BLACKPOOL boss Ian Holloway can understand Steve Bruce’s shock that Darren Bent would want to leave what the manager is building at Sunderland.

Today, Holloway’s side host the Black Cats, who will be without top scorer Bent following his decision to join Aston Villa this week.

With the Wearsiders currently sixth in the Barclays Premier League and in the running for European football, Bruce has been left stunned by the striker’s defection to a Villa outfit struggling at the opposite end of the table.

Holloway sympathises with his counterpart, describing the way Bruce has taken Sunderland forward since his appointment there in the summer of 2009 as ‘‘phenomenal’’.

Asked what sort of job he felt Bruce had done at the Stadium of Light, Holloway said: ‘‘Absolutely terrific, and the shock for him now is that someone would want to leave his club and go somewhere else.

‘‘He is trying to build, grow it and make it better than it has ever been.

‘‘How quickly he is doing it is quite phenomenal, so I think that is what will hurt him more than anything.’’ ‘‘I understand how he might feel, but this is life.

‘‘Any footballer will have his head turned, that is what happens, because you are only in it a short time.’’ Holloway is having to deal with interest in one of his own star players at the moment in Blackpool captain Charlie Adam, who still has 18 months left to run on his contract.

Villa, who paid £18m, rising to £24m, for Bent, have had bids of £2.5m and £3.5m for the Scotland midfielder firmly rejected and Holloway has indicated he would only consider letting Adam leave if a substantial offer came in from one of the top flight’s biggest sides.

Liverpool were last night reported to have bid £4m for the Scot.

The manager does not want to have to think about it until the season is over, though.

‘‘Realistically, with the choice he (Adam) might have in the summer, our heads might be turned by a huge offer which is so ridiculous we’d have to accept it,’’ said Holloway.

‘‘But until then, you can’t get what you want – you have to work towards getting it.

‘‘Every day that comes closer to the end of the season, Charlie’s contract is ticking, so it’s all quite simple for me.

Everything else is an absolute load of baloney.’’ In terms of bringing players in during the transfer window, Blackpool have missed out on Barnsley winger Adam Hammill, who opted to join Wolves, and it seems talks with Peterborough about their midfielder George Boyd and striker Craig Mackail-Smith have hit a stumbling block.

‘‘We were only offered £3.5m for Charlie Adam. Peterborough want that for two lads who were in a team that got relegated from the Championship,’’ said Holloway, quoted in the Blackpool Gazette.

‘‘I don’t mean that as an insult at all but I’m saying let’s have a look at reality.

‘‘They know we’re a Premier League side but they don’t know where my chairman (Karl Oyston) is.

“He likes to do good deals and are those players worth £2m each?

‘‘Maybe they are, but who will buy them for that sort of price and what does that make Charlie worth?

‘‘This is why it is so hard to quantify anything you own.

Your house is only worth what someone will pay for it, not what an estate agent tells you.’’