Results for tag: Darren Bent
Posted by:
Andy Gray
on Jan 24, 2011 at 10:46:01 AM
Aston Villa's signing of Darren Bent was the big news last week after Gerard Houllier managed to prise away Sunderland's star asset for a fee in the region of £18 million. It has sparked the old debate of whether players become far more expensive in the transfer market just because they happen to be English.
It does seem to be the case that homegrown players are worth a few bob more than foreign imports, especially if they're also established internationals, but there are two good reasons for that.
The first is that with the recently introduced regulations concerning a minimum number of home-grown players, English lads become a more valuable commodity. The second is that I think most fans like to see high-profile nationals playing in their side.
If you go and ask a Real Madrid...
Posted by:
Andy Gray
on Sep 13, 2010 at 12:20:52 PM
It's been a pretty mixed two weeks in the world of Jermain Defoe. It all started in the best possible fashion with a superb hat-trick against Bulgaria at Wembley that was a good example of just what he can do when given the right sort of service.
He followed that up with a decent first half away to Switzerland but picked up a bad injury during the second half which will rule him out for three months and means he will miss the whole of the Champions League group stages, not to mention England's next two ties, against Montenegro and France.
It's a bitter pill to swallow for a player who was so integral in getting Spurs to the Champions League and who finally looked to have secured a regular place in the national team after years of being little more than a fringe player.
When these...