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Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has said that he expects Peter Crouch to make a decision about his future in the next 48 hours. The Black Cats have already had a bid of around £12million accepted by Portsmouth, but some believe Crouch is holding out for a move to Fulham. However, Bruce is confident that Sunderland will get their man, telling The Guardian, "Why should Sunderland not be the place for Peter Crouch?""He's an England centre-forward and people up here love a good centre-forward. This can be the place for Peter Crouch."We have spoken to him with his agent.

It was good to see him up here. "Let's keep our fingers crossed now."Bruce did concede, however, that there were other clubs in the running, continuing, "I believe there's a bit of competition in there, but let's keep our fingers crossed because he is the type of signing that would obviously set our intentions of where we want to be.""But we will see what develops over the next 24, 48 hours.

I am always an optimist - I hope so, but we will keep our fingers crossed."We have had him up, we have done our utmost, the club has backed me. We have done everything we possibly can and if we can pull it off, it will be a terrific signing for the club."The intention is there for everybody to see.