The stakes continue to rise in Darren Bent’s transfer saga with the news that Steve Bruce is considering calling off the hunt for his services and looking elsewhere.Though he may be merely calling Levy’s bluff, from the outside, and being left to fill in the blanks, it is nigh on impossible to say.
The obvious concern is that, should the deal go to the wall, it could deprive us of the funds to land Huntelaar, for instance, for whom a deal is rumoured to be in place, and leave those of us with our fingers and toes crossed in a fit of exasperation.
Bluffing or not, one thing that Bruce said, which is bound to irk many Spurs fans who are less than enthusiastic about Levy’s manner about conducting business, is that he twice thought a fee had been agreed, only to find that the goalposts had been moved.Reading between the lines, it would appear as though Stoke and/or Hull tabled a better offer and Sunderland found themselves caught up in an auction.
It’s worth asking if, instead of Levy being avaricious, Sunderland are trying to land Bent on the cheap.If, as reported, they have offered £12 million, I would regard that as a somewhat derisory offer for the following reasons:-
1. He’s English
2. It’s an inflated market, and
3. He may not be a technically gifted footballer but he’s a proven goalscorer.
Regardless, Levy is playing a dangerous game, and would appear to be holding one or two aces less after Bent’s outburst on Twitter where he specifically said he was only interested in going to Sunderland.The notion that he will still be a Spurs player after the closure of the transfer window seems far-fetched(though not beyond the bounds of possibility), with Bent determined to leave for first team football and the chance to make England’s World Cup squad.
Unfortunately, the implications of his public tantrum on Twitter may cost us far more than it has cost him in lost wages.
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