I love football. I really do. So the call saying that I was off to do an exclusive shoot with Sunderland and England striker Darren Bent for The Times was a good one to receive.
It was the day after Fabio Capello announced the England squad to travel to the World Cup in South Africa, and despite hitting a bagful of goals again this season, Bent was once again left to book his own summer holiday. I met Darren at his mum's house in Cambridgeshire, where he received his disappointing fate- sitting on the same couch that he sat on four years ago to receive the same news from Sven Goran Eriksson.
Darren is well known as an avid user of twitter, tweeting his views regularly and sometimes in quite an outspoken way. He spent much of our time together (as I looked through the viewfinder awaiting his readiness) tweeting away on his Blackberry, but despite this he came across as a lovely bloke- one of football's good guys who deserves every success. Darren was surprisingly upbeat about his setback, eager to put it behind him and work harder for success next season.
