“It takes time and Asa has scored more goals than Bent from open play; he’s a good player and now he’s our only striker.

“We expect him to come to the table. The only thing is if something happens to him then we’re truly goosed. He’ll relish the responsiblity, he likes that. I’ve got no problem of him playing on his own.

We’ll see what we can bring in and what we can do.”

The departure of Bent in a deal worth £24m to Aston Villa on Tuesday could have been perceived across the country as another occasion when Sunderland have been forced to sell against their wishes.

But Bruce thinks Sunderland have shown in the last few years that they are a club making continual progress, rather than when they had to constantly cash in on their top talents.

“Do you think Man U wanted to sell Ronaldo,” he said.

“If a player really wants to go then, in my experience, you say ‘on your way’.

“In football, everyone has their price. There was a time on Sunday night when I would have said ‘no, leave him here and if he wants to, we’ll let him rot in the reserves’, but that can’t happen anymore.

“You then have a disgruntled player who doesn’t want to be here, doesn’t want to train here and upsets what we’ve got, which is the spirit in the dressing room, which you try hard to keep strong.

“We’ve built a reputation as a club trying to go forward, everyone can see that, and I’m determined it won’t derail that. It’s a fantastic amount of money but we lost a really good player.”

Bruce will playing Gyan as a lone striker at Bloomfield Road, with Bolo Zenden in the middle of midfield.