Bent’s representatives are due to meet with Villa officials in a bid to reach a compromise over the asking price for the former England striker.
Newcastle United are supposedly leading the hunt for Bent who has no future at Villa under boss Paul Lambert.
But Villa owner Randy Lerner may have to take an incredible £19 million loss on the player if he wants Bent off the books.
Villa paid a record £24m for Bent when he joined from Sunderland in the 2011 January transfer window.
But his stock fell last year when Lambert took over as boss from Alex McLeish.
Villa agreed to put Bent up for sale at the end of last season and slapped an £8m price tag on his head.
But now Villa may have to lower that figure by another £3m - as they have had no serious bids for Bent who is on around £65,000 a week at the moment.
As well as Newcastle, the Villa striker is also wanted by Fulham boss Martin Jol and Premier League new boys Hull City.
But Lambert maintains he did the right thing by benching Bent in favour of Christian Benteke who netted 19 times in the Premier League last season.
Lambert: "I don’t think about reputations.
"Firstly, they don’t win you games and secondly, as an individual, you have to buy into the team.
"When I first came into the football club, it was a case of getting somebody to play alongside Darren.
"Then I started looking at the squad, what system was going to suit and ended up playing one guy up front - and the best one for that was Christian Benteke.”
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