Darren Bent is a cult hero at Sunderland, but his reputation on Wearside was nearly left in tatters.
The former England striker and current talkSPORT host enjoyed a prolific 18-month spell with the Black Cats, scoring 36 goals in 63 appearances for the club after joining from Tottenham in 2009.
Bent‘s time at the Stadium of Light was short but sweet – and included his famous ‘beach ball goal’ against Liverpool that is now in Premier League folklore – as he then moved to Aston Villa in January 2011 for a club record £24million deal.
Despite an impressive start to life at Villa Park however, the Englishman later struggled to replicate his Sunderland heroics, and was loaned out to Fulham for the 2013/14 campaign.
But a spectacular return to the North East could have been on the cards here, and not to the club fans would expect.
Speaking on talkSPORT Drive with Andy Goldstein, Bent revealed that Newcastle made a last ditch attempt to lure him away from Fulham, after he had passed his medical with the west London outfit.
When asked by a caller to name a club he had turned down but wished he had joined, the former Spurs man recalled a career crossroads which came before he signed for the Cottagers.
He said: “The one [move] I think I probably should have done was when I went to Fulham for a year, and Ian Holloway was at [Crystal] Palace at the time and he was chasing me.
“I’d spoken to Ian Holloway loads of times and I’d spoken to [Alan] Pardew at Newcastle.
“When I think about it now it makes no sense. Palace offered me three years. I’d have been 29, 30 I think.
“Three years at Palace. Newcastle matched it, three years under Mike Ashley with Alan Pardew. And I opted to go to Fulham on loan for a year. I don’t know [why I did that].”
And Bent admitted that he had been certain a move to his once bitter rivals would go ahead, only for them to leave it too late.
He explained: “The weird thing is that I met Alan Pardew the year before, I think we played Wigan.
“And I met Pardew a couple of days later. I was given permission to meet Pardew to speak to him about going to Newcastle, so they were the front runners.
“So I was convinced I was going to Newcastle.”
Bent then revealed that the Magpies’ attempts at signing him came once he was already in the building at Fulham.
The 40-year-old continued: “I didn’t hear from Pardew and Newcastle until after I’d finished my medical at Fulham.
“They called and said: ‘What are you doing? We want you to come up here’.
“I’m like: ‘Well, I’m sitting here now. Why are you telling me this now? You’ve had the jump on everybody’.”
It is hardly surprising Bent now wishes he had taken Pardew up on his offer, with his spell at Fulham a disappointing point in his career.
That season, he scored just three goals in 24 league appearances as the Cottagers were relegated from the Premier League, finishing 19th.
Bent returned to Villa, but his remaining time at the club was spent out on loan, as he split his 2014/15 campaign at Championship sides Brighton and Derby, before joining the latter on a permanent basis.
He retired from football in 2019, hanging up his boots having scored 106 Premier League goals in 276 games, as well as netting four times for England.
But he may always wonder just how much he could have added to this tally had he taken up Pardew on his offer at the final hour.
