McALLISTER : Darren Bent is a bargain buy
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BARGAIN BUY ... Darren BentGARY McALLISTER reckons Darren Bent is a bargain buy compared to Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll.
Aston Villa stunned Sunderland by swooping for Bent during the January transfer window, paying an intial £18million for the striker's services.
The move was dwarfed on transfer deadline day with Chelsea signing Torres for £50m and Liverpool splashing out £35m on Carroll.
And McAllister believes the size of those fees proves Villa were spot on with the amount they paid for prolific marksman Bent.
Gerard Houllier's assistant said: "Maybe five or six years ago you would have called us all crazy if we were bandying these numbers about.
"But that is the going rate and market forces dictate the price.
"We did our business nice and early in the window and, when you see the prices and transfers at the back end of the transfer window, it looks like a good buy.
"He is proven in the Premier League, he has been in and around it a long time and he is a natural goalscorer."
McAllister played with and against some of the game's best finishers during his career and believes Bent has the same predatory instincts in front of goal.
He added: "You go back to Alan Shearer, Michael Owen and Gary Lineker and the guys I played with for Scotland, Ally McCoist, Mo Johnston and Brian McClair.
"I don't think you can coach that goalscoring art into someone. It is a natural instinct, knowing where to go and arriving at the right time.
"I saw Owen's goal for Manchester United against Southampton in the FA Cup last weekend and would anyone else have scored that? It is instinct. I don't think you can coach it.
"Sometimes you think, 'How did he wander into such a free space and the ball just arrives?'.
"It is a sixth sense, it is a definite skill. Darren has that."
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Have to agree with this! He seems so much cheaper compared to Carrol.../Keane