David Bentley exclusive interview: Smuggling McDonald's, Fabio Capello's nickname and throwing water over Harry Redknapp

David Bentley still counts the night he pulled his hood up and sat on the train out of Finsbury Park station listening to excited Arsenal fans talking about the chipped goal they had just witnessed as one of the best moments of a career that was lived fast and finished early.

Then aged 19, Bentley appeared to have the world at his feet after lofting the ball over Middlesbrough goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer from the edge of the penalty area, but 10 years later he retired – fed up with a game that was no longer allowing him to smile.

These days he splits his time between working for a football agency, managing restaurants and opening a new bespoke flooring business, GFF Bentley and Howell, in Stansted.

It is almost a decade since Tottenham Hotspur paid Blackburn Rovers £15 million for Bentley, but the 33 year-old has not kicked a ball since the night in Cardiff when he decided it was all over and chief among the disappointments was his England experience.

Such was the rigid nature of the England set-up, Bentley took to making his own fun by smuggling McDonald’s into the team hotel, taking advantage of manager Fabio Capello’s lack of English by calling the confused Italian Postman Pat and getting up to no good with his partner in crime Jimmy Bullard.

He was meant to be the on-pitch heir to David Beckham’s England throne, but, in terms of breaking the rules, this was very much bend them like Bentley.

“Capello didn’t want us to have ketchup,” said Bentley, who won seven full England caps. “I know that’s a small thing, but you’d be surprised what an effect that can have and you weren’t allowed to eat your dinner until the captain came in. It just didn’t work with us.

“Everything that is beautiful about English people, our sense of humour, not taking ourselves too seriously, was knocked out of us. Or at least they tried.”

Gareth Southgate has had sweet treats taken off the shelves of the Starbucks inside St George’s Park, but Bentley has revealed how footballers will find a way of eating what they want.

“You had to be in your bed at 10pm, it was bizarre,” said Bentley. “It just wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. You had to go to your room and there was nothing to do, so I needed something to keep me occupied.

“Jimmy (Bullard) knocked on my door one of the nights we were staying in the team hotel, the Grove, and said he was hungry, so we decided to try to get a McDonald’s.

“I had a friend who worked with me, so I called him up and told him to get a McDonald’s in. The security guards used to hang by the back door and then they used to go for a walk. So when they were having a walk, my mate got the McDonald’s past them in a Lucozade bottle bag – he just brought it in. I don’t think anyone ever found out.”

Asked whether Bullard’s account of Bentley calling Capello Postman Pat to his face is true, the former midfielder said: “Yeah. I wasn’t going out to disrespect him, it was just to try to raise a smile. I hate silence, I prefer to see people enjoy themselves and not take it too serious.

“He did look like Postman Pat. The thing is he didn’t understand a word of English, so he had no idea what I was going on about. I would go ‘alright Postman Pat’ and he wouldn’t have a clue, or I’d say ‘yes Postman Pat’ and he’d just carry on. All the boys would be laughing.

“If you are tense and overthink it, you play rigid and that’s our problem, that’s England’s problem. The players play within themselves, they are not expressing themselves, they are just doing a job. Watch a foreign team and you can see the difference.”

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In Bentley’s opinion, a stray muffin is the last thing Southgate needs to worry about at St George’s Park.

“Everyone I speak to tells me St George’s Park is terrible, lacking character, lacking anything to do, no soul,” he said. “It sounds like a nightmare.”

Bentley played all through the England age groups and became the first Englishman to score at the new Wembley, when he netted for the Under-21s against Italy in March 2007. But later that year he was accused of turning his back on his country, when Stuart Pearce claimed he pulled out of the Under-21 European Championships because of fatigue.

“I had played 62 games that season and I got told by Mark Hughes, the Blackburn manager, I’m not playing for the Under-21s and I took the flak,” he said. “Did I tell anyone I was tired or fatigued? No, but that was the spin.

“I rung up Stuart Pearce and fronted him up, whereas I know at least one player who was meant to be in the squad who just switched his phone off. I said, ‘look I’ve had a 62 game season and I’ve got the Intertoto that starts on June 25, and the tournament ends on June 28’.

“Mark Hughes said ‘you’re not going’ and that I could do without the Under-21s. I followed his advice, even though I’d have quite liked to have gone, and I went on to have a great season, so it was the right decision.”

The Wembley crowd held the decision against Bentley, though, and booed him when he eventually made his senior debut as a substitute against Israel in September 2007.

Asked if he felt hung out to dry by Pearce, he replied: “Yeah of course, that’s what they do isn’t it? They look for a scapegoat. Then I got booed on my debut and that wasn’t nice, and then there was always that stigma with me and England.

“When you get crucified, how are you going to go home and enjoy what you do? How are you going to go out on the pitch and express yourself? You’re not. You just think, ‘I don’t need this’. I hate that mentality, but you almost can’t help it and I saw it when I was with England.

“If we were allowed to express ourselves, we would probably win a World Cup or a Euros, but we never will with the mentality that’s there. They won’t win it this time, we haven’t got a chance.”

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Despite being the first Englishman to score at the new Wembley and the first player to net a hat-trick against Manchester United in the Premier League while playing for Blackburn, Bentley accepts he will be remembered for his stunts as much as his achievements.

“There are three things that people talk to me about when I meet them,” said Bentley “The goal for Tottenham against Arsenal, chucking water over Harry Redknapp and kicking a ball into a skip from the top of the Red Bull offices.”

Bentley won the £15,000 watch off the wrist of his agent as part of a bet for finding the skip first time, and asked about pouring a bucket of water over Redknapp live on television after Tottenham qualified for the Champions League, he said: “The lads tried to get the chairman in the changing room and someone said ‘get the manager’ and it turned out he was being interviewed, so I went and did it. It was just a celebration, I wasn’t trying to make him look silly.

“He wasn’t happy because he was trying to change his image and I went and chucked water on him. He wanted to be like Sir Alex Ferguson. I played loads that year and there was no problem between us, but then that was the end for me.”

As his Spurs contract ran down, Bentley went on loan to Birmingham City, West Ham United, Rostov in Russia and finally Blackburn before deciding football was no longer for him.

“I went back to Blackburn and I came off in a game against Cardiff and said ‘that’s the last game I’ll ever play’,” said Bentley, who spent three years in Spain immediately after retiring before returning to England last year. “My dad was in the stands and I told him ‘I’m done’. He said ‘you’ll be alright’ but I said ‘no I’m done’.

“People are always wondering if I was depressed or something, but I just wanted to do something else. I’m fine. I had a great time. I did it the way I wanted. I went for it, got to the top and didn’t stay there for that long. I like that.”