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      Troy Deeney relives prison stint that could have cost him football career as he launches brilliant new Sun column

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      EMERGING from his jail cell, Troy Deeney would seek out a copy of The Sun to keep him in touch with the outside world.
      But leafing through SunSport one day, he was dismayed to find that, following a spate of signings, he was now seventh-choice striker at Watford.

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      Troy Deeney is The Sun’s brilliant new columnist and forthright talkSPORT presenterCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

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      The Watford striker says he wants to bring ‘something unique and give a different perspective’Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd

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      In an interview to celebrate his column, Troy talks about being brought up by his mum EmmaCredit: Instagram

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      He was also raised by Paul Anthony Burke, pictured here with Troy and brother Ellis

      Shamed at being incarcerated for a drunken brawl, grieving for his dead father and now facing the loss of his livelihood, it may have crushed a lesser man.
      But today, as Troy is unveiled as The Sun’s brilliant new columnist and forthright talkSPORT presenter, he remembers the stark warnings from fellow cons that helped him turn his life around.
      In a soft Brummie lilt, he tells me: “Other prisoners would look at the pictures of my family that I had put on my cell wall and say, ‘What are you doing here? You’re a f***ing idiot’.
      “Prison gives you time to reflect. I’d embarrassed my family. You can sulk about it or you can man up and fix it.

      “And that’s what I did. I fixed it with the help of some good people around me. And I haven’t looked back since.”
      Now Troy, 32, is itching to write his first column for you.
      He says: “The Sun is a massive paper and I understand the roles and responsibilities that go with that.
      “I want to add something unique and give a different perspective, not only on sport but many areas.”

      Don’t expect him to be pulling punches. When I ask him about racism in football — he supports taking the knee and believes black managers are being passed over — he is quick to also point out the lack of diversity among journalists.
      TATTOOED MUSCLE
      And he’d welcome a gay player coming out at Watford, adding: “I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t accept anyone from that community but expect anyone to take racism seriously.”
      Writing is important for Troy — and has been instrumental in healing the wounds of his past.
      Pointing at the head that has won so many Premier League aerial battles, he says: “All the madness that’s up here, I just try and write it out to make sense of it.”
      It has taken five years of counselling with a psychologist to help deal with “unresolved issues” that he once tried to soothe with alcohol.
      He says he hasn’t drunk for nine months and writes to help put his life in order.

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      Troy grew up in a flat in a tower block in Birmingham

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      His biological father left when he was nine months old

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      He says mum Emma, who worked three jobs to support Troy and his siblings, is his ‘warrior and angel’
      After leaving jail in 2012 Troy became “Mr Watford”, leading the club to the Premier League’s sunlit uplands as its captain, praised as an inspirational leader, loved by the fans.
      Now he will have a new audience as part of The Sun’s unrivalled team of football commentators and writers.
      And if lived experience is any guide to what makes a good columnist, then articulate Troy will go far.
      He was brought up in a tower block flat on tough Birmingham overspill estate Chelmsley Wood by his “warrior and angel” mum, Emma.
      His biological father left when Troy was nine months old. Although Troy sought him out as a teenager, the pair have no relationship now.

      Prison gives you time to reflect. I’d embarrassed my family. You can sulk about it or you can man up and fix it.

      Troy — six feet of tattooed muscle — says of the abandonment: “There’s still a bit in me, a nasty side of me, that’s like, ‘I hope you see every single thing I’m doing successfully, and metaphorically, it kills you’.”
      Emma worked three jobs to support Troy, his brother Ellis — now 29 and playing for Southern League Premier Division club Stourbridge — and his sister Sasha, 23.
      Their nan helped him buy his football boots with weekly payments through the Kays catalogue.
      In place of his biological father, the man who Troy calls Dad was Paul Anthony Burke — his “superhero”, despite being a violent career drug dealer whose jail sentences were explained away in the family as “business trips”.
      Aged ten, Troy and brother Ellis, then seven, were asleep in their bunk beds when the door was smashed off its hinges by police who then grappled with Burke.
      After he was arrested, mum Emma explained it away as Dad going off to play football with some mates.
      But soon afterwards she left Burke, prompting an outburst of violence by him that led to Troy being visited by concerned social workers.
      Burke had picked up Troy and his siblings from their auntie’s home and demanded to be shown where their mum was now living. They didn’t want to tell him but “had no choice”.
      Burke kicked in the door at the address and found Emma sitting in an armchair.

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      It has taken five years of counselling to help Troy deal with ‘unresolved issues’Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

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      After his release from prison in 2012, football proved to be Troy’s salvationCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

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      He became ‘Mr Watford’ and has been praised as an inspirational leaderCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
      Troy recalls: “He kept telling her that she needed to come home. She said, ‘No’. And every time she did, he would punch her.
      “I kept jumping in front of him, trying to make him stop, only to take a punch myself and fall to the floor. Then I’d get back up and take another punch.”
      Police hauled Burke off and he returned to jail for that offence.
      Today Troy says: “I don’t mind talking about it because I think it raises awareness for others.”
      And he even forgave his father. He says: “He was still my Superman. If you’re from an area where violence, drugs and gambling isn’t prolific, then it looks weird.
      “But if it’s normal that everyone around you has had some form of trauma, then you don’t feel sorry for yourself.”
      Football eventually proved Troy’s salvation.
      The boyhood Birmingham City fan flunked a trial at Aston Villa’s academy and became a £120-a-week bricklayer, paying his mum £50 a week to live at home.
      A bustling, physical centre forward, he signed for local non-league team Chelmsley Town, moving to Walsall in 2007 and Watford in 2010.
      He says: “I went from £180 a week to four and a half grand a week, and I was still living in Chelmsley Wood.
      “Putting that into perspective, a year of my then wages could have bought two houses on the estate.”
      But Troy admits: “When the money and adulation came, I acted like a d***.”
      That could mean 15 shots of Jack Daniel’s and a scrap as he hit the town with friends and hangers on, while picking up the tab.
      Troy’s wild social life hurtled towards its perhaps inevitable conclusion in a haze of alcohol outside a nightclub in Birmingham’s Broad Street in February 2012.
      FEND FOR YOURSELF
      His dad had been diagnosed with terminal cancer of the oesophagus, leaving Troy “angry and hurt”.
      Hitting the town for a friend’s birthday the next evening, Troy and his brother were involved in a fight after knocking back £2 shots.

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      Today Troy lives happily with his partner Alisha Hosannah

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      The couple live with ten-month-old baby Clay and his step-daughter Isla
      He says: “We’d had a good night. I was going home, walking up the road and I was on the phone and someone just went, ‘You know your brother’s in a fight?’ As I turned round, there was a big melee, and I saw red.”
      He says he “forgot who I was” and “steamrollered” in.
      The following June, two days before Troy’s trial, his dad died. He was 47 and Troy read the eulogy at his funeral.
      Forty eight hours later, Watford’s star striker was jailed for ten months after admitting affray.
      Yet when the cell door slammed shut in Birmingham’s Winson Green prison, there were no tears from Troy.
      He says candidly: “I don’t cry. I struggle with it.
      “I was on K Wing. The guard who opened the door and pushed me in said, ‘Oh, by the way, the other prisoners know who you are’.
      “He shut the door. I thought, ‘Cheers, mate’. At that point, it’s just fend for yourself.”
      Troy was looked after by the other cons because his father had also served time there. And they were quick to give him a life lesson.
      He recalls: “My dad’s friends were like, ‘If we didn’t have the respect we have for your dad, we’d be filling you in. Do you know how much of an idiot you are? You were the hope for everybody else, and you’re in here with us’.
      “It was weird to be told you’re an idiot by criminals. It was a new low for me. So I went, ‘OK, I get it’.”
      Troy was fitted with an ankle tag which he wore while playing for Watford just ten days after his release after serving nearly three months.
      Fighting his way back into the team, he became the Hornets’ talisman and captain.

      It was weird to be told you’re an idiot by criminals. It was a new low for me.

      Today he lives happily with his partner and “best friend”, graphic designer Alisha Hosannah, 27, ten-month-old baby Clay and step-daughter Isla, five.
      He also has two children, Miles, ten, and five-year-old Amelia, with his ex-wife, Stacey.
      Worried for Clay’s health in the pandemic — he has suffered with breathing difficulties — Troy had initially baulked at football’s Project Restart before he was reassured by health experts and joined training.
      He bristles when I mention how internet trolls targeted Clay, saying they hoped he contracted Covid.
      He says: “Normally I laugh it off but this time my punch bag got it for an hour before I calmed down.

      “Just because footballers earn a lot of money, it doesn’t mean we’re not human.”
      Posing for photos for Sun snapper Dickie Pelham, Troy flexes a bicep with a tattoo reading: “I have fought a good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.”
      Listening to his incredible story of redemption, few would doubt it.

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      Now Troy will have a new audience as part of our unrivalled teamCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

      Troy Deeney calls Sky Sports reporter ‘cheeky b——’ as he asks if Watford captain, 32, will retire
      GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL exclusive@the-sun.co.uk More

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      Klopp says Liverpool will wait for Van Dijk injury return like a ‘good wife when her husband is in jail’

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      JURGEN KLOPP says Liverpool will wait for Virgil van Dijk like ‘a good wife when her husband is in jail’.
      Reds defender Van Dijk is set to miss the entire season with a knee injury as a result of Jordan Pickford’s horror tackle in the Merseyside derby.

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      Virgil van Dijk will be out for many months after the injury in Saturday’s derbyCredit: AFP or licensors

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      Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has vowed to wait for his star defenderCredit: AP:Associated Press

      Boss Klopp said: “He will be out for a pretty long time.
      “We are there for him, he knows that. We will wait for him like a good wife is waiting when the husband is in jail and will do all we can to make it as easy for him as possible.
      “We feel for him. We know these situations are absolutely rubbish.
      “But Virgil will get over it, 100 per cent.”

      Police are probing vile abuse directed at Everton stars Pickford and Richarlison on social media as a result of their lunges in Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Goodison Park.
      England No 1 Pickford escaped a retrospective ban for his challenge that has wrecked Van Dijk’s season.

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      How Liverpool have fared with and without Van Dijk
      Richarlison was sent off for a lunge on Thiago Alcantara which will cause the midfielder to miss Liverpool’s Champions League opener against Ajax tomorrow.
      A Merseyside Police spokesperson said: “We are investigating a number of offensive tweets.

      “The language used is totally unacceptable and we are taking the reports extremely seriously.”
      Liverpool have received an apology from Prem refs’ chiefs over the failure to dismiss Pickford. As SunSport revealed yesterday, FA disciplinary beaks confirmed they are unable to issue any charges against the Everton man despite recognising a major blunder.
      With referee Michael Oliver unsighted, VAR David Coote should have looked at the clash after confirming the correct decision to raise the offside flag against Van Dijk.
      Yet he failed to recommend Oliver review the pitchside monitor, merely backing the on-field flag.

      It was human error and all we can do is apologise for it.
      Dermot GallagherPGMOL Spokesperson

      Under FA disciplinary guidelines, retrospective action is now only applicable where an incident is deemed “extraordinary” or where it was “not seen” by either the match officials or the VAR.
      Oliver was aware of the collision while his assistant had a clear view — and the incident was on the screen Coote studied.
      It leaves Pickford in the clear, although former Prem ref Dermot Gallagher, a spokesperson for referees group PGMOL, said sorry to Liverpool.
      Gallagher said: “It was human error and all we can do is apologise for it.”

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      How Virgil van Dijk compares to the rest of the PL’s defenders

      Jurgen Klopp says he doesn’t know how serious Van Dijk’s injury is and discusses the off-side situation More

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      Premier League is becoming like the Championship – magnificently bonkers with goals galore and nobody can defend

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      SO Tottenham still can’t defend, Manchester United can’t defend — and Manchester City haven’t been able to defend consistently well since Vincent Kompany left.
      Chelsea can’t defend to such an extent that the second of the three goals they shipped against Southampton made them look like a contemporary dance troupe performing a dramatic parody of really bad defending.

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      Manuel lanzini crashed home a spectacular equaliser to secure a point away at Spurs

      And Liverpool, who had suddenly lost the ability to defend this season, have now lost the best defender in the world for several months at best.
      That extraordinary 7-2 hammering at Aston Villa had already indicated that this would not be another procession for Jurgen Klopp’s men.
      Yet they were still firm favourites to retain their crown until confirmation that Virgil van Dijk requires knee ligament surgery, and could miss the rest of the campaign, after Jordan Pickford’s reckless challenge in the Merseyside derby.
      Since the Dutchman joined, Liverpool have kept 44 clean sheets in his 95 matches — and went 14 months without losing a Premier League match.

      With Alisson also out for a month, and back-up keeper Adrian a weak link, the Reds are suddenly vulnerable.
      But if title-winning teams are always built on a strong backline, then who on Earth will challenge them this season?
      Defending is out of fashion — the days of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho, Tony Adams and Martin Keown, long gone.
      Arsenal are more defensively solid under Mikel Arteta, yet still succumbed rather meekly at Anfield and the Etihad.

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      Liverpool have more defensive worries now with Virgil van Dijk out for a long timeCredit: PA:Press Association

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      Teams are seeing goals fly in against them from all anglesCredit: AP:Associated Press

      Leicester do not have the squad depth to mount another challenge, while Everton have a goalkeeper with an angry beehive inside his head.
      Can Villa, the only team in Europe’s top five leagues with a 100 per cent record, do a Leicester?
      Well, bookies no longer offer 5,000-1 pre-season title odds and Villa have Terry in the dugout — an actual proper defender. How retro.
      Something extremely odd is occurring in this behind-closed-doors era.
      The Premier League has become the new Championship — magnificently, unpredictably bonkers.

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      Chelse aboss Frank Lampard still has a job on his hands to get his team to defend properlyCredit: AP:Associated Press
      And 3-3 is the new 1-1, now a bog-standard scoreline.
      Throughout the Premier League’s 28 seasons, the average number of goals per match has always fallen between 2.48 and 2.82 and there had been no noticeable upward trend over the past decade.
      Yet in the first 46 matches of this campaign — a pretty decent sample size — that figure has risen to a statistically-staggering 3.72.
      Before Project Restart, we feared matches would become half-paced and sterile.
      And while we miss you all — empty stadiums are not just horribly quiet but also remarkably cold without your body heat — the football is gloriously chaotic.

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      The usually reliable Harry Maguire has looked confidence-sapped this seasonCredit: Jon Super-The Guardian
      Nobody predicted this nor fully understands it. Unless losing the ability to defend in football matches is an as-yet-undiagnosed Covid symptom, we can only assume that attacking players are less risk-averse without the presence of a crowd, while defensive players are less attuned to danger.
      VAR is not to blame, given that it takes away as many goals through dodgy offsides as it gives us with dodgy penalty awards for handball.
      Anyway, if all of this thrilling unpredictability in individual matches and the league table is difficult to explain, it is also very welcome. If you can afford £400 a month to watch it all live, you’d even be close to getting value for money.
      So who might win it, then? City appear to have signed a decent defender in Ruben Dias, yet how to eliminate that sense of drift under Pep Guardiola — who is out of contract next summer and has misplaced his mojo?
      Chelsea signed two good ’uns in Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell — as well as a wonderful striker in Timo Werner — but there is not yet the slightest sign of defensive shape or sanity.
      United didn’t significantly strengthen their backline when they were supposed to be exploiting a weakened transfer market to do just that.
      Had Spurs seen out a 3-0 victory over West Ham, they would be talked up as genuine title contenders, such is the synergy between Harry Kane and Son Heung-min. But they didn’t.
      So, who then? Who knows. Let’s just enjoy the mayhem, embrace the chaos.
      In these lunatic times, we finally have some uncertainty we can all enjoy.

      David Moyes ecstatic after West Ham draw 3-3 with Tottenham saying they never give up More

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      Pickford blunder shows Prem needs MAJOR changes in refereeing… let us old boys be VARs

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      THE standard of officiating in the Premier League this season is way below what we expect.
      Wholesale changes are needed to right the way to the very top of the refereeing hierarchy to end this decline.

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      Pickford escaped punishment for this tackle on Van Dijk – leading to another debate about the effectiveness of VARCredit: Eddie Keogh Telegraph Media Group

      We’ve had yet another weekend of poor decisions, topped off by Jordan Pickford escaping any punishment for that shocking challenge on Virgil van Dijk — with VAR not even looking at it.
      Michael Oliver will be disappointed he didn’t see the challenge but there were players blocking his view.
      I know exactly how he feels, because I missed Wigan winger Callum McManaman’s infamous lunge on Newcastle’s Massadio Haidara seven years ago.
      This is when you want VAR to come and help you — when a clear and obvious error has been made.It’s evident things aren’t right with the leadership and direction of management within the refereeing fraternity.

      We have got some really good referees and you don’t become a bad ref overnight.Just like players don’t become bad players overnight.
      It’s the severe lack of coaching, leadership and direction of our refs that is responsible for indifferent performances.

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      Van Dijk went off injured after being clattered by the Everton goalkeeperCredit: AP:Associated Press

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      Halsey missed the foul by Callum McManaman on Massadio HaidaraCredit: Rex Features
      Like with managers — the best coaches turn average players into good players and good players into excellent players.
      That’s no different with referees and we have got people now that are coaching at the top level that have never refereed at the top level — or even been referees.

      Take, for instance, Adam Watts, who manages the referees. He is a nice guy but has never refereed. He was an assistant ref, who is now a Select Group manager.
      He is telling the referees what he wants from them. But you need to have been involved at the top level to know how to handle different personalities and get them onside.
      Say, for argument’s sake, it was someone like me. At least I have refereed at the top level, managed games and made mistakes. It is how you move on from those mistakes.

      It’s evident things aren’t right with the leadership and direction of management within the refereeing fraternity.

      Referees are like players — we both thrive on our confidence. And some referees, like players, need a kick up the backside.Some need a little bit of loving with an arm around them now and again.
      But you make a mistake nowadays and you could be put out to grass for three or four weeks, depending who you are.You have the likes of  Oliver, Andy Taylor, Martin Atkinson and, love him or hate him, Mike Dean  — they are all very good referees.

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      VAR was introduced at the beginning of the 2019-20 season – but has only added to controversy surrounding refereeingCredit: PA:Press Association

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      David Coote was the VAR official during the Merseyside derby Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd
      They are the referees they trust, the guys they don’t trust just pick up the pieces.So you have now got three divisions within the refereeing group — the top order, middle order and lower order.
      I don’t blame our referees, I think they are confused. You cannot be an active referee one day and then go into the bunker and do VAR the next day.Leave the active referees to referee and bring in your ex-referees, who have officiated at the highest level and know the game, to do VAR.
      We have got the likes of myself, Chris Foy, Phil Dowd, Lee Probert and Roger East who have all recently retired. We could be brought back as VAR operatives because the workload on the current group is too much.

      I am not questioning the current referees’ integrity — but you could sometimes suggest they are looking after their mates.
      They are all familiar with each other, whereas if you had active officials and non-active officials, then there wouldn’t be that problem.
      VAR is there for one reason and one reason alone — has the match official made a clear and obvious error? More

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      Adama Traore set to snub Barcelona and Liverpool transfer interest and sign huge new £100,000-a-week Wolves deal

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      ADAMA TRAORE is set for a bumper pay rise by joining the £100,000-a-week pack to stay at Wolves.
      The speedy winger, 24, is close to agreeing a double-your-money, four-year deal to commit his future to Molineux and ward off Liverpool and Barcelona, who have been heavily linked with him.

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      Adama Traore’s bumper new £100,000-a-week deal will pack a serious punchCredit: Getty – Contributor

      Traore is only two years into a five-year contract signed when he joined for a then club-record £22m from Middlesbrough in 2018.

      The Spain star, set to face Leeds tonight, will join team-mates Rui Patricio, Joao Moutinho and Raul Jimenez on six-figure weekly salaries at Molineux.
      Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo said: “Things will happen naturally.

      “Speculation around our players doesn’t bother us. We know what we have to do.”
      “You can see how happy he’s been in training just by seeing us be together again.
      “We know what we have to do. First of all you have to be happy where you are and he clearly is.”
      Traore has just returned from international duty where he has won his first three caps after choosing the country of his birth over Mali, where his parents hail from.

      The former Barcelona youth star came on as sub against Portugal in a friendly – facing Wolves pals Patricio, Nelson Semedo and Ruben Neves.

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      How the PL’s best transfer XI for this summer line up

      And he came on from the bench in the Nations League against Switzerland before starting in the same competition versus Ukraine.
      Nuno added: “I was delighted and really happy for Adama because he made his debut and he got a start which shows the progress and the impact he’s had.
      “I was delighted with all of our internationals – Daniel Podence made his debut for Portugal and Conor Coady scored for England!”

      Wolves star Adama Traore shows off incredible ripped physique as he works out at home More

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      Premier League ‘must prepare for multi-million pound levy to save lower league teams’

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      PREMIER League clubs must brace themselves for a multi-million pound levy to save ailing lower league clubs, it emerged last night.
      A radical tax on transfers or telly cash remains “an option” if a rescue package isn’t secured for financially insecure clubs in the football pyramid.

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      A radical tax on transfers or telly cash remains ‘an option’Credit: Getty Images – Getty

      A government source told The Sun on Sunday that the plan is on the table as clubs suffered severe hardship due to coronavirus.
      There is huge frustration across Whitehall that a deal hasn’t been struck between the Premier League to help save English Football League clubs.
      The EFL had asked for £250 million but the Premier League only offered £50 million in grants and loans for just League One and Legaue Two clubs.
      It follows Tory MP Julian Knight, who chairs the Commons’ culture select committee, declaring the government take a percentage of the multi-billion TV deals.

      He said: “If this deal isn’t done pretty quickly I think the government should consider pretty radical action in order to intervene.

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      Tory MP Julian Knight declared the government take a percentage of the multi-billion football TV dealsCredit: Wikipedia

      “It could involve for example a levy on TV revenues and a redistribution to the EFL.”
      A Whitehall insider last night said: “There is a deal to be done and the government’s message is to knuckle down, get on with it and come up with a proper plan.”
      A spokesman for the Premier League said: “The Premier League has no intention to cause divides and will engage with any EFL club, including those in the Championship, that is suffering severe financial losses due to the pandemic.”

      Newcastle vs Man Utd Live stream, TV channel and kick-off time for Premier League clash
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      Burnley eye Mohamed Simakan in £15m transfer after troubled window saw them miss out on Craig Dawson

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      BURNLEY want French centre-half Mohamed Simakan and are pushing boss Sean Dyche to make a £15million bid.
      The Clarets scouts have backed an offer for the 20-year-old Strasbourg star, who has emerged as their favourite defensive target for the next window.

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      Burnley are set to make a £15m bid for Strasbourg defender Mohamed SimakanCredit: AFP – Getty

      AC Milan tried to buy Simakan in the final days of the summer transfer window, while West Ham considered him as a £9m investment signing.

      Dyche had various disagreements with his staff and owner Mike Garlick that disrupted plans.
      Disputes within Turf Moor were behind the failure to sign Watford defender Craig Dawson, 30, who joined the Hammers on loan.

      Dyche did manage to hold onto James Tarkowski throughout the window though, despite bids of as much as £30m from West Ham and Leicester.
      The Clarets knocked back all offers for the 27-year-old, who still has two years of his contract remaining.
      Dyche was full of praise for the centre-back – who could now be joined at the club by Simakan, who has so far made 25 appearances for Strasbourg.
      He said: “It’s tough for players. They have a lot of noise around them, even more so than ever, certainly way more than in my day, although I was no good!

      “They’ve got media streams, social media, rumours, conjecture all going on all the time. So it’s more difficult for players now, I believe.

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      Simakan has captured the attention of sides across Europe with his impressive performances for the Ligue 1 sideCredit: AFP or licensors

      “But Tarky is a top pro. He always has been since we got him in here.
      “People forget he had to wait a while to get into the team and he was out there every day doing it and he’s still doing it now.
      “I’m sure he’s focused and committed to what’s going on here now. It’s probably helpful to close the window down to clear up any situations that are spinning around on the outside, the noise as I call it.”

      Man City star Sergio Aguero grabs assistant ref Sian Massey-Ellis around shoulder during Arsenal game More

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      Tottenham superstar Gareth Bale proved how good he was early on by showing me up at training, admits Darren Bent

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      DARREN BENT knew Gareth Bale was really something else when the shy kid put him to shame in training.
      Bent was the big £16.5million signing of three recruits unveiled by Spurs back in 2007, joined by Younes Kaboul and 18-year-old prospect Bale.

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      Gareth Bale played alongside Darren Bent during his first spell at TottenhamCredit: Action Images – Reuters

      Skinny, timid and quiet, striker Bent was trying to figure out what his new team-mate was all about — until the penny dropped with one moment of magic from the Welsh wizard.
      Ex-England star Bent said: “It was crazy. I knew they were signing Bale, a good young talent from Southampton, and Kaboul on the same day.
      “I just remember he was a really nice guy who kept himself to himself.
      “I wouldn’t say he was a loner, he joined in with a little bit of banter and a lot of people liked him — he was just a really nice kid.

      “But one particular time, I think it was going to be fitness testing in the indoor sports hall. And we were mucking about, there was a goal there with a couple footballs.
      “So we started mucking around hitting some free-kicks, I knew he had scored a few free-kicks that first season at Southampton.
      “When I hit one, which was quite nice, I was really happy with it. And then he had a go.
      “He absolutely wellied one into the top corner. He just turned to me and said, ‘Well, I guess we know who is taking free-kicks this year then’.”

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      Bale’s first couple of seasons in north London were not as smooth as he hoped —  he went two years before tasting victory in a Premier League game for Spurs.
      And talkSPORT pundit Bent said: “With Gareth it was kind of like he was a shy youngster. We knew he had the ability but I think he was just trying to figure out where was his best position.
      “Was he a left-back? Was he a wingback? Was he a winger? I think that was probably one of the things he struggled with most — but I knew that he probably wasn’t a left-back.
      “You could see the potential was there. Not only that. Technically, he knew  he had the lot.
      “But — from where he started at Spurs in his first couple of seasons — we probably would have never envisaged him turning into the Gareth Bale that we see today.
      “He was quite skinny and was really quite timid with it, he hadn’t grown into his body yet. I think he was still trying to find his way.
      “But I just remember when I left and went to Sunderland, we played them a couple of seasons later. I remember just thinking, ‘Wowzers, where has this monster come from?’.
      “All of a sudden he had the size. So put that with the speed and power he had — which was exceptional. Then add confidence to that mix and you  become unstoppable, which is what he did.”

      3

      Bale and Bent arrived at Spurs on the same day back in 2007Credit: Action Images
      Bale, 31, is likely to make his second debut for Spurs on Sunday, with West Ham in the firing line.
      And his old team-mate is convinced Bale still has the game to shine, even though he is not as spectacular a player as before.
      Bent added: “I might be wrong but I don’t think we’re going to see the same Gareth Bale that we saw prior to him leaving.
      “Or even the first couple years at Real Madrid, where he was all action, the marauding runs.
      “Age will catch up with you, not only that, he has had a few injuries.
      “But even if you can get 70 to 80 per cent of the Gareth Bale we saw before, then you are still getting an exceptional player — one of the best in the world.”
       TOTTENHAM (likely): Lloris, Doherty, Dier, Sanchez, Reguilon, Winks, Ndombele, Bale, Bergwijn, Son, Kane.
      Tune in to Darren Bent’s Boot Room on talkSPORT every Sunday at 6pm-9pm.

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