Former Sunderland strikers Darren Bent and Asamoah Gyan have shared an awkward exchange on national radio, as the Ghanaian demanded to know why their partnership was broken.
Gyan was signed by Sunderland in the summer of 2010 to play alongside Bent, who had scored 24 goals the previous campaign.
They were good together, too, scoring 21 goals between them despite Bent only staying for half the season before leaving for Aston Villa in January.
It was a deal that stunned Sunderland fans and still confuses to this day. Eight months later, Gyan was gone too as he chased a mega-money deal in the UAE.
Gyan was a phone guest on TalkSPORT on Thursday to the show Bent presents with Andy Goldstein, and he appeared to catch Bent by surprise with the question.
Towards the end of his segment on the show, Gyan butted in and said: “Before I go, I want to ask Darren why he left Sunderland.”
Bent initially tried get out of answering it before attempting to wriggle out of the question with a joke instead.
“At the time Asamoah, it was just one of those things where I knew it was your time to shine, so I thought if I didn't move over... you were going to take my spot anyway, so I thought 'the platform is yours.'”
Gyan was having none of that, though, and pushed his former striker partner for an answer.
“No, Darren, at the time we were comfortable playing two strikers,” Gyan said. “Honestly, I was disappointed because we got to know each other, we were performing and then all of a sudden you left.”
Bent then got a little more serious and appeared to show a moment of remorse about leaving Sunderland when he did, before ultimately batting away the question.
“Yeah it (leaving Sunderland) was one of those decisions where I still look back on and think 'hmm...,' he said.
“But at the end of the day we still got to spend a little bit of time together, and I enjoyed our time together.”
Bent has previously discussed when he left Sunderland, and expressed a little remorse, although he has always maintained the club were very keen to sell him.
“Every Sunderland fan thinks that I wanted to leave and it was so far from the case,” he told Roker Report in 2018.
“If I could go back and apologise to every Sunderland fan that heckled me over the years I would.
“At the same time, it was never about me wanting to leave and chase the money.
“Certain situations arose and as I have said before, the club could have said no. They could have said “look Darren we have had Villa on, but we are not going to sell you” I would have said fine and got on with it.
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