Bent joins Brighton on month-long loan

Aston Villa’s record signing Darren Bent has joined Championship side Brighton and Hove Albion on a month’s loan, according to the Mail Online.

The 30 year old moved to Villa Park from Sunderland in January 2011 for a fee of £18m though he hasn’t made a league start for the club since the final day of the 2012/13 campaign, having spent the majority of last season on loan with Fulham, who the Seagulls face on Saturday afternoon.

He made thirty appearances in all competitions for the London club, scoring six goals but was ultimately unable to save them from relegation to the Championship.

The former England international has plied his trade in the top flight for the past nine years since leaving Ipswich Town in 2005, with spells at Charlton Athletic and Tottenham Hotspur coming before his switch to Sunderland.

Brighton are who currently sit twentieth in the second tier and are out of the relegation zone by virtue of goal difference.