According to Football Insider (h/t Daily Star), Tottenham were weighing up a shock move for out-of-favour Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke as Jose Mourinho looked to bring in some much-needed cover for England captain Harry Kane in front of goal. However, they have now signed Carlos Vinicius on loan from Benfica to ease this worry.
Tottenham’s pursuit of a specialist understudy to Kane saw them get linked with Napoli’s Arkadiusz Milik and Metz’s Habib Diallo among others over the course of the transfer window. However, with none of those moves coming to fruition, the Lilywhites explored other avenues and have signed Vinicius.
Christian Benteke established himself as a prolific goalscorer in Belgium with Standard Liege and Genk before earning a move to the Premier League with Aston Villa back in the summer of 2012. The towering hitman was an instant hit in English football as he went on to plunder 23 goals in all competitions during his debut campaign at Villa Park.
The 29-year-old was snapped up by Liverpool in 2015 on the back of an astonishing tally of 49 goals in just 101 appearances for Villa. Benteke scored 10 goals in 42 appearances for the Reds before being transferred to Crystal Palace, where he hit the ground running at Palace with 17 goals in all competitions during the 2016-17 season.
However, Benteke’s career has been in a downward spiral over the past three seasons, with the Belgian constantly finding himself in and out of the team due to recurrent injuries. He has managed just 6 league goals for the Eagles since the start of the 2017-18 campaign.
Make no mistake, Christian Benteke was literally unplayable and very much among the Premier League’s elite strikers during his first five seasons in English football. However, injuries have taken a massive toll on his productivity in recent years, with the Belgian very much a shadow of his former glorious self.
The 29-year-old’s meagre tally of just 6 league goals over the past three seasons at Selhurst Park represents a significant fall in grace for a striker who used to terrorise defences in his younger days.
Despite the fact that signing a quality understudy to Kane should be on top of Tottenham’s agenda before the deadline, a potential move for Benteke would simply be a knee-jerk reaction and nothing but a sign of desperation. Nevertheless, they have now signed Carlos Vinicius on loan and this problem looks to be sorted for now, at least on paper.
Harry Kane has already had his fair share of struggles with injuries in recent times and Tottenham surely didn’t need a struggling striker with a patchy injury record like Christian Benteke to compete for a place in the ranks.
The Lilywhites have done well to address the depth issue by signing Carlos Vinicius and it remains to be seen if the 25-year-old Brazilian becomes a hit at Tottenham.