The Black Cats head to White Hart Lane this weekend with £10m record-signing Bent – who may hope he can use the game to force his way into England's plans for their friendly with Brazil next weekend – leading the chase for the club's first away win since the opening day of the season.

And inevitably, it is likely to be billed as a grudge match for the ex-Spur, who famously launched an online Twitter rant at the Spurs board as he sought a move to Wearside.

Bent – possibly on England boss Fabio Capello's radar after West Ham's Carlton Cole suffered a hamstring injury against Aston Villa last night – was fined by the London club for that outburst but hit the
ground running at Sunderland and scoring eight goals in 11 games.

Bruce reckons that both clubs and players have moved on and is quick to point out that there are plenty of other Spurs old boys at Sunderland.

"A lot of nonsense was written at the time about what was a delicate situation," said the Black Cats' boss.

"The guys in the media love a story and things tend to get blown out of proportion.

"At the end of the day, Darren wasn't playing regularly and there's always going to be a frustration there.

"He wanted to play more regularly. Myself and Harry Redknapp had many conversations about it over the summer and once we'd agreed a fee it was only a matter of time.

"I think Harry realised the fact that the boy was unhappy at not playing every week. I've had the same situation as a manager where some of my players are not happy at not playing.

"If they're not playing they're likely to be unhappy and they're going to want to be away.

"That was the situation with Darren but that's over now.

"And Darren isn't the only one going back – as well as him, there's Andy Reid, Steed Malbranque and Fraizer Campbell.

"Obviously Darren is going to be the most high profile but they have all been good players; good players for Tottenham and certainly very,
very decent for us."

Bent said he never really felt wanted during his two years at Spurs and famously had a fall-out with manager Redknapp after the Tottenham boss looked back on an open-goal miss by Bent and moaned: "My missus could have scored that."

That pithy quip lead to the striker being mocked in the media and was recalled by Bent when he left the club, the striker commenting that he could have done with support rather than criticism that day.

But Bruce shrugged: "Things are said by managers sometimes which should never really become a big deal.

"I saw myself on television dropping to my knees after we missed a chance and I thought, 'what on earth was I thinking of?'

"We shouldn't make too much of something which was something out of nothing. Harry knows Darren's a good player – sometimes comments just get blown out of proportion."

On the England front, Bent may again find Spurs a thorn in his side with Jermain Defoe fit again having missed the Three Lions' games against Belarus and Ukraine last month.

Defoe returns from a three-match ban on Saturday after being red-carded against former club Portsmouth on October 17.