Bruce slams Houllier conduct

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has hit out at Gerard Houllier in relation to Aston Villa’s signing of Darren Bent.

The Black Cats will face Blackpool at Bloomfield Road this weekend without the club’s former record signing, who joined Houllier’s Aston Villa this week in a 24-million-pound deal.

Bruce admitted to being devastated to lose his leading goalscorer so abruptly, and was furious about the way the deal was done.

“I would have liked even a phone call from Mr Houllier, for whom I did have the utmost respect for what he’s done,” Bruce said.

“I would have thought that, out of respect, maybe he would have picked up the telephone to say, ‘We are interested in buying your striker’.”

“That at least would have given me an opportunity to try to do something about it.”

Nevertheless, Bruce believes even without Bent and the injured Danny Welbeck, Sunderland can gain revenge over Blackpool for their fortuitous victory at the Stadium of Light last month.

“Losing Darren this week is a massive blow for us, of course it is, but how much it is going to affect us this weekend is difficult to tell – hopefully not at all,” said Bruce.

“When we played Blackpool last month with three strikers in the line-up, we didn’t score at all.”

“So maybe there’s something to be said about the balance of the team and if we play with only one striker this weekend in Asamoah Gyan, there’s every chance it will work for us.”

Bruce is still working hard in the transfer market to strengthen his attacking options, with Stoke City’s Ricardo Fuller the most likely signing as things stand.

But for the moment Bruce is focusing on Blackpool and a mission to avenge a result which stands out as something of a statistical fluke.

“We lost 2-0 to Blackpool last month – our only league defeat at the Stadium of Light so far this season.”

“But how we lost it I’ll never know.”

“We had more than 30 shots at goal in that game and I think there’s only once in a Premier League game – a game that Arsenal were involved in – where a team has had that many shots and not scored.

“I’ll settle for half as many chances this weekend because it’s something of a fluke not to score from that many opportunities.”

“The players have been disappointed by Darren’s departure but footballers are a thick-skinned lot and they move on quickly.”