Sunderland manager Steve Bruce hits out at Aston Villa's Gérard Houllier over Darren Bent transfer

The Sunderland manager hit out at his Villa counterpart following Bent’s £24 million move and complained that Houllier had failed to speak to him over the issue that has caused a bitter feud between the two Premier League clubs.

Bruce said. “There’s a lot of people bitterly upset and disappointed, and rightly so. My big disappointment of course is Gérard Houllier, too, who up until this time now, I still haven’t had a phone call from.

“I would have thought out of respect and a manager of his status, I would have thought maybe a phone call from him to say, ‘Listen Steve, we’re after your centre forward ’, to give me a chance to do something.

“I would have thought maybe that might have been the way forward. it usually is with the great managers I’ve had the pleasure to deal with in the past, that’s usually the case. So the whole thing has disappointed us.

“I did have the utmost respect for Mr Houllier but I haven’t had a call. There are only 20 of us. We know how hard it is. I’d have expected him to have the decency to pick up the phone but that’s not been the case.”

Bruce went on the offensive after Villa had accused Sunderland of trying to besmirch Bent’s reputation and that of his new club over the move.

Bruce, speaking at a press conference ahead of Saturday’s game at Blackpool, said the deal has “left a sour taste”.

He also took aim at Bent, who handed in a written transfer request two hours after the 1-1 draw with Newcastle on Sunday.

“I can’t go along with the thing of the bigger club and the ambition,” Bruce said. “We’re trying to play in Europe and Villa are in a relegation battle so it doesn’t make sense. You’ll have to ask Darren why he didn’t wait another few months to the summer, why he didn’t show us more respect.

“We fought off a rival bid from Turkey last summer. Me and [chairman] Niall Quinn spent hours in Portugal with his agent to try and make him see sense. If he’d come to be and said he was unhappy six weeks ago it gives me time to grant his wish but the quickness was unbelievable.”

Bruce’s need to find a new striker has increased with Danny Welbeck, on loan from Manchester United, sidelined for up to eight weeks following knee surgery.

“We couldn’t have wished for anything worse,” Bruce said. “We’re in a horrible situation so we have to address that over the next 10 days and we’re working tirelessly. But if they think I’m going to spend £20 million with a marquee signing it’s not going to happen. This is not going to derail our season, we’ll bring in a couple of bodies to go short term and then look for the summer.”

Bruce ruled out of a move for Wigan’s Charles N’Zogbia, stating: “After what’s just happened to me, I’ve got too much respect for Wigan to do anything.”