David Bentley wants to repay Blackburn fans during loan spell

Midfielder has joined former club from Spurs until the end of the season

Dominic Farrell
Monday 18 February 2013 16:32 GMT
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David Bentley
David Bentley (GETTY IMAGES)

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David Bentley wants to win back the affections of Blackburn's fans after returning to the npower Championship club on loan from Tottenham.

Former Arsenal youngster Bentley came off the bench to make his second debut for the Ewood Park outfit at the weekend as Rovers dumped the Gunners out of the FA Cup with a shock 1-0 victory.

Bentley, 28, proved to be a big hit at Blackburn first time around after joining from Arsenal in 2005.

He won the first of seven England caps in 2007, but left on a sour note after publicly agitating for a move to Spurs worth £17million pounds in October 2008, something he now admits was a mistake.

"I didn't do it the right way - I was a naive young man and made the wrong decision," said the midfielder.

"I thought I was making the right choice but you can't act like that.

"I apologise for the way I went about it because I love being here, I love playing for this club.

"I thank them for what they did for me while I was here and it's good to be back. Hopefully I can replay them by coming back and performing for them."

Bentley last featured for his parent club in November 2010 and has taken in loan spells with West Ham, Birmingham and Russian outfit Rostov, but insists he does not regret moving to White Hart Lane.

"Sometimes you make decisions, I'm just a young man whose made a mistake in making that decision to move," he said

"But it's not a regret, it's a decision I made and I wanted. It just didn't work out.

"It was down to four or five things, a few things. It just didn't work out and I don't think it was anything to do with football."

He added: "Someone was willing to pay that fee for me. I never said I was worth that because I wasn't worth that."

PA

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