Football
Tuesday 9 July 2013 22.30
BST
Christian Benteke will
cost £25m - and no
swap deals - Villa tell
Spurs
• Villa want cash-only deal
with White Hart Lane club
• Chelsea may have a
chance if Romelu Lukaku
is included
Aston Villa are prepared to
play hardball over the
future of Christian
Benteke. Photograph:
Scott Heavey/Getty
Images
Stuart James
Aston Villa have made it
clear that Tottenham
Hotspur will have to break
their transfer record for
the second time this
summer if they want to
sign Christian Benteke.
The Midlands club are
determined to dig their
heels in over Benteke's
future, after the Belgian
international submitted a
transfer request on
Monday, and they have
no intention of settling for
anything less than £25m.
Tottenham have tracked
Benteke for months, and
the player is understood
to favour a move to
White Hart Lane, where
he would be guaranteed
regular football, yet there
are doubts about whether
they will be able to meet
Villa's valuation, especially
after they spent £17m on
the Brazilian Paulinho this
month. One way to
finance the transfer would
be to include a player,
possibly Jermain Defoe,
but that sort of deal is of
no interest to Villa, who
will demand that Spurs
pay the fee in full.
Randy Lerner, Villa's
owner, is determined to
adopt the same hardline
stance that frustrated
Liverpool in 2008, when
Gareth Barry ended up
missing out on a move to
Anfield. Villa demanded
£18m for Barry and
refused to budge on that
figure, forcing Liverpool to
eventually concede defeat
in their attempts to sign
the England international,
who went on to join
Manchester City for £12m
a year later.
Villa's position on Benteke,
who has three years left
on his contract, poses a
major challenge for
Tottenham. André Villas-
Boas is desperate to
recruit a top-class centre-
forward, and the Spurs
manager believes Benteke
has all the attributes to
succeed at White Hart
Lane. Perhaps crucially,
Benteke has also emerged
as the most viable option
for Spurs at a time when
they have missed out on
David Villa and, for a
variety of reasons, are no
closer to signing Leandro
Damião, Roberto Soldado
or Loïc Rémy.
Tottenham could yet face
competition from Chelsea
and Arsenal, who
watched Benteke before
he joined Villa from Genk
in a £7m deal last August.
In the case of Chelsea it is
possible that Villa would
feel differently about a
makeweight if Romelu
Lukaku, who spent last
season on loan at West
Bromwich Albion, was
included as part of the
package.
Should Benteke leave Villa,
his departure will have no
bearing on Darren Bent's
future. Villa remain keen
to offload Bent whom
Alan Pardew, the
Newcastle manager,
admitted is on a list of five
strikers – which also
includes Rémy – that the
club are interested in
signing. Wolfsburg are
also monitoring Bent's
situation.