Sunderland striker Darren Bent has discussed his Twitter rant at Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy last year.
It was a particular outburst that cemented his relationship with the supporters at the Stadium of Light.
The tweet when he told Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy to 'stop f*****g around' and give the green light to the transfer. He accused Levy of trying to create an auction to get the price up. 'Do I wanna go Hull City. No. Do I wanna go Stoke. No. Do I wanna go Sunderland. Yes.' He was fined heavily by Tottenham for his rant, but explains how frustrated he had become.
He had endured a torrid time at White Hart Lane, culminating in the moment Harry Redknapp suggested his wife could have converted a goalscoring opportunity Bent had squandered against Portsmouth. He wanted out.
"I've had to curb Twitter a bit since the Levy incident, but these things can happen," he told the Daily Mail. "We had the Kevin Pietersen thing recently. And Ryan Babel at Liverpool. I think it's when people are at their most frustrated. They let off steam.
"When I did it, emotion got the better of me at a time when I was desperate to move to this club. I was sat in the players' lounge for four days here just waiting to be given the go-ahead to sign. I couldn't train because I wasn't insured. It was a crazy situation.
"I sent the tweet before that. After I got kicked off the plane for the pre-season tour of China.
"I'm sitting there, seatbelt on, messing with my Blackberry, waiting for the call. All day my agent had been on, talking to Tottenham, asking them if they were sure they wanted me going to China.
"Someone at the club was just being ignorant, saying I had to go, when they knew a deal was close.
"So anyway, they are about to shut the doors of the plane, when I'm told to get off. They had to delay the plane about another 40 minutes so they could then get my bags off.
"Even after that it took another week for the deal to go through. I couldn't train with Tottenham because they were in China and I couldn't train with Sunderland because I wasn't under contract.
"I was sitting there twiddling my thumbs and that was when the outburst came."
