When you drop a club record £18m on a player during any window, but especially in January, there will inevitably be a lot of opinions voiced and a few feathers ruffled. I’ve read a lot of ill-conceived nonsense that I won’t dignify by linking to, but it’s fair to say that outside of Villa circles the reaction has been decidedly mixed.

For example, watching the opinion rolling by my screen on Twitter, I happened to spot a Man City fan scoffing at the £24m fee (it’s always the highest amount, not the initial fee, isn’t it?) in comparison to what they paid for David Silva. He probably couldn’t even begin to comprehend that his club are one of the key players in inflating the market to ridiculous levels, leaving the rest of us trying to swim in their wake.

Is Bent worth £24m, or even £18m? No, of course not, but I’ve written extensively about the fallacy of players’ worth and getting hung up on comparisons with other deals however similar they might appear. The fact is, when clubs like City are willing to indulge in transactions that value James Milner at £26m, for instance, there will be consequences left behind. This is one of them.

It’s the very epitome of irony to see a City fan criticising the size of any transfer.

Europe vs Relegation

The majority of negative views seem to focus around the relative positions of Sunderland and Aston Villa in the table at this moment in time. It’s left many observers scratching their heads. Why leave a club on the up to join a club heading in the other direction?

This season, just this season. The fact that Villa were nine places superior to Sunderland on average during the last three seasons and the fact that Villa racked up 186 points to Sunderland’s 119 along the way count for nothing. They’re in the hunt for Europe now and we’re fighting relegation. That’s now, right now in January, with 15 or 16 games left to play.

It might be extremely unlikely, but it’s entirely possible that we may yet finish above Sunderland. I imagine it would be quite the narrative if that were to happen, especially if we were to rob them of their assumed place in Europe in the process.

Wouldn’t it be ironic?

Martin O’Neill

And of course there has been much talk of Martin O’Neill and what he might have done with the money, forgetting that we have a four year record that gives us a very good clue. A record, by the way, which could have included the purchase of Darren Bent for about £10m in 2009, but sadly does not.

That’s the type of point that is frequently used to disingenuously attack a manager’s transfer record because it assumes that they were even interested, but in Bent’s case it’s widely claimed that we were interested when he was at Tottenham, but found the price tag a little salty.

Of course, by the time Bent left Tottenham for Sunderland, Martin O’Neill had already long since secured the services of Emile Heskey.

Something, something, 10,000 spoons.

The club go on the defence

More irony; after being particularly poor on the pitch defensively so far this season, the club itself have acted quickly to defend themselves and player against what they see as besmirchment from Sunderland Football Club.

In this video from Kildare TV you can watch Niall Quinn suggest that Bent has not been himself for the last few weeks, the implication being that Aston Villa are guilty of tapping the player up. He failed to mention that Bent expressed a desire to leave Sunderland last summer.

The club have understandably responded to this and Steve Bruce quite firmly:-

We understand Sunderland Football Club’s need to explain to their naturally disappointed supporters why Darren Bent has been allowed to leave their club.

It is disappointing, however, that Sunderland should try to besmirch the reputation of the player and Aston Villa Football Club in the process.

We wish to make clear that at no time did Aston Villa make an inappropriate approach to the player or unfairly compromise the business of Sunderland Football Club.

Darren only became aware of his possible transfer AFTER Sunderland’s game against Newcastle on Sunday and AFTER we had agreed with Sunderland the essence of the deal which led quickly to Darren’s arrival at Villa Park on Tuesday.

It is only because of some comments emanating from the Stadium of Light that we have felt compelled to respond and set the record straight.

Finances

The financial element discussed in the video above is very interesting though. Sunderland are still paying Tottenham the transfer fee that took Bent to Sunderland and only received “about a quarter” of the £24m fee we will eventually pay for him yesterday. Quinn doesn’t mention it, but I believe that Tottenham will be entitled to a share of the “profits” of the Bent sale as part of a sell-on clause.

In the end then, Tottenham won’t come out much worse than the £16.5m they paid Charlton for Darren Bent – a transaction which caused considerable mirth at the time – and because of the way transfer fees are amortized in the accounts, they may even end up in the black on the whole saga. From an accounting perspective anyway.

Sunderland fans

I don’t want to criticize Sunderland fans particularly, we of all people should understand their pain after the sequential exits of Gareth Barry and James Milner. It may seem brazen to suggest, but they might be grateful that it was extremely quick and they are receiving a ludicrous amount of money after all.

It could have gone a lot, lot worse and been an awful lot more painful. As Villa fans, we know from first hand experience, but their sense of pain and betrayal will be very real and they’ll be prone to say things about Darren Bent and Aston Villa that they probably don’t really mean.

I happened to notice a Sunderland blogger apparently taking great delight in spotting spooky similarities between what Bent said when he joined Sunderland what he said last night in the Villa Park press conference. It was standard stuff; great history, big club, great fans, brilliant players, superb manager, etc., etc. Frankly, I’d be more impressed if he could find a player that didn’t cite all those things when they joined a new club, what else are they supposed to say?

Looking forward, not back

Ultimately, our critics will use whatever sticks they like to beat us with over this deal, it’s irrelevant. All that matters is that our club have finally thrown some serious resources into bringing an out and out striker to our club and I’m quite confident that he’ll not only play a key part in survival this season, but far greater success in seasons to come.

Of course, Bent’s arrival does signal the future exit of other players, both in terms of position and finances. John Carew has had one foot out the door for a little while now, quite possibly placed in the Hawthorns, and he’ll surely be on his way before too long.

Without the additional European games, we’re also going to struggle to get the two younger strikers, Nathan Delfouneso and Andreas Wiemann, on the pitch so it’s no surprise to learn that Andreas Wiemann has joined Watford on loan until the end of the season.

Wiemann has emerged as something of a dark horse talent this season and his unfortunate injury in Vienna was a tragic set back, a loan move like this is excellent news and we’ll keep a keen eye on how he progresses there this season.

But with Wiemann out on loan and Carew the likeliest to leave permanently, we’re still left with the exciting attacking line up of Gabby, Bent, Heskey and Delfouneso supported by the likes of Young, Downing, Albrighton and Bannan.

Now, if there still aren’t goals coming, I don’t know what it will take, but no Alanis Morissette, it will not be bloody ironic!

[Please note: I’ve used the word ‘irony’ in some places here when ‘hypocrisy’ might be more accurate. That was deliberate]