SOCCER ENGLISH PREMER LEAGUE: DARREN BENT faces a €94,000 fine from Tottenham Hotspur before he ends his frustrating spell at the north London club. The striker is determined to swap Spurs for Sunderland and felt he was on the verge of doing so after he was hauled off the Spurs team flight that departed for their pre-season tour of Asia on Monday.
Bent then expected to undergo a medical at Sunderland, only for Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman, to stun the north-east club by attempting to ramp up the price. Sunderland thought they had a deal at €14 million; it was claimed that there was late interest from Hull City and Stoke City.
Bent poured out his frustrations on Thursday to his Twitter account telling Levy to “stop f**king around” and making it clear that he wanted to go to Sunderland and not Hull or Stoke. “It’s so frustrating,” he continued. “Getting p**sed off now.”
Tottenham said they would verify whether Bent had tweeted the accusations but it has counted against the player that he had not been in touch straight away to issue a disclaimer.
Last night Bent apologised for what he called “inappropriate comments” and said he “did not intend to offend Daniel Levy”. He is expected to be fined the maximum two weeks’ wages – he earns around €47,000 a week. More alarming for Bent is that Sunderland’s manager, Steve Bruce, says the chances of closing the deal are now “50-50”.
Yeaterday Bent, who was pulled off Tottenham’s trip to China at the last minute on Monday, said in a statement on the Spurs official website: “I appreciate that transfers are seldom straightforward and are often complex.
“However, after a long period of waiting following my withdrawal from the plane to China, I had become incredibly frustrated by the time these things take and I posted inappropriate comments on my Twitter site.”
Meanwhile, Tottenham won the Asia Trophy after comfortably beating Premier League rivals Hull City at Beijing’s Workers’ Stadium yesterday.
A brace from captain Robbie Keane and a late Aaron Lennon strike secured the win in a game Spurs dominated for almost the full 90 minutes.
The performance will be especially pleasing for manager Harry Redknapp given the game was Tottenham’s fourth in a week, while it capped impressive displays from his strike force following Jermain Defoe’s winner against West Ham on Wednesday.
The Londoners took the lead in the 16th minute when a fine pass from Luka Modric found Keane and the Republic of Ireland captain unleashed a right-foot strike that was too much for Hull stopper Tony Warner.
Spurs added a second in the 68th minute after Defoe chased onto a ball inside the area and was brought down by Warner. Keane stepped up to coolly fire home beyond Warner’s left hand.
Spurs carved open the Hull defence two minutes before the end for their third as an unmarked Kyle Naughton crossed across the face of goal for the onrushing Lennon to fire home.
Guardian Service
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