“I’m unsure whether to believe it” – Bent on coaching advice he had at Spurs

Former Tottenham striker Darren Bent has revealed that Clive Allen once told him to stop practising his finishing when he was going through a poor run of form.

Allen certainly knew where the net was during his playing days, with the striker once even netting 49 goals in a single season during his time at White Hart Lane.

The 59-year-old was a coach during Bent’s two years at Spurs, even temporarily taking charge of a game as caretaker boss when Juande Ramos left and Harry Redknapp arrived.

While Bent had a decent scoring record at North London, he did go through a couple of dry spells during his time at the club.

Redknapp even once famously remarked after the striker missed a sitter against Portsmouth that his wife Sandra would have put it in the back of the net.

When Bent was going through one such slump, he revealed that Allen told him to stop practising as he would otherwise end up reinforcing bad habits.

The 36-year-old told talkSPORT Breakfast: “When I was at Spurs, Clive Allen gave me some advice and even to this day I’m unsure whether to believe it or not,”

“He always said to me, ‘if you’re going through a barren run you shouldn’t practice as much in front of goal, because you are practicing bad habits’.

“When you are in that type of form and not scoring goals and a little bit unsure, you’re putting it wide and your timing is off. He said, ‘don’t practice now because you are practicing bad habits in this period’.

“He said, ‘just leave it until you get out of this slump and get your mojo back, then you can go back to it. While you’re in this slump where you’re timing is off don’t over practice’.”

Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Related Topics

Have something to tell us about this article? Let us know