Steve Bruce still aiming to emulate Aston Villa

Mar 24 2010 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

‘The bargain of the season’ will be at Villa Park tonight, but according to Steve Bruce he will not be wearing Sunderland’s number 11 shirt. Stuart Rayner reports

WITH a question mark over his fitness nothing can be taken as read, but tonight Villa Park could be watching the man Steve Bruce views as the bargain of a Premier League season where money has been tighter than usual.

Sunderland’s manager has spent all season banging the drum for Darren Bent, the first striker to hit 20 goals for the Black Cats since Kevin Phillips was at his pomp.

Few have pushed the £12m man’s credentials for a seat on the plane to South Africa and the World Cup harder than his club manager. And why not?

The goalscoring charts alone make a strong case and Bruce underlining it on the many occasions he is asked about Bent can only boost the confidence of his star performer.

Besides, every time the Londoner finds the net, Bruce’s reputation is polished that little bit more. However, it is not Bent but the man who – sore Achilles permitting – will be marking him tonight that one of English football’s shrewdest wheeler-dealers regards as comfortably the best buy of the campaign.

If, as he often states, Aston Villa are the model Bruce wants to follow, then bargain buys like Richard Dunne are the type he wants to emulate.

More than that, this particular £5m transfer was one with whom he wanted to launch his Wearside managerial career.

Even when naming football’s unsung heroes, it is still the glory boys at the sharp end of the field many think of first.

Even to men as rich as Ellis Short, £12m is no trifling amount but the return Sunderland have on their investment in Bent has been massive.

The 26-year-old has been the difference between mid-table security and relegation for the Black Cats – and dropping out of the Premier League would cost way more than the cheque Sunderland made out to Tottenham Hotspur.

Dunne cost less than half Bent’s fee, but his impact has been huge. Well of course, some might say Bent does the glamorous bit while Dunne dirties his hands snuffing out rather than creating glory.