David Bentley's Weird 1940s Era Pilot Haircut

Bentley knew from the first whistle this wouldn't be his 'debut performance.' Tottenham didn't have the pressure-free pleasure enjoyed by Rovers, who didn't have anything to prove at least as far as the league was concerned. But he was tired of all the running and wanted to live in London again. He we would only really miss Santa Cruz...once Hughes left his regret dissolved completely. And yet.

Tottenham might have come off as a bit rogue-ish. But when North London beckons. A nice year-round f*ck you to the Arsenal then. Bentley felt the crust of his hairdo against the breeze. He couldn't help but notice in the crisp Riverside sun that his starting eleven looked like something out of a World War Two newsreel. They were stars, boys on the verge of the Top Four breakthrough. Remember the Tottenham of yore? Before Sugar and Klinsmann and Jol? Now it would be Jenas, Lennon and Woodgate. England for the English.

Something was wrong early -- first of all, David Wheater was everywhere. A wrongly disallowed goal from nothing and more than one play-destroying tackles. Wheater looked exactly the same as last year. No opening day hairstyle then, although this was Teesside. He didn't know much of Wheater except that he was the England U21 captain. Under twenty-one?

As the whistle blew for a free-kick left there for him to approach and mis-hit, one of many that day, Bentley remembered when he was 19 and playing for Arsenal, lobbing the keeper against Boro in the Cup. Now he was completely anonymous at the Riverside with strange pretentious hair, playing for the bad guys. That stylist said it was coming back. In North London maybe. He could feel the strain of his running, and looked to Ramos, then again to Wheater.

Goal number one. His instinct had been right. Bentley tried to focus but his hair was distracting him. And his anger toward this giant freak-jaw Wheater. And his stylist. The thing was crusting up, like it was crisco. Who was he kidding? He should have waited until his White Hart Lane debut. Then goal number two came and the almost certain loss meant he could focus on how stupid he was to have gotten the thing. He found himself smirking as he stepped over the halfway line, thinking of what Jason Roberts would have said if he'd walked out at Ewood with his hair combed down.

By the end, when his free-kick was own-goaled nicely by Huth, Bentley walked off the pitch feeling a bit sad at the thought of Jason Roberts, and then Ewood Park, and then Lancashire. A new beginning he had said to Ramos, when he joined. A new beginning. Bentley reminded himself to look at the fixture list when he got to the dressing room, and then taking off his white shirt, shook the feeling off. The haircut would stay.