Gray: Bent quit rumours ´insulting to fans´

Former Aston Villa player Andy Gray has slammed talk of Darren Bent quitting the club to make himself available during the transfer window.

The former Sunderland striker has been linked with Liverpool in recent days, despite Villa manager Alex McLeish insisting that Bent is staying put.

Ex-Villan Gray, who currently works as a broadcaster for TalkSport, said he believes Bent needs to show his loyalty to his current club.

In his column for the Birmingham Sunday Mercury, the former Scotland international said: “Talk about Darren Bent seeking a new challenge away from Villa Park in the January transfer window is not right in my opinion.”

“It has only been a year since Darren signed for big bucks from Sunderland and moved to Villa.”

“Sorry, he shouldn’t be thinking of going elsewhere. It’s insulting to the fans and the club.”

“My advice to Darren would be to just get on with it this season because he hasn’t been his usual prolific self and he owes Villa more times and more goals, that’s for sure.”

“Darren signed a four-and-a-half-year deal and Villa will undoubtedly be paying him a lot of money for his services.”

Bent left the Stadium of Light for Aston Villa in 2011 and has since made 32 first-team appearances for McLeish’s side, netting 15 times.

However, he has received criticism for poor form recently and this has fuelled speculation that he may look for a fresh start elsewhere.

Despite this, pundit Gray believes that the marksman should roll his sleeves up and produce his best goalscoring form with his current club.

“Just because things aren’t going completely your way at the moment, that is no reason to start sulking and thinking about upping sticks,” he said.

“He needs to keep his head up, start scoring more goals. He needs to stop thinking about leaving.”

“The club has had a difficult season and it has not been helped by a lack of goals from Darren.”