Former Everton striker Marcus Bent celebrates with team-mate James Beattie. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)Former Everton striker Marcus Bent celebrates with team-mate James Beattie. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)
Former Everton striker Marcus Bent celebrates with team-mate James Beattie. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Former Everton striker Marcus Bent has opened up on his move to Goodison Park.
Marcus Bent has admitted that he was not the same player after leaving Everton.
Bent spent 18 months at Goodison Park - and was part of the club’s most successful Premier League team. The striker joined the Toffees from Ipswich Town in the summer of 2004 for a fee of £450,000 - coming in to fill the void of Wayne Rooney after his move to Manchester United.
Bent became a regular for David Moyes’ side, who enjoyed a magnificent 2004-05 season. Everton finished fourth in the table and qualified for the Champions League for the first time in the club. Bent scored seven goals in 42 appearances.
However, he fell down the pecking order the following campaign with James Beattie preferred after he was signed for £6 million. Bent subsequently eft for Charlton Athletic in January 2006 for £2.3 million. The former England under-21 international had somewhat of a nomadic career afterwards, spending time with Wigan Athletic, Birmingham City, QPR, Wolves and Sheffield United along with Indonesian outfit Mitra Kukar.
Bent, speaking to Everton’s match-day programme before a 0-0 draw against Brentford last month, revealed that Liverpool had been tracking him, having grown up as a Red. But a promise of regular minutes under then-Blues manager Moyes is why he jumped at the chance to make the switch to Goodison Park.
“I was at Ipswich and had done well there but they went into administration,” said Bent. “So I went on loan to Leicester, did well there and they played Everton towards the end of the season when I did well (scoring a 92nd-minute equaliser). I don’t know whether Moyesy had watched me throughout the season or just then because a number of clubs had been watching me.
“Liverpool was one, actually, but Moyesy came in and said he wanted me. I knew I would play, knew Everton was a big club and I had been in Manchester before, played for Blackburn so I knew the area, I’m a Londoner but had spent so much playing for northern clubs that I considered myself to be a northerner, I couldn’t tell you the politics or ins and outs behind the move but it came off and I jumped at the chance.
“Liverpool was my team growing up because of John Barnes and when I moved to Everton, I couldn’t tell them who I supported. But I haven’t really got a team I could say I support - if anything, Everton is my team.”
On his exit, a candid Bent said: “We played Portsmouth away and I knew I was on my way. Moyesy said to me: ‘If it doesn’t work out at Charlton, you’re welcome back here’ but at that point, I’d fallen out with him. I’d just had a baby with my partner and wanted to be back with my family.
“In hindsight, could I have stayed? Looking at the fixtures the following year and what happened, maybe I should have. It affected me a lot and I wasn’t the same at Charlton. It was only when I went to Wigan that I started to get back on track. Leaving Everton affected me really badly but on a positive, I had played for the Blues and I had a great time there. I’ve learned to take the rough with the smooth.”
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