England striker Peter Crouch is set to quit Portsmouth for fellow premiership side Sunderland, UK media reports said on Wednesday.
It is believed the Black Cats have agreed a fee of around 12 million pounds (16 million euros) with Pompey for the striker after secretive negotiations since the end of the season.
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Sunderland manager Bruce said: "He is a player I have admired for a very long time and I suppose a lot of managers would do exactly the same thing.
"The discussions have been going on now for a few weeks," he added.
"We hope we can try to put something together because he would be the type of player of course that would signal our intention of the way we want to take the football club forward."
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