Clement fires back at ‘fat and lazy’ Bent
Paul Clement has claimed Darren Bent was overweight and lazy during their time together at Derby, in response to stinging criticism from his former striker.
Clement, whose Reading side kicked off the new season with a last- gasp defeat to his old club, was sacked as Derby head coach in February, 2016, after just eight months in the role.
The former Real Madrid and Paris St-germain coach had guided the Rams to fifth place in the Championship but Bent felt the writing was on the wall during a seven-game winless run.
“It was inevitable he was going to crumble at Derby),” Bent said in his role as a pundit for Sky Sports during Friday’s Championship opener.
“Training had changed and his philosophy from pre- season had gone out the window because we weren’t getting the right results. Ultimately, he didn’t really like confrontation.”
Clement took to Twitter to defend himself, stating that Bent still felt aggrieved after failing to nail down a starting place in his side.
“I sense some bitterness here, which is normal if a player does not play much,” said Clement.
“It is never a difficult decision to leave out a player who is overweight and lazy.” ■ Everton winger Kevin Mirallas is to join Fiorentina on a season- long loan, the club have announced.
The move, which is subject to a medical, comes after the Belgian spent the second half of last season on loan at Olympiakos in Greece, having fallen down the pecking order at Goodison Park.
Mirallas joined Everton six years ago from Olympiakos and has made nearly 200 appearances but is not part of new manager Marco Silva’s current plans.
The 30- year- old made only two Premier League starts last season and was criticised for a lack of commitment.
He fared better back at Olympiakos, scoring two goals in 13 appearances.
Silva’s squad is starting to take shape ahead of the Toffees’ Premier League opener away at Wolves next Saturday.
He has so far only made two signings in forward Richarlison and former Barcelona full- back Lucas Digne, but will hope to add further names after shipping out Davy Klaassen, Ramiro Funes Mori, Henry Onyekuru, Joel Robles, Wayne Rooney, Luke Garbutt, Shani Tarashaj, Ashley Williams and now Mirallas.