Speaking to Football Insider, ex-Spurs striker Darren Bent has tipped chairman Daniel Levy to swoop for Philippe Coutinho this summer despite his lofty £200,000-per-week potential wage costs – citing the notion he could ‘transform‘ the team.
Bent, who played 60 Premier League games for Tottenham during his two-year stint with the club, scoring 18 goals in that time, now plies his trade as a pundit – with his latest claim being that we should definitely snap up Coutinho who could be made available in a loan-to-buy deal.
Should Spurs take a gamble on Coutinho?
Yes, do it
No, wages too high
Coutinho, currently on loan at Bayern Munich, has bagged eight goals and six assists this campaign – but the Bavarian giants still won’t be taking up Barcelona’s offer to make the temporary deal a permanent one.
This has gifted Spurs an opportunity to take the ‘insane‘ Brazilian on a loan-to-buy basis in time for next season, with the only object facing Levy being his reported wages and an initial £8 million loan fee.
Lauding Coutinho as a ‘top, top player‘, Bent believes that a swoop for his signature is well and truly worth the expenditure – and the ex-England international claims that we should ‘go all out‘ and pay the reported costs.
Despite scoring 21 goals for Barca since his switch from Liverpool in 2018, the Catalans reportedly wish to offload Coutinho, so much so that they will let any club test the waters with another loan deal.
“Coutinho’s a top player, he’s a superstar signing that Spurs need and even if it’s on loan, that’s the sort of superstar that they need to maybe encourage other superstars to come there,” exclaimed Bent to Football Insider.
“For me, I’d go all out and pay that £8million, pay that and try and get him. £8million for a top player like him for a year?
“You take that risk because at the end, you never know, at the end of the year it might work out really, really well. He could transform Spurs into an absolute powerhouse of a team.
“I wouldn’t even consider it – I’d just do it.”
Judging by the ex-striker’s enthusiasm in bringing Coutinho to north London, Spurs could be wise to invest and take a gamble on the 27-year-old given it may just pay off.