David Bentley has wasted no time in spelling out his intention of leaving Blackburn to the club’s new manager Paul Ince. The England international had a meeting with Ince at the club’s training ground on Wednesday, when he told him that he wants Rovers to sell him despite the new manager’s insistence that he was not prepared to part with any of his star names.
Bentley had not made any secret of his desire to leave the club prior to Ince’s appointment as manager last Sunday. However, the speed with which he confronted Ince has surprised those at the club.
Blackburn are privately resigned to selling the player if one of the four Champions League sides makes an offer but, despite some preliminary interest from Liverpool that has not been followed up, there is no evidence that the player is in demand.
Ince made keeping Bentley and the striker Roque Santa Cruz his priority when he gave his first press conference in the job on Tuesday. “If the players tell me they want to go and I say no, they will have to knuckle down and help this club go forward,” Ince said at the time. Bentley has been told that he can leave if a big four club make an acceptable offer, but otherwise he will be obliged to toe the line that Ince set out in his first day in the job.
The problem for Bentley is his decision to sign a new contract last year that ties him to the club until 2011, not exactly establishing for himself the strongest negotiating position. The discussion over him rejecting a new deal this summer was pretty academic, as all that was on offer was improved terms. With three years left on his deal it is the club who believe they have the upper hand with the 23-year-old.
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