Darren Bent world class to Villa boss
Monday 24th January 2011, 11:30AM GMT.
Villa boss Gerard Houllier believes Darren Bent has the potential to become a world-class striker as he ponders whether to pair him with Emile Heskey at Wigan.
Bent opened his account for the club at the weekend with the only goal of the game against Manchester City in what was a morale-boosting win for the claret and blues.
Heskey missed the game as he served the final match of a three-game suspension, but is fit and available for the trip to Lancashire to face his former club tomorrow night.
And Houllier must decide whether to stick with the same side who defeated City or recall Heskey to the starting line-up.
One thing the Villa boss is certain of, however, is that Bent can improve even more as a player.
The manager said: “Every player has a level. Sometimes it is Premier League level, then you have international level and above that you have the world-class level.
“I would say at the moment the target for Darren is for him to reach the international level on a regular basis and then from there try to step up to world class.
“He loves the game, he works hard and he will improve. I looked at him and I thought ‘yes this is what we needed.’
“We wanted to have someone who is like a fox in the box to score goals. We will have Emile back for Wigan. Will I pair them together?
“You will have to wait and see but after all the injury problems we had last year this is a good problem for a change.”
Despite finding the net on his first outing, Bent is not setting himself any specific goal targets.
He said: “My target before this game was one and I have managed to hit that. They always say the first goal is the most difficult.
“Hopefully there will be many more victories and performances like that.”
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Oh God – Here we go again!
The words “World Class” in the same sentence as a Villa player! Obviously Houllier is not learning from his predecessors mistakes.
It’s been 2 long years since O’Neill uttered those same words about Ashley Young and Young has hardly had a good game since because the words went straight to his head!
Even adding the word potential is a recipe for disaster. I just wish managers would learn to engage their brain before speaking!
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