STEVE Bruce sounded exasperated at £13million record signing Asamoah Gyan’s decision to leave Sunderland for a seasonlong loan to United Arab Emirates side Al-Ain. And I don’t blame him Gyan’s got bags of talent – as he has shown so often playing for Ghana – but he’s got no common sense if he thinks he’s furthering his career by taking himself off to the Middle East. He’s 25 for heaven’s sake, not 35 and looking for one last big pay day.

Surely things are not that bad on Wearside that he considers it a good move to play in one of football’s backwaters.

“He chose the football over there in place of the Premier League. You can draw your own conclusions,” Bruce said.

It’s all about money – a reported £6million loan fee to Sunderland and a salary four times higher than he was getting at the Stadium of Light prompted Black Cats chairman Niall Quinn to suggest there were financial benefits for both the club and the player. But I reckon the boy’s in for a rude awakening and in no time will realise, as others have before him, that the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence – assuming he can find some grass.