Darren Bent has suggested that Tottenham Hotspur may be reliant on Thomas Tuchel’s intervention to get a deal over the line for one of their rumoured January targets.
With the January window fast approaching, the speculation on Tottenham’s transfer targets has gone into hyperdrive.
One of the players most heavily linked with a move to Spurs over recent weeks is Ivan Toney, who is allegedly Tottenham’s top striker target in January.
It emerged recently that Toney would have to pay £14m in taxes if he is to give up his lucrative Saudi contract to return to the Premier League in January.
Thomas Tuchel’s influence could make deal possible
Darren Bent has now weighed in on what it would take for Ivan Toney to leave Al-Ahli and return to the Premier League despite the huge financial loss.
The former Spurs striker suggested that unless Thomas Tuchel assures Toney that he would be part of the England squad for the World Cup if he returns to these shores, the striker may not be too keen on the move.
When asked what it would take for him to return to the Premier League if he were in Toney’s shoes, Bent responded on talkSPORT: “If Thomas Tuchel said to me, ‘Listen, if you come back, play a few games, get yourself fit, I’m definitely picking you’, then that’s a big conversation. I’d probably go, ‘I’m going to have to.’
“Unless Thomas Tuchel said to him, ‘Ivan Toney, if you came back, you’ll definitely be in the squad’, I’m not coming back for that. He was in the very first squad when he moved out there, then Thomas Tuchel completely ignored him and left him out the next squad.
“Then this squad just gone, he didn’t even have a striker in it [apart from Harry Kane]. So, if I’m Ivan Toney, I’m staying where I’m at…Unless it’s a big team, and this is no disrespect, but you understand what I’m saying, there are levels.
“Unless I’m coming back for one of the absolute big boys, that are playing in the Champions League week in, week out, that have got a chance of winning big trophies, what am I coming back for?”
Spurs may have a way around Toney’s big tax problem
Some sources have reported over recent weeks that Tottenham are plotting to sign Toney on an initial loan deal so that the striker would not have to give up his Al-Ahli contract and foot a big tax bill.
It has also been claimed that the Spurs target’s representatives are in talks with Al-Ahli over a compromise and that the striker is prepared to take a big pay cut to return to England.
However, the Saudi Pro League club have dismissed the idea of Toney leaving in January, and it remains to be seen whether they have a change of heart over the next few weeks.