Sunderland refuse to give up on signing Aston Villa's Stewart Downing
Sunderland manager Steve Bruce is setting his sights on the Aston Villa and England winger Stewart Downing.
Target man: Steve Bruce would happily buy Stewart Downing but Aston Villa would be reluctant to let the winger go Photo: GETTY IMAGES
By Rob Stewart and Sandy Macaskill 11:00PM GMT 30 Dec 2010
Sunderland will bide their time for Downing but with owner Ellis Short expected to hand over around £12 million in the summer Bruce will use his entire transfer kitty to try to prise away the former Middlesbrough player from Villa Park.
A left-winger of Downing’s calibre has been Bruce’s top priority from the day he took the reins at the Stadium of Light. He went into the transfer market 12 months ago thinking he had Downing’s former Riverside understudy, Adam Johnson, in the bag only for the Sunderland-born player to succumb to Manchester City’s charms.
Since then Bruce has been constantly linked with Charles N’Zogbia.
Downing, 26, has been in impressive form for Villa this season despite his club’s travails and is their top scorer with six goals. While there is no suggestion he is unsettled at a club he only joined 18 months ago, Bruce is closely monitoring the situation at Villa.
Villa would be expected to resist any approach for the player. “We are at a stage where if I am going to get £10-12 million I would spend it on one player,” Bruce said. “We have the nucleus of a good young team. There is no point in bringing in a £2 million player any more.”
Paulo Da Silva, the Paraguay international, will be leaving Sunderland. Da Silva is heading back to Mexico, from where he arrived 18 months ago, Sunderland having accepted a £1.5 million bid from Cruz Azul.
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Telegraph.co.uk
