Bruce: Bent deserves humane treatment

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Bruce claims a deal appeared close earlier in the week but would only rate Bent's chances of moving to the Stadium of Light now as "50-50". And Bent reportedly revealed his disappointment on internet networking site Twitter on Thursday night with a rant against Spurs chairman Daniel Levy.

"Someone says Darren has been Twittering," Bruce told the Sunderland Echo. "I don't even know what that is, but I have seen a few things in the papers about it."

He added: "Footballers aren't just objects. There's a human being in this who is obviously caught up in the middle and wants his future sorted out. The situation at the moment is that the clubs are still talking.

"We thought we had a deal done a couple of days ago and it has not quite materialised. We're still hopeful that we can agree a fee with Spurs, but at the moment there's a couple of other clubs showing an interest.

"We will do our utmost to get the deal over the line. I would say I was really confident that would happen a couple of days ago, but now I'd say it's 50-50."

Bent's Twitter account was removed on Friday morning.