Can the real Darren Bent stand up now?

IMAGINE if you’d told Brighton fans in 2011 that Darren Bent would pitch up at the Amex within three years? They’d have been doing cartwheels, convinced that Tony Bloom’s millions were destined to secure a place in the top-half of the Premier League.

Instead they are thrashing around at the murky end of the Championship and Bent is fighting to save his footballing life.

There’s nothing shocking about Bent’s career trajectory; impress as a kid, forge a name in the Premier League, win international caps and multi-million pound moves before slipping slowly into semi-retirement.

The difference is that Bent is only 30. This year – and those either side – should be his best in the game, the point where experience and ability meld to form a precision predator.

Instead, Bent has it all to prove. Not since he was a raw, rapid teenager at Ipswich has he needed to perform so badly.

So what has happened in the three years since Bent was a £24m superstar, Aston Villa captain and international striker with World Cup aspirations?

Ask the man himself and he’ll point the finger squarely at Paul Lambert, the Villa boss whose attempts to get Bent and his £65,000-a-week off the wage bill involved ordering him to train with the kids.

“There were times I was in the squad and times I wasn’t and there was just no explanation why,” said Bent, who was also kicked out of the first-team dressing room, told to empty his locker and informed he would not be picked for any games if he stayed to fight for his place.

“I understand that not every player can be every manager’s cup of tea, but to be alienated like that when I’ve played a long time, when I’m an international, just felt a bit disappointing. There were times when I was thinking ‘Do I really deserve this?’”

Some would say he does. Having scored 32 goals in 58 games for Sunderland, Bent’s self-agitated move to Villa in January 2011 was widely perceived as a financial rather than a footballing decision. Few on Wearside will lament his predicament.

Lambert, too, has frequently insisted that money was never a factor – that the form of Christian Benteke and Gabriel Agbonlahor was simply too good to ignore.

This, however, is difficult to believe. Benteke is a class act. But Agbonlahor? This is a guy who hasn’t hit double figures in the Premier League for five years.

Yes, he runs his nuts off. And yes, it’s fair to say that Bent doesn’t. But Villa can’t find the net to save their lives.With six goals from 12 games, they are currently the lowest scorers in England.

Choosing graft over goals is like entering a poodle in a greyhound race because it looks pretty.

And let’s not forget that Bent – scorer of 153 Premier League goals – has even been overlooked for untried youngsters like Jordan Bowery. It just doesn’t stack up.

Sulking

Bent may not have helped himself by sulking and mouthing off, but even the most professional of players would begrudge being so ruthlessly manipulated.

Nevertheless, football does not deal in sympathy. Last year’s loan spell at Fulham was little short of a disaster, with six goals in 30 games and criticism of his fitness capped by relegation in May. A supposed ‘reintegration’ at Villa fell flat.

Doubts about his attitude and desire explain why he wasn’t wanted by a single club in the Premier League.

Three good years have been lost. There may not be too many left. This, you sense, is his last chance.

A chance to show that he is still one of the most instinctive strikers in England. A chance to graft in the Championship and prove that there is nothing wrong with his attitude or hunger. A chance to prove that Lambert’s arguments don’t hold water.

If Bent grasps it, Brighton have one hell of a player. If he doesn’t, it’s difficult to see where he goes from here.