If you can manage to extract the array of footballing gifts that exist somewhere deep inside David Bentley, taking a gamble on the Spurs midfielder might be not such a bad move. But given the wages he’d demand, his dismal lack of impact over the last couple of years and Spurs chairman Daniel Levy’s desire to squeeze every penny out of the deal, it doesn’t make for great business sense.
While his failure to adapt to life at White Hart Lane hasn’t always necessarily been his entire fault, his lack of desire to apply anything in the way of a work ethic – something of an understatement given his off field distractions during his time in N17 – has offered a dreadful waste of talent.
The last time we saw him participate in Premier League football was in his 13 rather unspectacular showings for the eventually relegated Birmingham City during the 2010-11 season and after an injury-curtailed spell on loan at West Ham, a recent sojourn in Russia with FC Rostov again saw Bentley fail to cast much of an impact.
At 28, there might still be time for Bentley to salvage his Premier League career, but not without a spell in the Championship first.
