Darren Bent trained with West Ham United midfielder Carlos Sanchez during their time at Aston Villa.
There were a number of Columbian stars that shone at the 2014 World Cup, from James Rodriguez, who earned a move to Real Madrid and now-West Ham’s Carlos Sanchez, who at the time earned a move to Aston Villa.
Darren Bent was at Villa when then-boss Paul Lambert brought the defensive-minded midfielder to the club, and after watching him struggle at West Ham, the former striker has shared an insight into what Sanchez was like in training in B6.
The TalkSport pundit, whilst speaking to Drive (27/01/20 at 5:10 pm), mocked his former teammate by sharing that he ‘couldn’t really run around’ at Villa and simply put ‘couldn’t do anything’, as he suffered relegation with the club in 2016. The fear is that the same could now happen in East London.
“I was with Sanchez at Villa,” Bent told TalkSport. “I think he had come off the back of a World Cup and Lambert brought him in. And he played well [at the WC].
“But he came to Aston Villa and he couldn’t really run around. He couldn’t anything. I think he went back to Spain [after leaving Villa] and then went to West Ham.”
These comments by Bent will not surprise the West Ham faithful one bit because it was a bit of a surprise when Manuel Pellegrini brought him to the club in 2018.
Despite his struggles at Villa, Pellegrini seemingly saw something in the player that not many, other than Lambert, saw in the 33-year-old.
Over the weekend, he started for David Moyes’ side as they suffered an FA Cup home defeat to a second-string West Brom side. It didn’t surprise a single soul in the stadium when Sanchez was one of three players hauled off at half-time.
Gareth Barry and Chris Brunt, who have a combined age of 73 dominated the midfield battle, which was perhaps another indicator that Sanchez simply isn’t good enough for top-flight football.
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