'Why the hell did you leave?' Aston Villa record transfer put on spot after shock Sunderland deal

Aston Villa have smashed their transfer record three summers running to bring in Wesley, Ollie Watkins and, in 2021, Emi Buendia. However, before that, Darren Bent was Villa's mega-money signing when Gerard Houllier signed the red-hot Sunderland striker for an initial £18million fee rising to £24million.

Bent scored 24 Premier League goals in his first season at the Stadium of Light while, in the following campaign, notched 11 in 23 appearances before Villa came calling as Randy Lerner, at long last, released the pursestrings. Villa were in trouble at the time and snapped Bent up for huge money on January 17, 2011. The England striker scored on his Villa debut and tallied an impressive nine goals in 16 Premier League games as Houllier's men rose from relegation candidates to an 11th-place finish.

It all changed for Bent when Paul Lambert walked in at Villa Park before he eventually left to join Derby County on a free transfer in 2015.

Bent, meanwhile, was recently cornered by his former Sunderland and Villa teammate Kieran Richardson who's now a successful watch dealer. Bent was a guest on Richardson's Broadtalks YouTube channel and the ex-West Brom man went straight in with a burning question that's been sitting with him for the past 11 years.

Richardson put it to Bent: "First question. I've always wanted to ask you but never got the chance to ask you this question: why the hell did you leave Sunderland?

"Keep it 100, bro, you're better off telling me, 'I wanted more money!' I'd rather hear that. All of the Sunderland fans, me, my teammates, we all loved you! You were killing it at Sunderland with us then, all of a sudden within a blink of an eye, man was just gone to Aston Villa... I didn't see it coming from