Charlton Athletic struck gold thanks to Ipswich Town | OneFootball

Darren Bent was a bargain when he joined Charlton Athletic for £2.5 million from Ipswich Town in the summer of 2005.

Back in the summer of 2005, Charlton Athletic pulled off what would turn out to be one of the very best bargains in the Premier League during the 2000s as they signed Darren Bent from Ipswich Town.

The Addicks, establishing themselves as a top-flight mainstay, wanted to take the next step in their development as a club as they aimed for European qualification having finished seventh a couple of seasons before under the management of Alan Curbishley.

Bent didn’t quite take them on to those heights following his £2.5 million move from Ipswich Town but the south Londoners remained in the Premier League but his individual exploits were enough for him to earn himself an England cap during his first season at The Valley.

As well as that individual accolade, Bent also managed to net Charlton a sizeable profit upon their relegation to the Championship at the end of the 2006/07 campaign with his move to capital city rivals Tottenham Hotspur believed to be in the region of £16.5 million.

A born poacher, the Tooting-born marksman may not have taken Charlton to the next level but he is remembered fondly for his performances with the club.

Darren Bent’s Charlton Athletic career

In just two seasons, Bent recorded 37 goals in 79 matches across all competitions for the Red Robins as they finished 13th and then 19th in the top-flight, perhaps highlighting Bent’s qualities even further with his ability to score regularly for a team some way off being one of the best or most attacking in the league.

After scoring a brace on his debut against Sunderland he never looked back and became one of only six players to score four goals in his first six appearances for a new club, winning the Premier League Player of the Month award in August 2005.

In his first season, he netted 18 of his eventual 116 Premier League goals in just 36 appearances for mid-table Athletic before a further 13 strikes in 32 appearances as they were relegated down to the second-tier.

Prior to his move to Charlton, Bent had enjoyed an impressive start to his career at Portman Road with Ipswich Town, whereby he had come into the first-team in the Premier League and scored in one of five appearances for the Tractor Boys in the top tier of English football.

The subsequent three seasons saw him dominate the second-tier as he hit 47 goals in three second division campaigns, finishing off with 20 in 45 before the move down to London.

Ex-Charlton Athletic star Darren Bent did not enjoy international success with England

That England call-up and cap in his first season at Charlton was not to be the start of a blossoming international career for Bent, though, as he managed just 13 appearances for the Three Lions, scoring three goals.

Despite being the highest scoring Englishman in the Premier League in the 05/06 season, he was omitted from Sven-Goran Eriksson’s 2006 FIFA World Cup squad in Germany, which eventually finished the tournament as quarter-finalists.

In fact, Bent didn’t appear at a single tournament for his country with England failing to qualify for UEFA EURO 2008 and being deemed not fit enough by Roy Hodgson for UEFA EURO 2012. He was named in Fabio Capello’s 30-man preliminary squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup but missed the cut.

After Charlton, he went on to hit 25 goals in 79 games for Tottenham during an underwhelming stint at White Hart Lane before reigniting his career at Sunderland.

After scoring 24 goals in the 2009/10 Premier League campaign, Bent then raced to eight from 20 games the following season and that led to Aston Villa purchasing him for a then club record fee of £24 million.

Bent finished that 2010/11 season with nine goals in 16 league games for the Villains but his career at Villa Park never really got going after that and, after a loan stint with Fulham in the 2013/14 season, his top-flight career ended.

The latter seasons of his career that can be characterised as unfortunate due to a lack of international recognition were played in the Championship with Brighton and Hove Albion briefly before a move to Derby County, where he did reach double figures in the 2016/17 campaign, and then a loan spell at Burton Albion.

What came after Charlton was still impressive but, for a moment in time, Charlton and England unearthed a gem of a striker and, for a fee of just £2.5 million, he remains one of the better pieces of business done by a Premier League club.