Hammers throw the biscuit barrel at Benty and he says NO Amazing news tonight that Darren Bent has turned down a £16m move to West Ham, which would have included Hayden Mullins coming to us.

"We set a valuation for Darren and West Ham were the only club prepared to meet that valuation. This morning we gave them permission to speak to Darren, which he did, and he has decided not to join West Ham." (more)

Benty was said to have flown in from the Caribbean last night but has decided against the switch, a move that would have paid him around £70k a week. Will he stay with us in the Championship? I still find that unlikely and rumours of a preference for Spurs seem out of whack with Keane, Berbatov, Defoe and Mido already battling for the striking positions.

Upton Park would have at least seen him be their number 1 striker and reunite him with a manager that signed him from Ipswich. Of course the tractor boys are probably the most pissed off my Benty's decision tonight.

Whether Valencia or Liverpool would be considered more attractive propositions to him or not remains to be seen, and the Reds do have the carrot of Carson, if he would agree and if we want to take a player in exchange and thus reducing our pay-off to Ipswich.

What tonight's news does say is that Charlton will only let him go if a valuation of around £17m is matched, a figure which might even be out of Liverpool's and Valencia's range, let alone the Spudz.

Varney's bullish public statement also tells us that we are prepared for him to stay and we don't neccessarily need the money either, although I would think a rather more emotionally detached Pards may be cursing his luck tonight that he won't have a new midfielder and a load of wonga to spend in the next few weeks.

So for the meantime Benty stays a Addick, and we love him even more, but there are a lot of days and nights left until Scunthorpe come to town.  ¶ 19:10