DAVID BENTLEY ENJOYS a laugh, he never stops. After all, life, it’s fair to say, isn’t half bad for him. Three years after walking away from football, Bentley is living the lifestyle he was unable to enjoy during his career.
He now calls Spain his home and it’s there he puts his energies into his young family and an ever-expanding restaurant business. Football couldn’t be any further from his mind.
There were many reasons for his decision to abandon the game at the age of 29, not least the reality of falling out of love with something he’d grown up dreaming of doing.
The scrutiny and criticism of footballers which escalated throughout his career and subsequently exploded with the onset of social media was a significant factor.
The former England international has previously expressed his aversion to people encroaching on his privacy in no uncertain terms. It was one of the reasons why he opted to retreat into the oblivion.
During a brief stopover in Dublin during this week, he spoke of one particular incident during his Tottenham days when the person next to him in a restaurant tactically lifted their phone, pretending to read a message, to get a picture of Bentley and his wife.
“When did that even become acceptable?,” he asks, genuinely irked by the person’s impulse to take a picture for Twitter. Interestingly, he doesn’t have any social media accounts himself.
“It’s missing, something is missing. We’re human beings, we want to have fun. It shouldn’t be like that, I don’t know what’s wrong with modern football.
“When I started at Arsenal there was [Tony] Adams and [Ray] Parlour and they were loving it. They were living the best lives they could and yeah they ran into problems but everyone was having fun.
David Bentley celebrates scoring for Arsenal in the FA Cup back in 2004. Tony Marshall
Tony Marshall
“It’s definitely changed. I mean football used to be like that back in the day when I first started playing but it’s changed a lot because society has changed. You know: the media, social media, the focus, the money, the bitter minds of people towards the players.
“You literally play football, go home and that’s it. Whereas before, there was a lot more fun. It was an enjoyable experience. You’re pictured out having a drink with your dinner and you’re a drinker or out playing golf and you get criticised.”
Bentley has no such worries now. His ‘La Sala’ business (Stephen Carr is also a shareholder) in the south of Spain is thriving and he looks back on his truncated career with fondness. For the first time in a while, he’s at ease in his surroundings.
“I’m very busy, three children, businesses and stuff like that,” the 31-year-old said. “The planets aligned. My contract ended with Tottenham, my missus was pregnant with twins and I just thought I had a decision to make, what do I do?
“I had my business out in Spain and I wanted to bring my children out there and my six-year-old was just starting school. I made a decision, you know what, it just shows one comment ‘falling out of love with it’ and it’s stuck with me.
“I haven’t fallen out of love with it, I love the game, it’s my life, I dedicated my life to it but I needed to move on. I could have signed on again for another two or three years but that wasn’t something I wanted to do.”
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His career was full of promise so it’s probably natural, from the outside looking in, to paint him with the brush of a wasted talent. He was extremely talented, a particularly gifted set-piece taker who won seven caps for England under Steve McClaren.
There was a time, most notably after he scored a hat-trick against Man United for Blackburn Rovers, when he was being labelled as one of England’s brightest young stars.
He was even compared to David Beckham. For whatever reason, it never quite worked out.
“I didn’t waste a minute of it,” Bentley says looking back. “I enjoyed every single minute of playing football, even in the bad times. People on the outside looking in, they want to see a success, a medal, a trophy or something, I just enjoyed every minute of it.
Bentley in Dublin this week. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
“It panned out really well, really happy with what happened. I didn’t want to hang around, did what I did and got out. You don’t have a long time to live. There’s only so much money you can earn, how much do you need?”
“I live a great life, very happy and privileged. I came from nothing. Mum and Dad used to struggle to give me five quid. I used to buy shoes from the car boot sale and whatever else is a bonus. All this is fun. From a kid struggling to this.”
Bentley’s attitude is certainly shaped by his upbringing. He almost has a childlike sense of fun, the joker in the room, and two hours in his company reveals his true personality.
“This is the most enjoyable interview you’ll ever do,” his agent said before we sat down, and he wasn’t wrong either.
The former winger has years worth of stories to tell. The most infamous is probably of the circumstances surrounding the now famed Christmas party in Dublin with Tottenham.
“It was good, we were all to blame,” he said of the trip. “Most of us planned it together, worst plan ever. It was when camera phones weren’t really around and before Twitter and Instagram and all that sort of stuff. It’s impossible now.
“It was good, we had a great time. I actually got in a little bit of a heated row with Harry [Redknapp] that day and he made me stay behind and do a bit of extra running.
“The flight was taking off at 1.30pm and all the lads had gone and they were all waiting on the plane for me. I was trying to get my running done and I was like I have to go I have to go and he made me finish.
“I finished at 12.45 and I was 45 mins away so they all had to wait for me on the plane. Harry was not impressed when he found out.”
Bentley helped Spurs qualify for the Champions League in 2010. EMPICS Sport
EMPICS Sport
“In the old days, that’s the way it used to be. Even the press guys and players would go out for a beer. There was not this us against them mentality. That exists with players, press, fans.
“It’s like someone is always waiting for you to say something or they’re looking to get something out of you.
“You listen to an interview and close your eyes and you’ll think all the players and managers are the same person. ‘Taking each game as it comes’, it’s the same.
“It’s not the players, they go away and have a great personality but you just feel like you’re going to get shafted. You now have to put up a barrier and that’s what’s happened to protect yourself or if you don’t you get shafted.”
Disillusioned and disenchanted, Bentley lost his way. He desperately searched for a spark to ignite his faltering career. Firstly in Russia with FC Rostov and then a brief spell with Birmingham City. It never arrived.
He announced his retirement on Sky Sports and fought his way through tears to reveal his reasons.
“My love for the game went a little bit and I didn’t want to carry on just for the fact of paying me money. I wanted to go in a different direction. Perhaps I didn’t have the head for professional football.”
“But when I go back out, I go ‘oh yeah I actually love doing this’. I’ll never lose that love, I mean kicking the ball is the best thing I’ve ever done. When I go out there, I go fucking hell I love this.
“Once I cross that white line it becomes fun again. I do miss certain elements, being with the lads because there is good people in football but the players aren’t allowed to flourish and they’re restricted.
Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
“It really frustrates me. You won’t to be able to express yourself. Anything I do in life I try to do that, it’s the way I’ve been brought up. I’m not losing a minute, go out to enjoy yourself and if I’m not allowed to do that then I’m not going to do it.
“It’s like anything if you’re not allowed to enjoy yourself then why do it? If your missus just lays there you’re never going to enjoy it, you want her to be involved as well because you’re not going to do it otherwise.
“If you’re scared of doing it. Scared of missing, fucking up you’re going to play within yourself and that’s what happens with players.
“Scared to make a mistake, because you get criticised for it. Players playing side to side and the simple ball. Players used to play it with the outside of their boot, remember that?”
Later today, two of Bentley’s former clubs go head-to-head in a north London derby which is being labelled as the most significant meeting of the rivals in some time.
While he admits he doesn’t get to watch much football these days, he believes Tottenham will be too strong for the Gunners this afternoon.
“Arsenal will certainly be hurting more because to lose to Swansea at home just isn’t good enough if you want to challenge for the title particularly after a poor performance at Old Trafford last weekend.
“Saturday’s game will be tense and for me it’s either a draw or a Spurs win. I just don’t see Arsenal doing it on current form.”
He’ll watch it with a vested interest from afar but regardless of the result he’ll return to living a thousand miles away from it all, content in his bubble away from the spotlight.
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'There's only so much money you need and I wasn't enjoying getting paid to play football'
DAVID BENTLEY ENJOYS a laugh, he never stops. After all, life, it’s fair to say, isn’t half bad for him. Three years after walking away from football, Bentley is living the lifestyle he was unable to enjoy during his career.
He now calls Spain his home and it’s there he puts his energies into his young family and an ever-expanding restaurant business. Football couldn’t be any further from his mind.
There were many reasons for his decision to abandon the game at the age of 29, not least the reality of falling out of love with something he’d grown up dreaming of doing.
The scrutiny and criticism of footballers which escalated throughout his career and subsequently exploded with the onset of social media was a significant factor.
The former England international has previously expressed his aversion to people encroaching on his privacy in no uncertain terms. It was one of the reasons why he opted to retreat into the oblivion.
During a brief stopover in Dublin during this week, he spoke of one particular incident during his Tottenham days when the person next to him in a restaurant tactically lifted their phone, pretending to read a message, to get a picture of Bentley and his wife.
“When did that even become acceptable?,” he asks, genuinely irked by the person’s impulse to take a picture for Twitter. Interestingly, he doesn’t have any social media accounts himself.
“It’s missing, something is missing. We’re human beings, we want to have fun. It shouldn’t be like that, I don’t know what’s wrong with modern football.
“When I started at Arsenal there was [Tony] Adams and [Ray] Parlour and they were loving it. They were living the best lives they could and yeah they ran into problems but everyone was having fun.
“It’s definitely changed. I mean football used to be like that back in the day when I first started playing but it’s changed a lot because society has changed. You know: the media, social media, the focus, the money, the bitter minds of people towards the players.
“You literally play football, go home and that’s it. Whereas before, there was a lot more fun. It was an enjoyable experience. You’re pictured out having a drink with your dinner and you’re a drinker or out playing golf and you get criticised.”
Bentley has no such worries now. His ‘La Sala’ business (Stephen Carr is also a shareholder) in the south of Spain is thriving and he looks back on his truncated career with fondness. For the first time in a while, he’s at ease in his surroundings.
“I’m very busy, three children, businesses and stuff like that,” the 31-year-old said. “The planets aligned. My contract ended with Tottenham, my missus was pregnant with twins and I just thought I had a decision to make, what do I do?
“I haven’t fallen out of love with it, I love the game, it’s my life, I dedicated my life to it but I needed to move on. I could have signed on again for another two or three years but that wasn’t something I wanted to do.”
His career was full of promise so it’s probably natural, from the outside looking in, to paint him with the brush of a wasted talent. He was extremely talented, a particularly gifted set-piece taker who won seven caps for England under Steve McClaren.
There was a time, most notably after he scored a hat-trick against Man United for Blackburn Rovers, when he was being labelled as one of England’s brightest young stars.
He was even compared to David Beckham. For whatever reason, it never quite worked out.
“I didn’t waste a minute of it,” Bentley says looking back. “I enjoyed every single minute of playing football, even in the bad times. People on the outside looking in, they want to see a success, a medal, a trophy or something, I just enjoyed every minute of it.
“It panned out really well, really happy with what happened. I didn’t want to hang around, did what I did and got out. You don’t have a long time to live. There’s only so much money you can earn, how much do you need?”
“I live a great life, very happy and privileged. I came from nothing. Mum and Dad used to struggle to give me five quid. I used to buy shoes from the car boot sale and whatever else is a bonus. All this is fun. From a kid struggling to this.”
Bentley’s attitude is certainly shaped by his upbringing. He almost has a childlike sense of fun, the joker in the room, and two hours in his company reveals his true personality.
“This is the most enjoyable interview you’ll ever do,” his agent said before we sat down, and he wasn’t wrong either.
The former winger has years worth of stories to tell. The most infamous is probably of the circumstances surrounding the now famed Christmas party in Dublin with Tottenham.
“It was good, we had a great time. I actually got in a little bit of a heated row with Harry [Redknapp] that day and he made me stay behind and do a bit of extra running.
“The flight was taking off at 1.30pm and all the lads had gone and they were all waiting on the plane for me. I was trying to get my running done and I was like I have to go I have to go and he made me finish.
“I finished at 12.45 and I was 45 mins away so they all had to wait for me on the plane. Harry was not impressed when he found out.”
“In the old days, that’s the way it used to be. Even the press guys and players would go out for a beer. There was not this us against them mentality. That exists with players, press, fans.
“It’s like someone is always waiting for you to say something or they’re looking to get something out of you.
“You listen to an interview and close your eyes and you’ll think all the players and managers are the same person. ‘Taking each game as it comes’, it’s the same.
Disillusioned and disenchanted, Bentley lost his way. He desperately searched for a spark to ignite his faltering career. Firstly in Russia with FC Rostov and then a brief spell with Birmingham City. It never arrived.
He announced his retirement on Sky Sports and fought his way through tears to reveal his reasons.
“My love for the game went a little bit and I didn’t want to carry on just for the fact of paying me money. I wanted to go in a different direction. Perhaps I didn’t have the head for professional football.”
“Once I cross that white line it becomes fun again. I do miss certain elements, being with the lads because there is good people in football but the players aren’t allowed to flourish and they’re restricted.
“It really frustrates me. You won’t to be able to express yourself. Anything I do in life I try to do that, it’s the way I’ve been brought up. I’m not losing a minute, go out to enjoy yourself and if I’m not allowed to do that then I’m not going to do it.
“It’s like anything if you’re not allowed to enjoy yourself then why do it? If your missus just lays there you’re never going to enjoy it, you want her to be involved as well because you’re not going to do it otherwise.
“If you’re scared of doing it. Scared of missing, fucking up you’re going to play within yourself and that’s what happens with players.
“Scared to make a mistake, because you get criticised for it. Players playing side to side and the simple ball. Players used to play it with the outside of their boot, remember that?”
Later today, two of Bentley’s former clubs go head-to-head in a north London derby which is being labelled as the most significant meeting of the rivals in some time.
While he admits he doesn’t get to watch much football these days, he believes Tottenham will be too strong for the Gunners this afternoon.
“Arsenal will certainly be hurting more because to lose to Swansea at home just isn’t good enough if you want to challenge for the title particularly after a poor performance at Old Trafford last weekend.
“Saturday’s game will be tense and for me it’s either a draw or a Spurs win. I just don’t see Arsenal doing it on current form.”
He’ll watch it with a vested interest from afar but regardless of the result he’ll return to living a thousand miles away from it all, content in his bubble away from the spotlight.
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David Bentley Interview