Former Tottenham Hotspur footballer Darren Bent believes that Southampton’s Danny Ings would be a ‘perfect fit’ at Spurs – and believes that Harry Kane’s place in the starting XI would not be assured if the in-form striker hit the ground running in north London.
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Only Jamie Vardy has scored more than Ings this season in the Premier League, while Kane is set to be sidelined for a number of weeks following the hamstring injury that saw him limp out of Spurs’ defeat at Southampton on New Year’s Day.
Without a like-for-like replacement in the Tottenham squad, Bent highlighted Ings as a potential solution with Kane out for the foreseeable future.
However, Bent told TalkSPORT that Kane would not necessarily regain his starting place should Ings make the move and continue his fine form in front of goal.
He said: “If Spurs were to go and get Danny Ings and say he scores five, six goals before Harry Kane gets back, I don’t think Harry Kane automatically walks back into the team.
“Because if you’re getting the best out of someone, you’re winning games now, you’ve got someone who can stick the ball in the back of the net, I know Harry Kane’s important and one of the world’s best, but he’d have to be patient.
“How can he change the whole dynamics of a team that are doing really well, winning games, pushing up the league, to accommodate someone who we’ve seen before the injury is a world-class striker but still may be not 100%?
“For me, that’s a perfect fit.”
While Bent’s suggestion makes sense, the chain of events he claims to foresee depends a lot on hypotheticals.
Should Ings sign for Spurs, there would be no guarantee he could turn the team’s fortunes around – after all, Kane himself has been unable to enjoy much success on the pitch lately with Tottenham winning just three of their last nine games.
However, there is little denying that Ings is in red-hot form and Spurs could certainly do with some backup for Kane, regardless of their recent results and the injury to their only out-and-out striker.
Therefore, Bent could come up with few better candidates than Ings given his recent performances which have seen him notch nine goals in his last 10 league matches.
To bring in a player who can rival someone as prolific as Kane would surely be no mean feat for Spurs, though Ings’ current vein of form suggests he could yet give Mourinho a selection headache should he make a switch.
Spurs fans, who would be your ideal backup option for Harry Kane? Let us know in the comments below!
