David Bentley sits beneath the late afternoon sun on the terrace of the restaurant he co-owns in Marbella nursing half a lager and reflecting on a morning well spent, writes Tom Hopkinson in the Sunday People.
A few hours with his five-year-old daughter and six-month-old twins, one of each, and a bit of time with his builder helping to demolish a wall at the home he and his partner Kim are renovating nearby.
He looks fit and relaxed as he chats happily about how the beach club and restaurant ventures he has invested in have taken off over the past few years.
After the success of his investment in Marbella with the La Sala founders, business associate Ian Radford and football agent Rob Segal, Bentley has invested in the new UK-based La Sala Ltd, which is opening its first venue this week in Chigwell, Essex.
The scene begs one question: “Where did it all go wrong?”
“Exactly,”says Bentley, laughing.
Yet many would argue that things really have gone wrong for ex-winger Bentley.
A decade ago he was tipped to be football’s next big thing as he rose through the ranks at Arsenal, but this summer, aged 29, he retired without fanfare after failing to hit the heights he was supposed to reach.
He made one appearance for the Gunners before forcing through a move to Blackburn – where he had been on loan – at the age of 22.
Two years later he was an England international – he won nine caps in total – and Tottenham had paid £15million to take him back to north London.
Bentley signed a five-year deal at White Hart Lane but his career stalled under Harry Redknapp and by the time his contract ran out, following loans to Birmingham, West Ham, FC Rostov in Russia and Blackburn, he had made just 42 appearances for the club.
By his own admission, the further he went in the game the more disillusioned he grew and when that contract expired he slipped away for good.
Bentley said: “To be honest, I was even having a few doubts about football when I was at Blackburn.
“It was weird. Kim was like: ‘You’ve got to buck your ideas up’. A lot of people were saying that and I remember walking my dog, thinking: ‘This ain’t for me’.
“I remember being a bit disappointed in myself. I was thinking: ‘You should love it, what’s the matter with you? You’re only saying this because you’re a little bit unhappy at the minute’.
“But in the end I just got tired of all the bull**** that goes with it, people wanting you to sell yourself as something you’re not.
“I loved matchdays, the atmosphere and the buzz, but, looking back, the biggest disappointment was coming out of youth team football.
“Back then I was with my mates, playing Sunday League, you’re winning together with all your mums and dads, that’s when football is brilliant.
“For me the professional dressing-room wasn’t that exciting, life wasn’t that great. Whether my career reached the heights it could or should have done – certain people are built for the life of a footballer but I don’t think I was.
“I had the tools but I don’t think I had that,” he added, tapping his head. “But that’s what makes me who I am and I never wanted to change it.
“Everyone grows up dreaming of being a Premier League footballer, playing for England – and I did it.
“But it wasn’t like whoopee-do and then, bang, finished. The contract ran down, it stopped and I stopped playing. I didn’t give up while I had a contract, I just decided that my future was outside of football.”
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Image:
Sonja Horsman)
Bentley understands football fans will frequently question his decision. He said: “Most people say: ‘What are you doing?’ But that’s based on finances.
“A large percentage of people have to conduct their lives for financial reasons and I understand that because I came from nothing and I’m still connected with people who have to work to live.
“It’s easy for me to say because I’m in a position where I have the money. But money becomes a controlling thing and I didn’t want that to happen.
“No matter how much or how little I had, I never wanted it to affect my life, my day-to-day plans, the way I treated people.”
It helped, of course, that Bentley’s other business interests were flourishing and he is excited about the next chapter of his life, which he hopes will include a further three restaurants in the UK.
He added: “The future doesn’t worry me. I’ve always been like: ‘Whatever is five feet in front of me is what I deal with at the time.’
“One of the main reasons for the move was that I wanted my kids to be bilingual – it’s very multi-cultural.
“It’s a privilege now to wake up and do what I want, and take nothing away from football, this is what it has provided me.
“I’ve got great friends, great businesses. Perfect. I’m living the dream.”
*Interview courtesy of Impact Sports Management and La Sala UK.
Good attitude: Ray Parlour loved the game (
Image:
Action)
Bentley lists Ray Parlour, Craig Bellamy and Robbie Savage as three of the best characters he played with.
Bentley blames the demands football places on players to be a bit robotic these days for sapping away much of his love for the game. But he said: “There was a good group at Blackburn and when I was at Arsenal, Ray Parlour, he loved it.
"He trained and worked hard, but he was always good fun. Then I went to Blackburn and you had Craig Bellamy and Robbie Savage, just a variety of opinions and different people, they weren’t all mundane. It was nice to go in every day, it was exciting.”
Best chief: Wenger was Bentley's favourite manager (
Image:
Stuart MacFarlane) Don't Miss
Arsene Wenger's name trips off Bentley’s tongue almost before the end of the question about who was his best boss.
And Bentley revealed the Frenchman did not want him to leave Arsenal.
Bentley said: “Arsene Wenger was the best by a mile. He was always coaching, every day. He was always a part of it. He always spoke well and he continues to do it.
“Wenger was the best manager I played for. He gets stick now because he has been involved in it so long and the pressure he must be under. But he loves it, doesn’t he? He cares a lot and he wants his players to succeed.
“Wenger didn’t want me to leave but I was eager to. I was scared of my future back then, what was going to happen.
“I saw players in front of me like Graham Barrett, Paolo Vernazza, people I thought were good players, and they stood still.
"If I’d have stood still, that would have been it. I wouldn’t be sitting here now, so I believe everything I did is so I can sit here now with a smile on my face.”
Fake: Bentley never had the desire for marketing success like Beckham (
Image:
Wenn)
Bentley was dubbed the “new David Beckham” by former England boss Steve McClaren.
Like Becks, he had the looks and the charisma to match his talent and was a marketing man’s dream.
Except Bentley was never interested in becoming a brand off the field like the multi-millionaire former Three Lions skipper.
And Bentley said: “When you’re a footballer you have to sell yourself all the time and I was never really any good at that so I just didn’t bother.
“We looked at getting a team around me, getting a brand and selling me in a certain way, doing the right thing and getting involved in a charity, and it all seemed pretty fake to me.”
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