Darren Bent

[The Rock]

I think the club can say whatever they want and stating that his performance was weak is FACT.

[simplyfulham]

Hated by the fans, and managers, and still has the maturity to wish us well.  I'm not saying Bent played well, but surely he tried and we should have to maturity to wish him well.

To be fair, if you were a professional football trying to find a new club (which I'm sure he will given his reputation at Villa) you would be trying to make some friends too!

As oppose to sounding like a bitter hasbeen.

[hovewhite]

Nothin against him wish him well.

[ron]

He's history. It didn't work out big time. the future is with the youngsters for good or ill. Necessity demands that it's for good.

[win-dup]

According to the (Birmingham) Express and Star, Darren Bent has ruled out a permanent switch to Fulham. How very thoughtful of him.

[Arthur]

Hated by the fans, and managers, and still has the maturity to wish us well.  I'm not saying Bent played well, but surely he tried and we should have to maturity to wish him well.

To be fair, if you were a professional football trying to find a new club (which I'm sure he will given his reputation at Villa) you would be trying to make some friends too!

As oppose to sounding like a bitter hasbeen.

If you were being 'fair', you would surely accept Bent's remarks at face value. As a 'bitter has-been', he would not need to have commented at all; no one would have criticised him for keeping his own counsel.

Bent has never been my sort of player; if he doesn't score, he may as well not be on the pitch. I don't see that he played any differently for us than he did anywhere else in his career. Where I sit in the JH Stand, supporters have tended to grin and bear his misses without resorting to pre-meditated abuse.

At Stoke, I thought the chants directed at Bent as the game neared its conclusion were shameful. From what I read on here, we still like to think that we're different to most other team's supporters: more sporting towards the opposition; more equitable towards our own players; more sanguine in the face of disappointment. In the past, likely this was true. Not any more.

Sure, we're not down among the dregs of football supporters, but, on the evidence of instances such as Stoke, in the 'fantastic-supporters stakes', we're one of the 'also-rans'.

[BigNigeBowds]

thank F*CK

would rather have bosko balaban

[JackyFulham90]

That's great news he has been awful this season. Villa will surely get rid of him this summer

[BigNigeBowds]

That's great news he has been awful this season. Villa will surely get rid of him this summer

if qpr go up he is destined for them

[HatterDon]

If we had used him properly this season -- up front with a target man, he'd have scored a dozen goals for us as well as keeping the opposition more concentrated on defense than popping in six goals against us.

The thing about having a player who contributes nothing but scoring goals, if you don't build the starting XI to his strength, then YOU DON'T USE HIM. Using him incorrectly all season and then blaming HIM for it seems kind of strange to me, but then, I'm one of those plastic club members.

[Pluto]

Somehow I don't think anyone at Fulham will be too disappointed......

I do agree that he wasn't used properly though. He's been poor but some of the abuse he's been given has been a bit OTT in my opinion. His equaliser against Man U is one of the few highlights of an otherwise grim PL season.

[EJL]

If we had used him properly this season -- up front with a target man, he'd have scored a dozen goals for us as well as keeping the opposition more concentrated on defense than popping in six goals against us.

The thing about having a player who contributes nothing but scoring goals, if you don't build the starting XI to his strength, then YOU DON'T USE HIM. Using him incorrectly all season and then blaming HIM for it seems kind of strange to me, but then, I'm one of those plastic club members.

HD, he didn't put away any one-on-ones all season. And it wasn't simply because of good goalkeeping from the opposition. Bent just couldn't score. The open goal against Sheffield United summed up how poor his finishing is now.

Sure, if we'd constructed a system around Bent which created more chances, he probably could have scored a couple more, but his conversion rate would still have been blatantly woeful. And what would've been the point? If you give any striker multiple supply lines and his own system then they'll score goals. I wouldn't have felt comfortable if the club had allocated a stupid amount of resources into making one loan player start firing, when it would've made much more sense to use a striker that doesn't create as much of an imbalance.

[Pluto]

Seems a decent bloke and was used poorly during his spell here. Ok he was poor but the abuse directed at him by some and at the Stoke game is an embarrassment to the club. I don't consider people like that Fulham "supporters".

Don't hold anything against him and I wish him well. Fingers crossed he'll get a PL club and bag a few goals against QPR next season if they go up.

[Burt]

He was a big disappointment...

He couldn't put away difficult chances, which is fair enough, and perhaps "the system" didn't play to his strengths, but how many one-on-ones did he miss, along with the occasional sitters that my cat could have tucked away with ease?

[Forever Fulham]

HD's right.  He's not a lone scout out on patrol type of forward.  He needs a set up man.  Look at how he thrived in the past.  His goal production history isn't a mirage.  Ask why he didn't continue to bang them in like he did in the past.  Did he grow increasingly apathetic under our managerial musical chairs?  Probably.  Did he lose confidence and the striker's rhythm?  Probably.  He's also older, not as explosive with his first step.  And then there were the stories about family turmoil and upset.  We never really got details about that, though.  Might just have been so much noise.  Add to all that he's not much of a communicator.  Well, for whatever reasons he didn't produce, the milk has gone sour, the relationship cold.  At this point, if Magath brought in the best target man in the world, Bent's situation wouldn't change.  Stick a fork in him; he's done.

[bog]

Glad to see the back of he. Liverpool had S&S. At times we had B&B which stood for bed and breakfast.

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[Jamie88]

If we had used him properly this season -- up front with a target man, he'd have scored a dozen goals for us as well as keeping the opposition more concentrated on defense than popping in six goals against us.

The thing about having a player who contributes nothing but scoring goals, if you don't build the starting XI to his strength, then YOU DON'T USE HIM. Using him incorrectly all season and then blaming HIM for it seems kind of strange to me, but then, I'm one of those plastic club members.

...wow, I must have missed all those goals he banged in for us then. He missed a ton of golden opportunities throughout the season

[Jem]

That's great news he has been awful this season. Villa will surely get rid of him this summer

if qpr go up he is destined for them

Didn't Harry say his wife could do better than Bent?

[Humbled]

If we had used him properly this season -- up front with a target man, he'd have scored a dozen goals for us as well as keeping the opposition more concentrated on defense than popping in six goals against us.

The thing about having a player who contributes nothing but scoring goals, if you don't build the starting XI to his strength, then YOU DON'T USE HIM. Using him incorrectly all season and then blaming HIM for it seems kind of strange to me, but then, I'm one of those plastic club members.

THIS!!

The problem is, in the past 2 seasons we have allowed poor players to continue in our 1st team and made good players look poor or sit it out all together due to some poor/strange management.

[Julius Geezer]

There's a reason none of the managers fancied him - he was pants and he was a sulker!

I can't thank him for his great efforts in his time with us, because there wasn't any!

His name just reminds me of this nightmare season, I'm glad to see the back of him.