good luck Darren, not good luck Spuds.
England international Darren Bent has joined Tottenham Hotspur in a deal worth up to £16.5m, Charlton announced on Friday morning.
The Addicks will receive a club record fee for the striker, the club's top scorer for the past two seasons. Spurs will pay an initial £15.5m, with a further £1m dependent on a number of contingencies.
"I'd like to place on the record my appreciation for Darren's efforts on behalf of the club over the past two seasons,” said Charlton plc chairman Richard Murray.
He's been a model professional during his time at Charlton. He has been a pleasure to work with and has always represented the club magnificently, both at domestic and international level.”
He added: "Realistically, it was always going to be difficult to hang on to a player of his quality following relegation, but we feel we have negotiated the best deal possible for the club and, after a payment to Ipswich, it's a sum of money that will cushion the effects of relegation for the club.”
Bent joined Charlton in May 2004, when then manager Alan Curbishley paid an initial £2.5m to Ipswich Town.
The figure rose by a further £100,000 after his 40th appearance for the Addicks and could have risen to £3m had Bent played any senior competitive matches for England.
Despite Friday's record sale, which eclipses the £10m Chelsea paid Charlton for Scott Parker in January 2004, Charlton will not get the entire £15.5m sum.
Ipswich are entitled to 20 per cent of the profit made by Charlton on the player under a sell-on clause agreed with the Tractor Boys - meaning an initial payment of £2.58m will be heading to Portman Road.
However, the sum will enable the club to better balance its books following relegation to the Championship in May.
Under Iain Dowie, Charlton invested more than £11m last summer - using part of the coming 2007/08 season's transfer budget in the process - and since January Pardew has also purchased the likes of Madjid Bougherra, Luke Varney, Paddy McCarthy, Ben Thatcher, Yassin Moutaouakil and Martin Christensen for upwards of £5.5m. Chris Iwelumo has also been recruited on a free transfer, along with Jose Semedo.
Bent, who was handed the captain's armband by Pardew soon after the manager's Valley arrival in late December, scored 37 goals in 79 league and cup games for Charlton.
He was named player of the year in his debut season, when he finished as the country's leading English-born scorer in the top flight and made his debut for England, although many were surprised when the forward missed out on Sven Goran Eriksson's 2006 World Cup party.
Earlier this month Charlton agreed a fee for the 23-year-old forward with West Ham United, but Bent decided not to join the Hammers.
The transfer is the second piece of player activity for the Addicks in the space of 24 hours, with manager Alan Pardew snapping up out-of-contract midfielder Matt Holland on a one-year deal on Thursday.
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Comments
Good deal for us though I just hope he doesn't do anything for them and is injured when we have to play them next!!
They'll spend it on Franny Jeffers *sniggers*
I wonder why this wasn't made official until this morning, yet Dazza was posing in a Spurs shirt yesterday? Another opportunity for Spurs to drop tit-bits in journalists' ears - I hate 'em. I hope they don't f*ck him up.
Im ready for the flack.
ps to Darren good luck son you gave it your all for us.
but also a predictable post
I bet you was chuffed when Spotty went to a 'bigger' club when we was 4th in the Premiership - belive you me we would of got that 4th place that season.
It is a shame that we have lost not only our best player but also a thoroughly decent bloke at the same time.
looking at the shirt has he been hoodwinked and actually joined Mark Hughes at Blackburn?
great post, this is a fantastic deal for us.
Varney now live on SSN
Served us very well and wish him all the best.
tong you're a melt mate. it was inevitable he was going he WANTED to go as well so keeping a player that wants to go is pointless.
and look what happened to Johnson - he LEFT for a lot less that was quoted.
You can't guarantee that 4th place - parker could ahve got injured.
Well done the club good price worth more than Henry
Good luck Darren
The fact that he turned down the West Ham deal (which was for more wages) because he felt unhappy with the club tells you all you need to know. I hope he puts 4 past the claret and blue cheats next seasons are they taunt him as "West Ham reject."
I expect the many Spurs fans who have been saying he's not all that and only worth £8 -10m will have a change of heart and he will become a bargain that they mugged us off for "only" £16.5m. Ok, just got to live with that.
Well done the club for the reminder that this money isn't a sudden windfall. Some is needed to cover the costs of Dowie and Pardew previous purchases plus other costs.
This money was already in the budget so there is not suddenly £12m to spend on yet more players - or the women's team - though I hope a few more will arrive permanently or on loan. With this deal out of the way at least that may happen sooner rather than later.
Well done Benty good luck in your future career you will be sorely missed by everyone at CAFC. Special mention to the Board for securing the best possible deal for Charlton & Curbs of course for signing him for us in the first place which seems to have been missed on this thread thus far.
not allowed to say anything nice about curbs he left us with a team that eventually got relegated, he signed marcus bent, rommedahl etc...... it's all his fault;-)