Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas is poised to test Spurs’ resolve to keep Luka Modric by offering them £27million AND Daniel Sturridge.
But Spurs chairman Daniel Levy will be reluctant to flog the Croatian playmaker, 25, because he fears he may then lose Gareth Bale too.
The Stamford Bridge side has already made a £22m bid for Modric but will up the cash offer and throw in striker Sturridge, 21, as part of a new deal.
Harry Redknapp’s recent attempts to appease Luka Modric in recent pre-season friendlies by naming the Croatian midfielder as captain are not likely to have made the 25 year old change his mind about wanting a move to Chelsea so with that in mind this latest offer may well tempt the North London side into selling the want-away star.
Tottenham boss Redknapp stated that an offer of £35m would not be enough to land Modric but this latest offer is arguably worth nearer to £40m and would help resolve the White Hart Lane club’s striking problems at the same time.
Daniel Sturridge showed last season during his loan spell at Bolton that he is ready to make an impact in Premier League football. The England Under 21 international netted an impressive eight goals in 12 games whilst at the Reebok Stadium and knows that he is unlikely to garner regular first team football under new Blues boss Andre Villas-Boas.
The Portuguese manager has the likes of Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka, Fernando Torres and arguably Salomon Kalou, all ahead of Sturridge and is also linked with moves to bring either Hulk or Radamel Falcao from his former club, FC Porto.
Therefore a short move from West to North London may appeal to Sturridge and could help boost Redknapp’s attacking options. Tottenham’s quartet of Robbie Keane, Jermain Defoe, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Peter Crouch all struggled in Premier League action last term with their collective total of domestic league goals being less that Defoe’s personal total from the season before.
This has led to Redknapp making approaches, unsuccessful ones, for strikers across Europe in a bid to help resolve the problem.
Whilst Tottenham won’t want to sell Modric there may come a point where they realise that keeping a player who doesn’t want to play for the team may backfire and have an effect on the team’s morale. There is of course the fear that if Redknapp does sell, that other big name players, like Gareth Bale and Rafael Van der Vaart, may also push for a move, again this may be a risk the club has no choice other than to make.
Add to that the fact that Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has stated that Redknapp must sell before he can buy and the weight may fall towards the club feeling a sale to Chelsea makes the most sense.
Redknapp is also looking to sell a number of squad players to help provide funds for new acquisitions and the likes of Robbie Keane, David Bentley, Niko Kranjcar, Giovani dos Santos, Alan Hutton and Wilson Palacios may all be sacrificed for the greater good of the White Hart Lane side.
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