Sunderland have begun negotiations with Tottenham about bringing striker Darren Bent to the Stadium of Light.
The 25-year-old is surplus to requirements at White Hart Lane following the signing of Peter Crouch for about £10m from Portsmouth.
Tottenham signed Bent for a club record fee of £16.5m from Charlton in June 2007 and will be looking to recoup as much of their outlay as possible.
The England forward scored 17 goals in all competitions for Spurs last season.
Bent did not travel to China, where Spurs are playing in the Barclays Asia Trophy, in order to negotiate a move away from White Hart Lane.
New Sunderland manager Steve Bruce looks set to exceed the club record of £9m that the Black Cats paid for goalkeeper Craig Gordon two years ago.
Bruce is keen to bolster his forward line having signed 21-year-old Fraizer Campbell from Manchester United to complement Kenwyne Jones.
Black Cats chairman Niall Quinn has confirmed that the club are looking to make new signings before the start of the Premier League season.
"We're busy exploring a number of options at the moment and hopefully one or two of those will come off in the near future," Quinn told SAFC TV.
"We are looking in a number of areas. I'd love to say more but I'd be pretty confident that there will be something else to come yet.
"Ellis has been superb. He has backed us and was behind the move to try to bring Peter Crouch to Sunderland.
"He expects us to be diligent in the transfer market and we will try to do that, but the backing is there."
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