Wolves swoop to sign Marcus Bent

Wolves today sealed the low-key loan signing of Birmingham striker Marcus Bent to plug their gap for a fourth striker.

The 32-year-old has signed an initial 17-week deal for Wolves to become his 14th club, in what is expected to be their last business before today's 6pm transfer window deadline.

Bent becomes Wolves' seventh summer signing, of which three are on loan, joining Geoffrey Mujangi Bia and Michael Mancienne.

Boss Mick McCarthy has swooped for Bent after considering moves for free agent Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Hull's injured forward Caleb Folan following the departure of Andy Keogh to Cardiff on a season-long loan.

Much-travelled Bent, who joined Blues for £1m from Charlton two years ago, has not played for the St Andrew's club since April 2009.

Trumped by Cameron Jerome, Christian Benitez, Garry O'Connor and Kevin Phillips last season, his only first-team football came on loan in the Championship at Middlesbrough and QPR, where he played seven and three games respectively without scoring.

But his highlight was playing every game bar one for Everton in 2004-05, often as a lone frontman, when the Toffees finished fourth to qualify for the Champions League.

But he will have his work cut out competing with Kevin Doyle, Steven Fletcher and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.

"Marcus is an experienced striker who has played plenty of Premier League football and scored goals," said chief executive Jez Moxey.

"People still talk about whether we've got enough Premier League experience, and Marcus will add to that. He's also a different type of striker to what we have in that he's a physical presence.

"We needed someone after the departure of Andy Keogh."