Sunderland Football Club News

• Nickname:Black Cats
• Founded:1879
• Manager:Martin O'Neill

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Black Cats close in on Bent

03 Aug 2009 - 15:14:42

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Sunderland are on the verge of completing the signing of Tottenham Hotspur striker Darren Bent in a £12million deal.

The former Charlton Athletic forward has arrived on Wearside to have his medical and discuss personal terms.

The development comes just 48 hours after Black Cats boss Steve Bruce admitted he was losing patience with the deal.

The former Wigan Athletic boss had said at the weekend: "The Tottenham chairman is in America I understand and I don't know what progress has been made.

"Until we have reached agreement with Spurs over a fee, we can't get the player where we want him to be. There comes a time when you have to draw a line under things.

"We have been at this for weeks now and one or two of our other targets have drifted away from us because we have been targeting Darren. We will see what happens."

The 25-year-old England international had also got into trouble after voicing his own frustration with delays in the deal last Friday.

Spurs paid £16.5million to sign the forward two years ago after grabbing 31 league goals in 68 appearances for Charlton.

Bent went on to find the net 25 times in 43 starts and 36 substitute appearances for Spurs.

Bruce has already signed Fraizer Campbell this summer but misses out on the capture of Peter Crouch who opted to move from Portsmouth to White Hart Lane instead.