Cats deal for Bent in danger of collapse

Jul 30 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

DARREN Bent’s move to Sunderland could be on the verge of collapse after the striker failed to have a medical on Wearside yesterday in the wake of late bids from Aston Villa and Hull City.

Although club sources have insisted Bent was never due to have his pre-signing hospital checks as they are still negotiating with Tottenham over the size of his fee, the player claimed via his personal blog on internet social network Twitter on Tuesday evening that he was travelling to Wearside for just that purpose.

The Journal understands that the Black Cats are far from happy with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy’s handling of the transfer and feel he is trying to extract more money from them.

Sunderland thought they had agreed a club-record fee of £12m, with another £2m attached to various clauses referring to appearances and goals scored, but they are being kept in the dark by the Spurs hierarchy, who appear to be trying to start a bidding war.

Talks were said to be continuing at boardroom level last night in an attempt to seal the 25-year-old’s eagerly-awaited switch to the Stadium of Light, but the delay could prove to be the least of Sunderland’s worries.

Bent is not in the North East and is believed to have had contact with both Hull and Villa in the last 24 hours to find out what sort of financial package they are offering.

Should the Bent deal collapse, it will be a major blow to manager Steve Bruce and, psychologically, it could be devastating in terms of completing his ambitious squad strengthening project.

Sunderland have already

suffered one public snub this summer when Peter Crouch refused to move to the North East last week – even though they had agreed a fee with Portsmouth – and another would raise fresh doubts about the club’s ability to attract big name players.

Crouch instead elected to sign for Spurs this week, which was expected to lead to Bent’s arrival at Sunderland.