Watching David Bentley flounder out on the wing against Arsenal's kids last week in Tottenham's morale-sapping 4-1 loss in the Carling Cup, it dawned on me that he is a serious candidate for the biggest transfer flop in Tottenham's impressive history of paying ridiculous amounts of fans' hard-earned money for mediocre footballers.
Think of Dean Richards (£8.2 million) Darren Bent (£16.5 million), Helder Postiga (£7.5 million), Sergei Rebrov (£13 million) and Roman Pavlyuchenko (£14 million).
But has anyone promised so much to so many only to deliver so little so infrequently?
THREE goals in 40 appearances! And this after scoring eight goals and contributing 13 assists for Blackburn Rovers in his last season at Ewood Park, leading to England recognition and talk of a move to Old Trafford...
What has gone wrong for Bentley since his £16.5 million move to Tottenham?
The start of his Spurs career coincided with a period of instability off the pitch and incompetence on the pitch. None of the three managers, Harry Redknapp included, has shown any real confidence in Bentley. But, most of all, the player's attitude to football must be questioned.
In fact, Redknapp substituted Bentley in a pre-season friendly recently as he felt that the winger was not taking the game seriously. Off the pitch, he also has numerous business interests - including a record company.
Yes, he has been utterly inept, but is he bad enough to rank up there alongside some of the greatest transfer flops in the 18-year history of the Premier League?
Other candidates would include Andriy Shevchenko (£28 million), Robinho (£32 million), Chris Sutton (£8 million) and Juan Sebastian Veron (£24 million).
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