Our brightest hope at full back since Mickey Gray? But can we hang on to him? Salut! Sunderland ponders the chances of securing Alan Hutton permanently …
Most Sunderland supporters who have seen anything of Alan Hutton are likely to agree that he is just the sort of player we need at the club on a permanent basis.
It has been like a breath of fresh air to see a full back so capable of getting forward and causing serious concern to opposing defences.
The heartening recent form of Kieran Richardson has made that air taste sweeter: someone has written elsewhere that his performance on Saturday, albeit against the extremely limited Burnley, may have been his best for Sunderland.
Of Hutton, the same fan commented: “… (his) performance was as good as I’ve seen from any Sunderland full back since the better days of Mickey Gray at his best (ignoring his bad times, he was very good).”
Steve Bruce wants to turn the loan from Tottenham Hotspur into a summer purchase.
But will the mere fact that we’re interested make Harry Redknapp reluctant to consent to the departure of a player to whom he had given only one Premier League start? Is there really bad blood between us and Spurs because of the Darren Bent spat?
An interesting piece by Tom Jinks at footballfancast.com
discusses whether Hutton should be retained by Spurs. Tom leaves the question open but points out that the player offers “something different to Vedran Corluka at the right back position and could be a good backup to the Croatian international”.
With any luck, Alan Hutton would wish to be a back-up for no one. Let us hope he is speaking his mind when he says he’d like to stay at Sunderland.
But a message from a Salut! Sunderland reader, Yiannis Skindilias, points out that having first seemed intent on lowering Kieran Richardson’s value – by running a piece placing him in the season’s worst PL team – footballfancast.com may now be trying to push up Hutton’s price.
We can all hope that Sunderland, as an established Premier side (sort of), should comfortably beat off any competition for Hutton’s signature from Newcastle United (only just resurfacing, said the mischief-maker, from the lower leagues).
But in the meantime, perhaps we should stop saying how good Hutton has been for us.
Just tell ‘Arry he’s actually quite useless. After all, the fan who praised Hutton, as quoted above, also said he was the major reason for Burnley’s goal because “for whatever reason, both he & Campbell went for the same player & left Blake on his own & made no attempt to track back”. Pass that on to White Hart Lane.
Then all we have to do is sit back and hope Spurs think we’re doing them a favour taking him off their hands.
* With thanks to “vic.t” for the photo, taken from her Flickr pages
Colin Randall
* NB: a recent deluge of spam means comments from people who have not been this way and posted before will have to await moderation. Sorry.
It makes me laugh at all the Spurs fans on here saying “we should sell Hutton to Newcastle” etc, sounds to me like sour grapes about the fact that Redknapp dropped a bollick selling Bent. All this rubbish about Bent playing more games, that’s not is fault Defoe is a shite finisher anyways, he’s not nearly as good as Bent considering the amount of chances he gets. To be honest, if you don’t sell Hutton to us it’s no big deal, the fact of the matter is he want’s to play for Sunderland and not Tottenham.
Benty’s done a fair amount of tracking back this season, and while he doesn’t have the presence in the air that Jones has defending corners, he’s chased his opposing winger on numerous occasions to good effect. So he didn’t fit in at Spurs – our gain. I don’t think Harry did much to boost the Lad’s confidence if he wanted to keep him, or promote him to would-be purchasers if he wanted to sell him! All in the past now, we got a good player, Spurs got a load of cash, everybody wins.
Darren Bent: a proven goalscorer. Really no need for debate.
Whats the big deal with another club wanting to buy players that arent first team regulars?
And of course I wouldnt swap JD or any of our strikers for Darren Bent, but his record this season speaks for itself.
Spurs fan here. can understand why you lot love Bent. 20+ league goals is an impressive haul. the man knows how to put the ball in the back of the net.
having said that, he was a liability for us, even when he was scoring. we like our sides to zip the ball around, trying to find the open player and playing balls into space. whenever it got to Bent, if he had no shot, he would lose it as there is nothing else in his repertoire. he cost us more goals then he scored. i’d love to have steed back but Bent you can keep. his style of play is not for us. fits your lot to a t though. and you can have the bonus of peace of mind that no big club will come for him this summer despite his goals.
Darren Bent has scored 24 goals this season…Fact.
Jermain Defoe has scored 24 goals this season…Fact.
I know who i’d prefer…End of!!
There are many other things that Darren Bent cannot do. He cannot compose a sonnet, nor can he build a box girder bridge out of drinking straws and sticky back plastic.
Craig Gordon is clearly useless because he does not win any tackles in midfield.
When did that Luka Modric last save a penalty? Another weakness in his game.
And that Darren Bent can only score goals.
Funny, I thought that was why we tipped up £12m for him!!!
Spurs should get rid of Hutton, but would be better if not to Sunderland as we saw what the effect was of having too many ex spurs players on the opposing side was at Sunderland – too many players playing out of their skins wanting to prove a point.
Hutton may move but the macams will have to cough up £8m or 9m maybe more if Levy feels that Sunderland misled everyone when they quoted they paid £10m for Bent, lol
It was £16m as announced the the London stock exchange, do you really think Levy would risk prison by telling fibs, lol
you all sound like children
Spurs will sell to the highest bidder. Yes Hutton does seem good but he’d be just backup to Corluka and with the 2 Kyles & Kaboul after his last two displays, we can well afford to sell Hutton.
My opinion of Bent is that he is a dangerous player when playing against teams that come out and attack.
Just to clarify, teams regularly came to WHL and simply sat back in an attempt to get a draw. This meant there was no room in behind for Bents pace and we had to rely on guile and creativity to get through. It was then that it became apparent that Bent simply couldn’t match up to the ideas of Modric etc and attacks often stuttered when asked for his input.
However, for Sunderland most teams will come to the SoL and “have a go”. I think this is when Bent can capitalise on the spcae given. Undoubtedly a good player, just not a Champions League striker (which at the time of sale was an aspiration)
Bent is a good goalscorer and will always score goals. Problem is that the other deficiencies in his game mean that his strike partner will struggle to pass double figures as he cannot take part in build up play. He cannot hold the ball or defend set pieces. He will score two goals and his team lose 7-2!!
Corluka is crap!!
we need hutton back. he was great until he got injured!!!
Yes I reckon about £15m and we will let you have Hutton. That is £9m for the player and a £6m surcharge for teams that play poorly for months then try extra hard to beat us for no good reason 🙂
I think the reason Spurs fans didn’t like him was because when he’s not playing well, he always looks like he’s about to cry.
And he didn’t play well, not for us. That doesn’t mean he’s a better striker than what we’ve got (Defoe being out for a while and that), but it doesn’t mean he’s shit, either.
He’s just a huge man-baby with a dumb beard. You can keep the jock though, he’s useless. I will always remember his little backheel straight to Adebayor in the NLD. We have Old Man Corluka.
ok ok. So Bent has scored more goals than all Spurs strikers. Did you also take into consideration of the games (and minutes) he has played as compared to Spurs’ strikers? Besides S’land is a one-man team. juz aim every balls to Bent and see what he can do next. Of coz Bent has to be quite decent to stick the balls into the net. No doubt about that. However that’s not the style of Spurs. We play open, fluid, attacking football and we attack as a team. The goals are distributed across the team and everyone has a fair share of it. Just becoz the goals are spreaded out, doesn’t mean Bent is better than any of Spurs’ strikers. The table doesn’t lie. What’s the point of having a 30-goal striker when the team still lies nearer to the bottom of the table?
I used to like Bent. Although he was never my favorite, I always thought he’s honest and hardworking. A decent striker of the ball too. But too bad he proved to be a whining baby with his immature tweetering..
As for Redknapp’s comment on Bent, Redknapp has made negative comments about Bentley and Bale too. They were left on the bench more than Bent was. The difference is how they react (both off and on field) as opposed to Bent.. Says it all about their class as a professional player. All the baby rants, together with the adebayor-inspired celebration and post match comments… Pathetic.
On the other hand, you do have a wonderful ex-spur player in Malbranque. I think he’s often under-rated. Committed, skillful, and professional. I’m sure he will serve you well.
Darren Bent is a goal hanger and does not contribute anything else I.E. helping the team, he also missed some sitters which I am almost certain that Harry’s Grandmother could have put away, yes he has scored goals for Sunderland but it is in a team playing a different system.
As far as Alan Hutton is concerned you can have him but I don’t think that Sunderland could actually afford him.
I’ve enjoyed this thread. But the point is that while you CAN say Darren Bent is not the right player for you, you simply can’t say a man who gets 23 goals in what has been a poor side for much of the season is a poor striker.
Aspects of his game could be improved, yes, but you could say that about a lot of players. He has been the difference for us between relegation and possible 10th/11th finish.
And yes, I do realise that our glory days are even deeper in history than yours.
@ JJ SAFC
Not one of our strikers has been fit all season, Bent has been brilliant for you and I bear no grudges, no one ever said he wouldn’t score goals but Defoe was top scorer in the league before he got injured so food for thought MR FACTS!!!
I like Bent I have him in my fantasy footy team but I was not disappointed when we sold him like all spurs fans, hes a great striker for you but is he not good enough for a European team (Uefa or CL). He will never play for a Big Club (Im not calling us big here either). Great for you but in a couple of years he will move on the another club like Bolton or something and do well for them too.
As for Hutton, wicked going forward, useless at defending but then we never really gave him a good run in the team (AKA BALE). Id like to have him for another season but like most Scots hes happier North.
The fact of the matter is this, we paid nearly £9 for him, you want to pay what £4m – Not going to happen is it.
Nice to see a few considered comments in here rather than the usual moronic rubbish we get from most internet posters.
Oh and whilst Im talking Sunderland Brucie is a great manager and should serve you well.
Dave Spurs fan
There’s no bad blood between our 2 clubs, just some absurd statements by both sets of supporters. You beat us well at your place but like so many Spurs fans in the past, Sunderland supporters entranced themselves into a post-victory decline down the slippery slope, holding up a sense of entitlement for European football that your league position does not indicate.
Hutton is very good as you have said, but we honestly have no place for him, just as we didn’t for a goalscoring, yet poor striker when you consider his other abilities (or lack of them). On a personal level, most Spurs fans wanted to see Bent move on and succeed, because he simply didn’t fit into our team. The same is true for Hutton.
What the hell is everybody whinging on about.
Spurs fans seem very bitter and bite everytime you attempt any form of banter or poke fun for whatever reason.
It really is quite sad. So what if Bent mocked your fans. You’ve been mocking him for a while, but when he does it to you lot, it’s out of order?
Sort yourself out you bunch of girls!
Darren Bent has scored 24 goals this season…and counting. Not just scoring against the poorer teams, but the best. Scoring more goals than any other striker at Spurs this season, yet you’ll be tell us next, that that doesn’t matter and he still isn’t good enough.
Bent is better than all your current strikers and do you know why that is? HE’S SCORED MORE GOALS THAN THEM IN A SIDE THAT’S STRUGGLED AT TIMES THIS SEASON.
Strikers are for one thing, scoring goals. Darren Bent better at that than any Spurs striker. That’s not opinion, that’s a FACT.
You go ahead, have your say, but 24 goals are all the facts I need.
As for paying inflated prices..my god, don’t even go there when it comes to that subject. Spurs have well over paid for several current players…
On another note, I think the bitterness isn’t just about Bent, I think it’s fact we completely out played you all over the pitch at the SoL, denting your chance of champions league football.
@ Salut. If that’s the case then fair play to you, in the past I would’ve favoured your boys over the Magpies (and did laugh when they went down because we’ve all had disputes with them in the past), but some Sunderland fan comments over this Bent saga have left many Spurs fans with a sour taste in our mouths. Other clubs wanted to take Hutton too, we loaned him to you – surely that should encourage good relations?! No doubt about it though, Darren has acted very immaturely, I used to like him but no longer… Good luck for the rest of your season lads!
We can’t blame Bent, childish yes but he just did not fit into the way we play and now he is a big fish in a little pond!! Hutton can go but the money has to good, i don’t mind selling him to you guys coz you are not and never will be competition to us, you are only ever going to be a midtable team at best and the ex YID Chris Houghton will be here next year and his Newcastle will be the best team in the North East again!!!!! COYS
Yes, you deservedly beat us and may have deserved the other game too. As you acknowledge that that does not make you a better side than us, I don’t see any relevance in the results between Spurs and Sunderland in the context of Bent and Hutton not being good enough for Spurs. That they were surplus to requirements at the Lane and were/will be sold seems to confirm this. Of course, maybe you agree but otherwise not sure what point you’re making there.
As to the Newcastle thing, it may very well be childish. I think the real truth, as another poster already hinted, is that, Bent aside, we really don’t care much one way or the other and marginal factors (like Hughton and Bent) are sufficient to swing it. You are equally more than welcome to support l’Arse should you decide. I can fully understand that their manager’s gallic charm may be too tempting to resist 😉
Really, though, you care about as much who finishes 4th as we do whether Newcastle finish above/below Sunderland – as long as you’re both below us, it’s all good.
Darren Bent’s Summer Holiday Plans:
Players who weren’t good enough for Spurs have this season appeared in games in which we were, by common consent (ie away from partisan support on either side), comfortably the better team, though we won only one of them
.
That doesn’t make us better than you; clearly we’re not on any sensible analysis of this or any other recent season.
And you must feel free to support Toon to your heart’s content, even if doing so because of Darren Bent makes the allegiance as childish as you claim him to have been. I don’t suppose it’ll make us more likely to support the bigger of the main North London clubs; plenty of Sunderland fans will still be pleased if you get 4th.
I don’t know what all the fuss is about Hutton. If I was Redknapp I would be taking Bardsley in a straight swap.
@salutsunderland
The reason you detect a “pro-Newcastle” bias is simply an anti-Sunderland bias, largely created by the Bent furore. Believe me, we laughed as much as anybody when Newcastle went down but since they are now managed by one of our old boys and you lot seem to be trying to sign all the (two) ex-Spurs players who seem to want to slag us off at every opportunity to distract from the simple fact that they aren’t/weren’t good enough for Spurs, our North-East allegiance now resides firmly away from the Stadium of Light.
But feel free to keep purchasing our cast-offs at inflated sums, though I can’t promise we’ll be supporting in the Tyne-Wear derby next year!
I hate when people say Darren Bent was spurs top scorer despite the fact he wasn’t considered a starter. He was a starter. What you think you can get a striker who scores 17 goals from bench appearances alone. He’d cost more than 10m that’s for sure. He was played across the season and most of his goals came before the turn of the year when he started every game. His dip in goalscoring form and his inability to hold the ball up meant he was fast becoming a liability. Keane was brought in to partner him and that helped us stay up (he unfortunately did not despite playing).
He is doing very well at Sunderland and getting all the love his fragile ego needs. It’s more than 2-1 for sure. Well before the game two weeks ago which is exactly my point. He’d proven his point but decided to behave poorly. Opposition fans may not like Harry but that should not cloud your judgement here. No player should be abusive to the club chairman on a twitter site. No player should celebrate in front of opposition fans. It’s tasteless, disrespectful and dangerous. Defending that behaviour is just silly.
It’s not really 1-1 is it? Darren Bent was Spurs’ top scorer last season despite the fact he wasn’t concidered a starter. So for those who think DB is a lower-class PL player i think it ‘s 2-1.
As far as Hutton is concerned, just get rid of the lad.. he ‘ll make his own mind up about who he joins!
Oh.. and hands off Ricco, he ‘s our equivallent of Gallas, plays anywhere except in goal (thank goodness).
S’land have done a considerable amount of business with Spurs in recent times, Bent, Malbranque, Chimbonda and Tianio, plus Hutton on loan. Bent was ridiculed at WHL and Hutton claims “arry doesn’t like him, it happens and players leave. We have paid good money for the players we took and should have a very good relationship with Spurs at Board level. The thought of selling Hutton to N’castle to spite Bent would seem a little absurd considering we have been a very good customer. I hope Spurs go on and take 4th spot it will shake things up a bit, but try not to be bitter or arrogant in future
Salutsunderland, I assume you are referring to Harry’s ‘my missus could have scored’ comment. My question to you is did you actually see the miss? 3 yards out, vs pompey in a vital relegation battle game and James practically sitting behind the line and Bent heads wide. Managers should show faith in players but you can’t defend a miss like that and it was tongue in cheek stuff. Bent got his own back with the utterly disgraceful outburst on twitter. So 1-1. He’s also shown himself to be a very valuable player for Sunderland and scored twice against us this year. Did it need for him to celebrate his goal mocking our fans or could he have enjoyed the goal celebrating it with yours? If I was a sunderland fan, I would have been disappointed as the player purposely went round his goal, away from his own support, to mock rival fans. Adebayor fashion. The behaviour not fitting of the term professional. His comment ‘that meant everything’ after the game also showed, it wasn’t playing for sunderland that mattered that day but playing against spurs. It’s not about who started it but being man enough to finish it with grace. Rather like his pens, he should he couldn’t finish it with any composure. The fact that Harry won the ethical battle showed how low Bent went (no pun intended).
Spurs fans are not anti-Sunderland but anti-Bent. Naturally, you are siding with him as he’s your player. Take him out of your side and both sets of supporters could not really give a monkies about each other.
For what it’s worth I thought Hutton was pretty good when he started and helped us win a league cup final however he hasn’t seem to be able to sustain his form and injuries haven’t helped.
We have a couple of decent full backs in Corluka and Walker plus Naughton on loan to replace him and Kaboul played well at right back when we beat Arsenal and Chelsea so I’m sure Levy will sell but he will extract the highest price he can as he always does. Whoever offers the highest price over the threshold will get the player.
It was interesting when we sold Bent because to me and I suspect Harry it was a case of the player just not fitting in the overall balance of the team and in some ways I think this is history repeating itself.
Salut! Sunderland is not remotely anti-Spurs.
We had some great contributions from TH fans before the recent game, and said so. Just Ask Darren Bent Only Tries When He Is Angry As He Is A Child (first comment).
What I will concede is that what we’ve seen today are the first signs for a while of a pro-Newcastle bias among non North-eastern supporters.
Whenever we ask the question in our Who Are You? feature with opposing fans, the question: “Did you laugh when NUFC went down?” gets replies like” “Didn’t everybody?”
No doubt to anyone outside Sunderland that Newcastle are the bigger club, nice try though – if only for a season! Regardless, as the Black Cats seem to have sided with Bent’s ridiculous ‘take me seriously’ complex and become quite anti-Tottenham, I say sell him to Hughton if he want’s him, Spurs legend! And before you get ahead of yourselves, Hutton was sent out on loan to prove his fitness – if we want him as our back up we’ll keep him, though I doubt we will, not a good enough defender…
Transfer would probably be best all round. Hutton is a good player, but we have plenty of options at RB. Just don’t expect a bargain price when Danny sits down to negotiate!
Lovely to hear from our Spurs friends again. I was a tad disappointed to see that they accepted the penalty against Chelsea when the ball clearly bounced up and hit John Terry’s hand. After the fuss thay made about Kyle Walker’s handball at our place, I expected the Spurs fans to turn on Phil Dowd and demand he rescind the decision!!!
As for Hutton, I would be surprised if he was prepared to stay on as cover for (the admittedly excellent) Corluka.
I reckon you can have him. I bear no grudge with Bent, a good Premiership striker who doesn’t quite have the control to cut it on the international stage. His face didn’t quite fit at WHL even though he performed well, and he has scored a hat-full since he left. Good luck to him.
I should imagine if Sunderland were to offer the amount Spurs paid for Rangers, Hutton would be welcome to leave. He is a decent full-back, though I suspect, judging by his reluctance to move in the first place, he’d rather be closer to Scotland.
you can have him as far as we are concerned another poor player who appears to have found his footballing level at a mid-table club, like a certain Mr Bent! hutton cant defend, his strongest point is his attacking play which is inconsistant at best, definately not good enough for a team aiming to play in the Champs League. although i have nothing against Sunderland i do have to agree with the above comment after the petulant behaviour of Bent i would rather us sell him to the Toon to do Chris Houghton a favour,
Steve: who started the disgraceful behaviour? Didn’t DB feel he had a bit of a point to make after being publicly slagged off?
singer: we can hardly be blamed if you offered masses of money for Jones.
I wanna keep him
He is a good player and started life well at Spurs, winning a trophy in only his 3rd game and many thought he’d go on to be one of the leagues best full backs. Then came the long term injury and headlines of boozy fights with his dad.
If he stays fit he’ll be a great addition yto any premier league side.
He won’t come cheap though as we forked out 9m for him and Levy will want as much of that back as possible
Harry owes Sunderland nothing after Bent’s disgraceful behaviour. Not to mention Quinn’s actions after we launched a very good bid for Jones last winter. We bid 17m (which let’s face it was way beyond market value) and Quinn decided to use it as a PR exercise to demonstrate to Sunderland fans that you are dismissing offers from bigger clubs. I sincerely hope what goes around comes around this summer and we reject any approaches, rubbing into your faces in the process. Bitter? Yes. But I doubt you cared when we were struggling last season.
Yes you can have Mutton, but remember, you wanted £17 million for that big lump Jones from us only a year or so ago, so don’t be surprised if you are asked to pay at least £10 million for the full back.
Harry should sell him to Newcastle and say it’s Bent’s fault for his childish behaviour and deliberate provoking of the Spurs fans