Tottenham striker Darren Bent has apologised for posting "inappropriate comments" about club chairman Daniel Levy on his Twitter page.

The England man criticised Levy on the social networking site last night, accusing him of holding up his proposed move to Sunderland.

Bent, who was pulled off Tottenham's trip to China at the last minute on Monday, said in a statement on the Spurs official website: "I appreciate that transfers are seldom straightforward and are often complex.

"However, after a long period of waiting following my withdrawal from the plane to China, I had become incredibly frustrated by the time these things take and I posted inappropriate comments on my Twitter site."

On his Twitter account, db10thetruth, Bent said: “Seriously getting p***ed off now.”

He then went on to add: “Why can’t anything be simple?

“Sunderland are not the problem in the slightest.

“Do I wanna go Hull City? NO. Do I wanna go Stoke? NO. Do I wanna go Sunderland YES.”

The account no longer exists.

It is thought Levy is attempting to recoup the €18 million that Tottenham paid to sign Bent from Charlton two years ago, while Sunderland were hoping to pay €14 million rising to €16 million.

The move seemed to be imminent when Bent was pulled off Tottenham’s trip to China, but little progress has been made since.

Bent finished as Tottenham’s leading goalscorer with 17 last season.

The striker is likely to be further frustrated by comments made by Sunderland boss Steve Bruce today.

The former Manchester United defender revealed that a fee is still to be agreed between the clubs, with two other Premier League sides - widely reported to be Aston Villa and Hull - expressing an interest.

"Someone says Darren has been Twittering," Bruce told the Sunderland Echo. "I don't even know what that is, but I have seen a few things in the papers about it.

"Footballers aren't just objects. There's a human being in this who is obviously caught up in the middle and wants his future sorted out. The situation at the moment is that the clubs are still talking.

"We thought we had a deal done a couple of days ago and it has not quite materialised.

"We're still hopeful that we can agree a fee with Spurs, but at the moment there's a couple of other clubs showing an interest.

"We will do our utmost to get the deal over the line. I would say I was really confident that would happen a couple of days ago, but now I'd say it's 50-50."