Thursday, July 30, 2009

Spurs probe 'Bent Twitter rant'

Darren Bent
Bent scored 17 goals in 43 appearances for Spurs last season

Tottenham are investigating comments allegedly made by striker Darren Bent accusing Spurs chairman Darren Levy of disrupting his move to Sunderland.

A foul-mouthed rant on social network site Twitter purports to have been posted by Bent, who missed Spurs' tour to China for talks on Wearside.

A Spurs spokesman told BBC Sport: "We are yet to find out if this is Darren."

One of the tweets said: "Do I wanna go to Hull? No. Do I wanna go to Stoke? No. Do I wanna go to Sunderland? Yes."

The Twitter account in question was taken down from the service on Friday morning and Tottenham told BBC Sport that they plan to speak to Bent about the issue.

The arrival of fellow striker Peter Crouch from Portsmouth earlier this week appears to have signalled the end of Bent's stay at White Hart Lane and the only stumbling block looks to be his transfer fee.

Sunderland are understood to be be prepared to break their own transfer record of £9m, paid for goalkeeper Craig Gordon two years ago, but Levy will be wanting to recoup most of the £16.5m he paid to Charlton two years ago for the England centre-forward.

If Bent does go then maybe we will be interested

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp on Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

And the 25-year-old, who was Spurs' leading scorer last season with 17 goals from 43 appearances, appears to lay the blame for any delay firmly at Spurs' door, adding on other tweets, that were littered with swear words: "Why can't anything be simple [sic].

"Sunderland are not the problem in the slightest."

Speaking on Thursday, before the Twitter row erupted, Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp admitted he was unsure of how the deal was progressing.

"I spoke to the chairman (on Wednesday) but I don't know where he is at," he said. "He was talking to Sunderland the last I was aware.

If Bent does go, Redknapp has reiterated his desire to bring Real Madrid striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar to north London.

The Dutchman had been set for a move to German side Stuttgart last week but that fell through due to his wage demands.

"If you look at his goalscoring record it is incredible," Redknapp said. "If he is available then again he is a player that interests me.

"If any top-class player becomes available then you have to be interested and if Bent does go then maybe we will be interested.

"You cannot have two many good players. Competition for places is what it is all about. Look at Manchester United, you could pick two teams from their squad last year."


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