• Top Tens

Alternative transfer options to £24m Darren Bent

Not just the signing of Darren Bent, but the amount Aston Villa have paid, has raised eyebrows in January © PA Photos

Enlarge

Related Links

• News: Bruce confirms interest in Fuller
  
• News: Bruce hits out at departed Bent
  
• News: Villa defend conduct over Bent move
  
• News: Villa finalise Bent transfer
  
• Profile: Darren Bent
Soccernet home

There's nothing quite like the satisfaction of making a big splash in the January transfer window, something we can only assume factored into Aston Villa's decision to spend at least (at least!) £18m on Sunderland striker Darren Bent this week.

The 26-year-old is undoubtedly a fine Premier League goalscorer - only Didier Drogba and Wayne Rooney have scored more than him over the past five years - but a potential final sum of £24m (depending on international appearances) is a lot for a man who, incredibly, now joins Rio Ferdinand as the only English player ever to be transferred twice for more than £17m.

Villa, and manager Gerard Houllier, are evidently hoping that Bent's goals will fire them back up the Premier League table. But could there have been better ways for them to spend such a vast sum? Looking at the rest of the activity so far in the winter transfer window, ESPN thought it was probably time to take a look...

6 x Steven Pienaar
To our knowledge there is only one Steven Pienaar, but with the money Villa splurged on Bent they could instead have purchased six of the diminutive South African. Tottenham eventually landed the former Everton man on the same day Villa completed their own big money signing, paying £3m for his services after making a mockery of Chelsea's salary offering. Imagine a six-man midfield of Pienaars - endless technical ability, impressively arranged dreadlocks, minimal aerial threat. Definitely what you want in a relegation scrap.

34 x Moritz Leitner
Moritz who? In many ways that isn't important (although admittedly Houllier is among the vast majority of managers who prefer to have actually heard of the players they are selecting). What is important is that Borussia Dortmund - currently 12 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga - saw the young midfielder as the only signing they needed to make in January...before immediately sending out their £704,000 new boy on loan to second division Augsburg. Dortmund, under visionary manager Jurgen Klopp, are winning games - and soon a Bundesliga title - with practically an entire squad that cost less than Bent. But £24m on a striker in the hope he will fire them out of relegation danger is probably a practical move too.

Julio Baptista, a Brazil international as recently as the World Cup, cost Malaga just £2.2m © Getty Images

Enlarge

10 x Julio Baptista
You can spend £24m on a man who spends the majority of his spare time on Twitter, or you can spend a tenth of that on a forward whose nickname is 'The Beast'. Never mind that Malaga's recent £2.2m signing was a flop during his only previous stint in the Premier League, at Arsenal, or indeed that he has been at pretty much every single career stop since, or indeed is basically Emile Heskey or John Carew with a less impressive grasp of English. None of that matters. Impressive nicknames are not to be messed with.

16 x Antonio Cassano
Putting aside for one minute the sheer havoc that would be wrecked on Birmingham if 16 Cassanos suddenly turned up at Spaghetti Junction, the quality of the Villa team would be markedly improved with even one of the mercurial Italian. Having fallen out with previous club Sampdoria after an insult-laden dinner with the club president (we don't think Randy Lerner regularly visits his local curry house with Carlos Cuellar, so that's probably not a likely problem for the Midlands club), Cassano was snapped up for just £1.5m by AC Milan after seeing his contract rescinded. Persuading the 28-year-old to opt for Villa Park over San Siro might be a tough ask, but with a lot of money to play with and the telling of a few tall tales about the wonder of Birmingham's nightlife, anything is possible.

4x Hatem Ben Arfa
Say what you want about Aston Villa's acquisition of Darren Bent, at least the player in question doesn't have a broken leg. In completing the permanent signing of former Marseille man Ben Arfa, Newcastle spent more than £5m on a player who managed only four appearances for the club before succumbing to a horrible leg injury in a challenge with Manchester City's Nigel de Jong from which he is still recovering. Good business.

1 x Fernando Torres (and change)
The Spaniard signed on at Liverpool, admittedly a few years ago now, for a fee in the region of £20m. Since then he has scored goals at an impressive rate for both club and country, an uncharacteristic recent blip notwithstanding. Family Fortunes have never actually surveyed 100 people on this question, but nevertheless if they did we feel confident in predicting that all 100 would prefer the World Cup-winning forward in their team ahead of the seven-time England international Bent.

Rafael Van der Vaart has scored more than Bent so far this season, at a third of the price © PA Photos

Enlarge

3 x Rafael van der Vaart
Harry Redknapp, in an out-of-character moment of spontaneous shopping, signed the Dutchman for £8m on transfer deadline day last August as Real Madrid suddenly slashed prices like it was already the January sales. The 27-year-old has gone on to score nine goals, with a further five assists, in his 16 Premier League games to date, while the man Villa consider three times as valuable, Bent, so far has eight, and not even one assist.

2/3 of Edin Dzeko
A crumb of comfort for Villa fans - would they rather have spent £24m on a proven Premier League goalscorer (and an English one at that), or more than £30m on the 'next big thing' from the Bundesliga who has never played so much as a minute in England's top flight? With a relegation battle to consider the less risky option is obvious (just two thirds of the surprisingly tall Dzeko would be pretty useless leading the line, anyway), although even being compared with Manchester City's spending is probably not what most responsible clubs are searching for. Over £50m has been spent on the pair of hitmen in this window. And they say football finances have come into line in recent years...

1.5 x Nani
The flying winger - one of the best players in the Premier League so far this season - cost just £17m when Manchester United signed him from Sporting Lisbon in 2007. Admittedly in the years between his signing and his actual arrival as a player of the required standard, fans at Old Trafford had to put up with just fleeting glimpses of real talent amid prolonged bouts of immaturity and indecision, but we got there in the end. For just a few million more perhaps Villa have at least avoided three years of frustration and a few embarrassing tantrums. Except if Bent is asked whether he wants to go to Hull City, that is.

1 x Mario Balotelli
Manchester City again, this time as they spent exactly the same amount as Villa could end up spending for Bent on Mario Balotelli (and, just weeks before that, on World Cup winner David Silva) during the summer. So far the Italian has garnered more headlines for his off-field antics than those on the pitch, something that is unlikely to afflict Bent (who isn't in the habit of criticising Jose Mourinho's management technique). Nevertheless, Balotelli is widely regarded as one of the most talented young players in the world, and was signed from the reigning European champions. The fact Sunderland received the same for Bent is a testament to someone's negotiating skills.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.