Reports have claimed Sunderland have agreed a £12million deal for the England international.
“He is a player I have admired for a very long time and I suppose a lot of managers do exactly the same thing,” said Bruce.
“As we speak at this particular moment, we are in discussions with the club.
“As far as I am aware – and I’ve just come off the training ground – we are in discussions with the club and that’s as far as it is at the moment.
“But the discussions have been going on now for a few weeks.
“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.”
