Premier League |
Harry Redknapp insists he has no regrets about selling Darren Bent over the summer, despite the striker's fine form for Sunderland.
Bent will return to White Hart Lane on Saturday for the first time since his acrimonious £10million departure from Spurs in August looking to add to his tally of eight goals.
The 25-year-old is the leading English goalscorer in the Premier League and remains an outside bet to make Fabio Capello's England squad for next summer's World Cup finals in South Africa.
Redknapp maintains there was no bad blood between him and Bent, who was never first choice at Spurs under the former Portsmouth manager, and reckons all parties concerned were happy with the transfer.
"Darren Bent scored goals for us and I had no problem with him," Redknapp said. "I think our chairman (Daniel Levy) did a deal where it pushes up to £16million on appearances and goals, so it was a good deal for us and a good deal for Darren.
"He's playing regularly for Sunderland and is becoming a big player in their team. He is now somewhere where he is able to play regularly and score goals and he's shown what he can do. He's a good player."
Bent launched an infamous Twitter rant at the Tottenham board as he sought a move and was also unhappy about Redknapp publicly blasting him for missing a golden chance in a 1-1 draw against Portsmouth back in January, the Spurs boss saying: "My missus could have scored that."
Bent has settled quickly up in Wearside, scoring some crucial goals against the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United, leading some critics to claim Redknapp made an error in selling him.
But Redknapp added: "It will never haunt me, whatever he does at Sunderland.
"It's a game of opinion. People move on and prove other people wrong. Who knows, he may not have scored any goals here at Tottenham.
"What he has to do is let his football do the talking. He's scoring goals so just get on with it. He has to keep scoring goals all year and get in the World Cup squad."
Redknapp does not miss Bent because he has the likes of Jermain Defoe, Robbie Keane, Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko competing for places.
Defoe should return to the starting XI for the game after serving a three-match ban for stamping during the away win at Portsmouth on October 17.
The England striker will be charged with the task of getting Tottenham back to winning ways after successive defeats to Stoke and Arsenal, reverses that have halted their momentum after an impressive opening to the season.
"It's nice to have him available," said Redknapp, whose side are currently fifth in the table. "He was in great goalscoring form and I felt it (his suspension) has cost us quite dearly. He's back now and he's got to make it up to us now for being sent off and costing us some vital points."
Another England international who could be back is Aaron Lennon.
Lennon injured an ankle towards the end of the Stoke defeat a fortnight ago and was expected to miss out, but Redknapp is giving him a 50/50 chance of featuring, which will also be good news for Capello with England's friendly with Brazil in Qatar looming.
"He worked very hard yesterday so we have to wait and see how he is tomorrow," Redknapp said. "If he's fit to play tomorrow, I wouldn't stop him playing for his country. It's a great honour to play for England."
Tottenham executive director Paul Barber, meanwhile, said the club were ready to compete with Chelsea for potential sponsors as they continue their attempts to sell naming rights of their proposed new 60,000-seater stadium.
Chelsea's new chief executive Ron Gourlay admitted on Thursday that, for commercial reasons, his club would consider selling naming rights to Stamford Bridge, provided the current name was included in the new one.
Barber maintains Spurs are in a different position regarding the naming of their new stadium, which will be located north of White Hart Lane.
"It's suddenly now two clubs in London that are looking for naming-rights partners and the potential sponsors have got a choice - they've got two very different propositions," Barber said.
"They've got an old, established stadium in Stamford Bridge. Chelsea have got a fantastic stadium there.
"We've got a new state-of-the-art, technologically advanced, environmentally friendly stadium planned, which will have no name attached to it and no history or heritage attached to that stadium.
"So if you are a potential sponsor you've got two very clear choices as to which particular one suits your brand and budget.
"There's a balancing act; it's great those stadiums exist already and that a sponsor can come straight in and name them tomorrow.
"But of course they've got with that the associated heritage and history of Stamford Bridge to contend with in the name.
"We have left the path clear for a sponsor to come in from day one, just as Arsenal did with the Emirates, so there are two very different scenarios."


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Your Comments
potter_dave (Tottenham Hotspur fan)
"I can maybe see the point that youngsters don't get the chance when you look at someone like Jonathan Blondel, GDS, Tomas Peckhart, or Reto Ziegler - Even KPB who has now started to show what he's capable of, but many of the young players we've "ruined" are ones whose potential has never been met, or whose weaknesses have become apparent as they've developed. Examples like Gareth Bale (Great going forward but still learning defensively, which we're still working on because he IS that good), Younes Kaboul (Built like a brick outhouse, but defensively naive), Frasier Campbell (only effective when he drifted to the left wing), Wayne Routledge (Just bad luck, the kid signed as his undersudy took his chance when he got injured in ghis first game), Paul Robinson and Darren Bent (Confidence players - fresh start was best for everyone). I don't see people complain we've ruined the careers of the likes of Sol Campbell, Ledley King, Steve Carr (rejected by the Arse as a kid btw), Nick Barmby, BAE (massively improved and getting better all the time), Michael Carrick, Aaron Lennon, Jermaine Defoe, Tom Huddlestone, Robbie Keane, Michael Dawson...The same thing happens with every club - just look at some of the failed "calculated risks" taken by SAF over the years. Not every one will work out. Naughton is in a good position in that Hutton will probably be moving on, as will Bentley, and he can operate in either right flank position, putting him in prime position to replace Corluka if we feel a more mobile RB is needed (plus frees Charlie for CB if needed, ending the constant press belief we're looking for another CB) or to offer options on the RW, and in the meantime he's learning from the Scottish RB, a Croatian internatonal defender and two England RWs as well as some top-drawer coaches. "
alfried1983 (Tottenham Hotspur fan)
"mk_gooner, - instead of talking total rubbish. mame me the players spurs have ruined. im tired of reading this rubbish from arse fans. name the players!!!!"
skinner (West Ham United fan)
"Of course he'll say he has "no regrets". Otherwise he's admitting at that he made a mistake or that another manager is capable of getting the best out of a player that he couldn't. Much better to just say "he wasn't suited""
Villas Sideburn (Tottenham Hotspur fan)
"mk_gooner you're an idiot. Teamtalk, are you in the habit of letting racist jibes be published? Didn't think you'd be that hard pushed.
"
dutch28 (Sunderland fan)
"I'd love to think we'd win tomorrow and really get one over the horribly biased Spurs fans who seem to forget Bent was their best striker last year, but without Cana and Cattermole its just not gonna happen, do hope I'm wrong though. Used to like Spurs but they seem to think they are bigger than they are just cos dodgy Harry is in charge. On another subject and totally irrelevant but I hope Arsenal win the league, most entertaining team in the league by far"
Mackem in Exile (Sunderland fan)
"mk_gooner's only got a point when it comes to young players. I've no idea why a young player would sign for Spurs when Harry will always choose experienced, quality players ahead of potential. They'd be better off developing their careers in the lower leagues or at different clubs. I'm not knocking Harry here, he's got every right to play the best players at his disposal. I just can't see why a young player would want to play under him, given the lack of opportunities they're going to get"
jimmy9THFC
"
Aylesburyhammer (West Ham United fan)
talk to me when your clubs not a joke"
Aylesburyhammer (West Ham United fan)
"Am so pleased that at last D Bent is at a big club."
lettraggad (Arsenal fan)
"C'mon Bent go for the hattrick. "
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