Heskey backing Bent

Heskey: Veteran striker tipping fellow forward Bent for bright future

Emile Heskey believes Darren Bent can become an Aston Villa legend by scoring 20 goals a season for the Midlanders.

Villa spent big on the England international in January, bringing his services to the club from Sunderland for £24million and he has not disappointed with a number of key strikes.

Bent has six Premier League goals from 11 starts for his new club and Heskey feels that, given the course of a full season, he could reach the 20-goal mark.

The 27-year-old found the back of the net in Saturday's 2-1 success at West Ham and, with the club's top-flight status virtually assured, Heskey is now looking at how good Bent could be next term.

Brilliant

"Benty is going to get his goals," said Heskey. "He's been absolutely brilliant since he's joined us. I definitely feel he can be a 20-goal-a-season man for us.

"He's shown that finishing class over the years for every club he's played for. He's been playing in the top flight for many years and he always shows his class and quality in front of goal.

"They say he had a bad time at Spurs but he was still scoring goals for them and hit 17 there in the one season.

"That's a great rate of goals. Hopefully he can take that sort of form and the form he's shown at Villa into next season.

"There's no reason why he can't. He'll be a big player for us next season."