Darren Bent hits out over Redknapp

Aug 9 2009 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

“Of course I felt hurt by it. I also felt frustrated and angry at the same time. A lot of people said it was out of order but what can you do? Not a lot.”

Bent arrived at White Hart Lane from Charlton in a £16.5m deal two years ago and was Spurs’ top scorer last season with 12 League goals but says that did not seem to matter to Redknapp, and he found himself in and out of the side.

“Even when I scored goals I always had the feeling that I wouldn’t be playing the next week,” he said.

“As a striker you have to feel wanted. If you are scoring goals and playing well then you should be in the team. But I found out at Spurs that wasn’t the case.

“At Charlton I used to play every game, but at Spurs I would just get 20 minutes here and 20 minutes there. But although you were hardly playing, people would still have the same expectation of you.

“It made life at White Hart Lane really difficult. It was hard.”

Bent almost joined Sunderland in January but injury problems meant Spurs were reluctant to part with him at that point.

But he is delighted to have finally ended his Spurs hell by moving to Wearside.

He said: “It definitely feels like a new chapter for me. The last two years have been very hard on me because things were not going well. I am delighted that it is over and I can look forward.”