Sunderland will go into their clash on Good Friday away at Cardiff City hoping that a rare win comes at the end of it, with Mike Dodds' beleaguered Black Cats winless in their last seven Championship games.
Dodds will just pray that a hero comes to save the day versus the Bluebirds to steer his Wearside outfit to a much-needed three points, with the interim boss' patience with Sunderland's underperforming strikers beginning to run very thin.
Luis Semedo continuing to fire blanks is irritating the Black Cats masses, especially when talents such as Nazariy Rusyn – who have shown flashes of quality up top – have had their minutes cut since Dodds re-emerged onto the scene.
It's a far cry from the days when Darren Bent was leading the line for the ex-Premier League club, who Sunderland managed to sell on for a big fee after just one memorable, goal-filled campaign for the Englishman catapulted him into the spotlight.
Darren Bent's time at Sunderland in numbers
Bent would break Sunderland hearts when he moved onto Aston Villa mid-way through the 2010/11 season, with the now retired striker electric the campaign prior for his Wearside employers.
The 12-time England international would bag an impressive 24 goals during the 2009/10 season to alert the likes of Villa to his services, managing to remain everpresent in Steve Bruce's side in the process before the move to the West Midlands took place.
One of those goals would end up being this infamous beach ball-related strike against Liverpool, with everything that Bent touched turning to gold that season even if a slice of luck went his way.
Although there was an obvious despondency that hung over the Stadium of Light in the immediate aftermath of Bent being moved onto Villa – with a deal for the 26-year-old centre-forward at the time costing the fellow Premier League side £19.3m – Sunderland certainly profited on their ex-star at the perfect possible time.
Darren Bent's transfer value in 2024
In a theoretical world, Bent leaving by 2024's inflated standards would see him come in as Sunderland's record departure by some distance instead of settling for the silver medal spot. Jordan Pickford currently has that title, but would be blown out of the water by Bent's predicted value.
1. Jordan Pickford
€28.5m (£24.4m)
2. Darren Bent
€21.5m (£18.4m)
3. Jordan Henderson
€18m (£15.4m)
4. Simon Mignolet
€10.6m (£9.09m)
5. Patrick Van Aanholt
€10.5m (£9.04m)
In today's market, when looking at the TotallyFootball Transfer Index, Bent would now be sold for an eye-watering £53.2m – a substantial amount considering the experienced striker's career would somewhat fizzle out after his prolific stint at Sunderland.
Totally Money have taken the 100 most expensive transfers of all time across each season since 1992 in Europe's top five leagues. Armed with plenty of historical financial data they have calculated what footballers of yesteryear would be worth in the present day after taking into account the remarkable rate of inflation.
Whilst Bent shone for Villa in patches after his move away from the Stadium of Light, it ended up turning into a period of time for the ex-England international where he kept searching for the high of his Black Cats hay-day again.
Bent would never get to the 20 goals plus mark again for any of his various other clubs after waving goodbye to Wearside, bowing out of his playing days on loan at Burton Albion.
In the here and now, Sunderland will hope they can find their next red-hot striker like Bent soon.
But, to the dismay of the hardened Sunderland masses, Mason Burstow, Rusyn and Semedo are all still failing to lead the line effectively for the dejected Black Cats.
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