Source: Daily_Mail
Sunderland boss Bruce tells Bent: Your time will be come for England
Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has told Darren Bent his England chance will come despite admitting he was not surprised he missed out this time around.
Bent has made no secret of his desire to force his way back onto the international stage, and a blistering start to his career at the Stadium of Light has done his cause no harm.
However, he was not included in manager Fabio Capello's latest squad despite the absence of the injured Jermain Defoe and Emile Heskey.
But Bruce has told his record signing not to give up hope and to continue doing what he is doing if he wants to keep his dream alive.
He said: 'No disrespect to Darren, but I wasn't that surprised because if you analyse Fabio Capello, he hasn't made many changes from the day he took over.
'He's an experienced manager - he's been there and worn the t-shirt - and thinks, why should he change anything when people have done well for him, as the England team have over the last 18 months?
'The clamour is for Darren. All he can do is keep playing well and I'm sure his chance will come, it's as simple as that.
'Whether he can break in now to a World Cup squad, who knows? There's stillsix months to go.'
Bent scored his seventh goal of the season at Manchester United last weekend - he has claims on an eighth after Wolves defender Michael Mancienne deflected his shot home in the Black Cats' 5-2 victory on September 27 - and Bruce has been delighted with the value for money he has had so far from his £10million investment.
He told the Journal: "That's obviously what we have brought him here for, but when you do spend a lot of money like we have done, of course you want him to hit the ground running.
'It's not just his goalscoring, but his appetite to work. He's run over 12.5km during a game, which is a staggering achievement.
'He's also a goalscorer and brings a work ethic from the front two, which is important.
'When you start comparing him in the same breath as [Fernando] Torres and[Emmanuel] Adebayor and all these top strikers, he's up there with them.
'For a Sunderland centre-forward to be up there with them and to have Kenwyne [Jones] coming up behind like a steam train, it bodes well.
'But we can't get carried away. We are doing okay and Darren's doing okay. I hope that continues.'
