WHEN Darren Bent joined Aston Villa on Tuesday, he completed a transfer worth around £24m.

Sunderland, however, have actually ended the week worse off than they started.

Not only have they ended a week without a 25-goal a season striker, they are also having to look at replacing Bent without any extra cash raised from his departure.

The record-breaking sale of the 26-year-old – the highest fee for a player any North-East club has been involved in – has caught the eye across the country for the manner in which the deal was conducted.

But rather than reflect further into the reasons for Bent’s decision to move on, it’s worth looking at the finer details of how such a transfer can leave the selling club short – in the short term anyway.

Eighteen months after moving from Tottenham in a transfer that could have been eventually worth £16.5m, Sunderland should have that sum of money and an extra £7.5m to play around with in their search for a replacement.

The truth, however, is quite different. Firstly, Tottenham were due the final payment of the scheduled instalments from the deal that was agreed in the summer of 2009.

That amounted to around £4m, which closed that particular transfer at £13.5m rather than the £16.5m they would have had to pay if a number of remaining add-ons had been reached.

As Sunderland stood to make a profit on the original fee they agreed to pay Spurs, they were also due to pay a sizeable proportion of the sell-on fee to Tottenham which amounted to around £3m.

And after Villa only paid an initial £6m of the Bent fee, with more due in the summer, that meant Sunderland were left with a £1m shortfall until further money comes through the door in the summer.

It is with that in mind Sunderland have been looking at the shorter term, with the likes of Ricardo Fuller being targeted, while most fans have been expecting a more expensive foray on the transfer front.

DARREN BENT has not been the only mover and shaker on the transfer front this week, with a familiar face back at St James’ Park.

When Alan Pardew announced his No 2 was John Carver, it is safe to assume that Newcastle United’s hottest property was a happy man.

It was Carver’s eagle eye and intervention that prevented Andy Carroll from being thrown on to the football scrapheap during his days as a schoolboy with the club.

Carroll was being used as a left-back as a 15-year-old for the Under-16s but then Carver – handed a role in charge of the Academy by Graeme Souness at that time – converted Carroll in to a striker. The rest, as they say, is history.

So if there is a young defender failing to make an impact with the Magpies now, make a beeline for Carver. It could make you into an England international striker.

SPEAKING of Newcastle strikers, one of the club’s former heroes has been making an impact in the North-East in the last week: Tino Asprilla.

After having a drink in Whickham, Gateshead, on Friday night he then went to the Wear- Tyne derby and stood with the Geordie supporters in the away end until he was asked to leave because he was smoking a cigar.

He posed for photographs with the Newcastle supporters, signed autographs.

Just think, Asprilla could have had that rapport with the Darlington fans had George Reynolds got his way.