The Fantasy Football Club: Darren Bent picks his #One2Eleven

Darren Bent picks his ultimate dream team on The Fantasy Football Club, a team he believes would have competed for major honours if they had the chance to play together.

Bent, who is currently on loan at Derby County, has made more than 350 league appearances during spells at Ipswich Town, Charlton, Tottenham, Sunderland, Fulham and Aston Villa.

The former England stiker has gone for a 4-4-1-1 formation, and here's who made the cut...

GOALKEEPER: Scott Carson

I’m kind of tied to be fair because I played with Scott Carson at Charlton and Craig Gordon at Sunderland and they were both unbelievable goalkeepers. But I’m going to have to go for Scott. I only played with him for one season at The Valley but he probably put in one of the best goalkeeping performances throughout an entire season that I’ve ever seen. Even though we went down, we would have gone down a lot earlier if it weren’t for him. He was making save after save and at that time I truly believe he was England’s best goalkeeper.

RIGHT-BACK: Alan Hutton

He’s got everything a modern right-back has got. He’s quick, strong, can defend well and I’ve played with him for many years now. I played with him for two years at Tottenham, then he came to Sunderland when I was up there and now I’ve been with him for about three or four years at Villa. To be fair he’s definitely one of the best right-backs I’ve played with.

CENTRE-BACK: Ledley King

We knew on a Saturday that if Ledley was playing we’d have a better chance of winning the game. He just had everything that a modern day centre-back had. If he had the fitness, and had been healthier with his knees, he would have been at Real Madrid or Barcelona - he could have taken his pick. The first ever time I played against Ledley I scored two and after that I didn’t get any change out of him until the day he retired. I remember him saying to me when I went to Spurs that I wound him up by scoring the two goals at The Valley and he vowed I would never get any change off him again. He stuck by his word because after that I never got near the goal.

CENTRE-BACK: Rio Ferdinand

Both Rio and Ledley are kind of similar, both could read the game unbelievably well but Rio, in this country, was the best centre-half for the last 10 years. For England, he was one of those players who was always comfortable on the ball, read the game well and he was always a couple of steps ahead of the striker. I’d go to make a run and he’d already be there. Usually when you play against centre-halves you let one of them have the ball, but you couldn’t let Rio have the ball because he’d dribble it all the way and start an attack. He had everything.

LEFT-BACK: Ashley Cole

This was the easiest position and player for me to choose for my team. For 10 years, he was probably the best left-back in the world. Funnily enough, he set me up for my first England goal, he laid it on for me and I’ll always thank him for that. If people that play football, or those around the football community were asked to pick their all-time Premier League XI, Ashley Cole is going to be in there. He’ll be in 99.5 per cent of the teams because as a left-back, he’s definitely been the best this country has ever seen.

RIGHT MIDFIELD: Stewart Downing

Once again, I was torn between Aaron Lennon at Tottenham and Stewart Downing at Villa, but I had to go with Downing. We used to play three up front, and I was lucky enough to have Ashley [Young] on the left and Stewart on the right and it was up to me to get into the box. He could score goals with his right foot or left foot, his delivery was always fantastic, he created chances and scored goals himself. He just used to make my job a lot easier because as a front man, you want to be getting chances and you want to be scoring goals and the crosses used to come in left, right and centre. Stewart is quality, his right foot was what pushed me the most because he used to hit the ball like he was hitting it with his left, it was just fantastic.

CENTRE MIDFIELD: Luka Modric

Luka is probably the best player I’ve ever played with. Every time in training when I used to try and shut him down and you think you’ve got him, his touch would get him out of trouble. At Tottenham, he was fantastic; I’ve never seen anything like it. I remember playing against them when it was him, Scott Parker and Moussa Dembele in midfield and we didn’t get a touch all night because they just kept the ball. It was like the game was easy to him. He’s playing unbelievably well now at Real Madrid and that doesn’t surprise me because, although he struggled in his first year there, I knew he would come good because he’s that good.

CENTRE MIDFIELD: Danny Murphy

In my first season at Charlton, I managed to score 20-plus goals and I reckon Danny was responsible for 15 of them because his assists that season were fantastic. He was always looking to create a chance and he never played safe. The one thing I would say about Murphy is that if the pass was 60/40 in the defender’s favour, he would still try and play it on the off chance I might get there. He used to create so many chances as well as scoring them himself.

LEFT MIDFIELD: Ashley Young

I only played with him for about six months at Aston Villa, but in those six months he showed me enough. He was fantastic. The amount of goals and chances he created for me were brilliant and I always knew that once he got wide, a cross of some quality was coming in. Nine times out of 10, it was always on the money. He could score and create goals, he was strong he was a fantastic player.

CENTRE FORWARD: Wayne Rooney

I trained with Wazza when he was 14. We went to La Manga for an England youth trip and he came with us and he was doing things back then that made me think, ‘This kid is going to go places’. The England coaches were saying, ‘This kid, wow!’ and to be fair I saw him then and thought I must look out for him because with his ability, he was going to go far. He sees a pass, he scores a lot of goals, he always wants the ball, his technique... the list of attributes he’s got is endless.

STRIKER: Marcus Stewart

I played with him at Ipswich and as far as a professional footballer goes, he’s done the most for me, more than anyone. Coming through at Ipswich Town as a 16/17-year-old kid getting into the team, he helped me day-in day-out, working on my finishing with me even though he was a pro at the time. The one thing I learned from him was movement. He was never the quickest but whenever he got the ball, he always seemed to have two or three yards of space. He had defenders constantly thinking where he was.