striker to Emile Heskey, a player who scored just 5 goals for his club in 42 appearances, only 3 of them in the Premier League. His last goal was Villa’s 4th in a 5-2 win over Burnley on February 21st. He has scored two goals in 2010.

Now, people might talk about how Heskey does ‘donkey work’ for the benefit of the team, but perhaps he does donkey work because he’s … well … a donkey. When Theo Walcott has been excluded from the England squad ostensibly because of his poor form how on earth does Capello justify the selection of Heksey over Bent?

Yes, he’s strong, but then so are lots of othe players. Yes, he’ll win you some headers, yes, he can hold it up now and again, but beyond that Heskey as a striker is decidely second rate. He won’t win you a game when you’re playing top class opposition, any decent defender can play him like a fiddle all day long. Bent is by no means perfect but he’s had a fantastic season, knows where the goal is, has pace and would have provided England with more threat.

Perhaps he’s a victim of England’s goalscoring midfield. Capello might think he can afford to take a striker who doesn’t score when he’s got Lampard and Gerrard. He knows they can pop up and grab a goal at any time.

Some might say the fact that he’s been picked constantly by England managers down the years is proof that he offers more to the team than he’s given credit for. Personally, I think a forward’s main job is to score goals, taking a player to the World Cup who really doesn’t do that often enough just doesn’t make sense to me.

“44 years of hurt” might not be as catchy, but it’s just as painful. This Summer, however, England expects. Lord knows why. Half a century of near misses suggests we should know better. At least England were spared the pain of an inevitable quarter-final exit at Euro 2008 – they have Steve ‘Schteve’ McClaren to thank for that.

The once-heralded ‘Golden Generation’ are losing their sheen: Rio Ferdinand is no longer jovially merking his team-mates, but nursing an ageing spine; John Terry burned his Bridge and saw his form go up in smoke too; and as for David Beckham, he won’t even be there, unless he’s called in for emergency cheer-leading duties.

Hope, it seems, lies in the hands (or, in one case, at the feet) of two men: Fabio Capello and Wayne Rooney. The latter, recently crowned PFA Player of the Year, has been in such irrepressible form as to drag an otherwise below-par Manchester United side to within clutching distance of the Premier League title. A groin injury has ruled him out of the best part of the run-in – a curse for United fans, but a blessing for England supporters, who can but hope he is now resting up in specially padded metatarsal-protecting slippers.

And then Capello, a man so commanding that no-one dares question the wisdom of selecting Aston Villa’s third-choice striker at centre-forward. English hopes have not rested so heavily on an Italian since Paul Gascoigne rang Pizza Express during Euro 96 in the hope of a midnight snack. Can he and Rooney secure the trophy before riding off in to a South African Sunset?

I’ll be in South Africa myself, and whilst I’m going principally to enjoy a festival of football, it’s clear my allegiances are nailed to my own nation.  We’ll need a bit of luck, but I can’t help but feel a tingle of belief that those who travel to South Africa this summer will, whether they’re on safari or not, hear the roar of three lions.

Today Fabio Capello names his 30 man provisional squad.  I predict he’ll go for:

Goalkeepers: Green, James, Hart
Defenders: Johnson, Carragher, Brown, Cole, Baines, Ferdinand, Terry, King, Upson, Dawson
Midfielders: Walcott, Lennon, Gerrard, Milner, Barry, Lampard, Carrick, Huddlestone, Downing, Joe Cole, Wright-Phillips
Strikers: Rooney, Heskey, Crouch, Defoe, Zamora, Bent

My own squad would make room for Phil Jagielka and City’s Adam Johnson, though I’m not sure they’ll feature as prominently in Capello’s thoughts.

The next task is knocking that down to 23.  If Capello is able to make those choices himself, rather than have injuries decide for him, he’ll be delighted.

Another Premier League season draws to a close and leaving aside the actual medal and trophy part of winning, and the getting relegated or being beaten in a final part of losing, here are Three and in‘s top 5 winners and losers of this season (in no particular order, I might add).

WINNERS

1 – Roy Hodgson: He came to a Fulham side in disarray and saved them from almost certain relegation. Since then he’s moulded a side that’s disciplined, tough to beat and who have been on a fantastic European voyage this season. Regardless of what happens in the Europa League final, Hodgson has proved that his previous spell in English management at Blackburn Rovers was a blip on what has been a fine and highly respected career.

2 -Wayne Rooney: Ronaldo’s world record transfer freed up Rooney and his goalscoring record has been quite outstanding. It’s a testament to his professionalism and team ethic that he played wide for United, never complained and let his Portuguese teammate hog the limelight. United are now reaping the benefits of a player who has learned a lot about the game from living Ronaldo’s shadow, his player of the year awards were well deserved.

3 - Darren Bent: Sunderland might have perceived as a step down after his move to Spurs but the former Charlton man showed why the Londonders bought him in 2007. 25 goals, all but one of them in the Premier League, had people talking about an England call up and Capello could certainly do worse. Maybe the £16.5m price tag weighed him down at White Hart Lane and Steve Bruce has certainly managed him better than Harry Redknapp. The boy done well.

4 – Wayne Bridge: He’s not much of a player but there wasn’t a football fan in the world who didn’t admire him for this.

5 – Mick McCarthy: An odd one considering but the last time Mick McCarthy managed a Premier League team they were relegated with a record low points total and McCarthy was fired with 10 games of the season to go (at which point Sunderland were 16 points from safety). Many predicted the same thing for his Wolves side but some canny purchases, not least of which is Irish international Kevin Doyle, and good managing of his resources means he, and they, get to spend another season in the top flight.

LOSERS

1 – Phil Brown: It was clear he lost the dressing room when he sat his players on the pitch to give them a teamtalk. Those who thought Brown added character to the Premier League couldn’t defend his toe curling singing when Hull survived last season. And this campaign it was obvious things weren’t right. Only 5 wins all season, just 4 points away from home, and Brown was put on ‘gardening leave’. It was too late for Hull, Brown’s ego was allowed to run out of control and ultimately it cost them Premier League football.

2 – Arsene Wenger: For the most part Arsenal’s season has been good but once again they fell short. In the title race almost to the end they didn’t so much fall away as implode. Yes, the injuries to key players didn’t help, but in January he could have bought a striker, he could have bought a goalkeeper when it was obvious it was a problem position. Perhaps he’s been hamstrung by money but nearly everyone can tell you what Arsenal need, Wenger seems happy to ignore it. His team have gone down without a fight and that, more than another trophyless season, is what Arsenal fans will remember.

3 – Ryan Shawcross: The Stoke centre-half cried when he was red carded against Arsenal. His tackle snapped Aaron Ramsey’s leg in two. He claimed he wasn’t that kind of player despite evidence to the contrary (3.2mb PDF). Even so, we can all accept he didn’t mean to break Ramsey’s leg, it was simply a consequence of the reckless tackling encouraged by his manager and all those who defended him as ‘not that kind of player’. His place on this list, however, isn’t because of any of that, it’s down to the litany of articles and interviews he gave talking about how tough it had been for him and how he’d somehow managed to cope. As Aaron Ramsey faces 9-12 months out of the game, not knowing if his career will go the same way as Eduardo, Shawcross’s self-pitying drivel was one of the lowlights of the season.

4 – Rafa Benitez: The Liverpool manager has cried foul about the money he never got to spend but he splashed most of what he got for Xabi Alonso on Alberto Aquilani who hardly played at all. He knew he had to sell to buy for a long time. He was prepared to sell Alonso the previous summer to fund a purchase for Gareth Barry. The lack of money is an excuse. He’s bought and sold badly at Liverpool, has seemed too interested in power behind the scenes and ultimately he went into a Premier League season with only Fernando Torres as a recognised first team striker. When you look at the fact that players like Keane, Bellamy and Crouch have been and gone there’s really no way to defend him. It’s true that the owners have caused problems but when it comes right down to it, the owners didn’t make Liverpool play like a mid-table side this season, Benitez and his players did. Clean slate needed at Anfield.

5 – John Terry: Nobody said footballers have to be role models but it helps, especially when you’re Chelsea and England captain. Terry had his worst season on the pitch, and his worst off. There are lines you don’t cross in your personal life, knocking up one of your best mates girlfriends, ex or not, is further over the line than Pedro Mendes ‘goal’ against United. He was stripped of the England captaincy, Capello preferring to give it a man who beats up DJs in bars than a shameless adulterer. Chelsea might win the title, they might win the FA Cup, but it’ll be in spite of Terry more than anything else.