Darren Bent believes there is a chance Tottenham midfielder Christian Eriksen could end up staying at the club beyond this summer.
The 27-year-old Spurs playmaker in a recent interview with Ekstra Bladet shared that he would like to “try something new” and suggested that he was seeking to leave the club this summer in order to achieve that task.
Despite Eriksen going public with his desire to leave, Bent shared that it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that the playmaker would exit as Spurs won’t allow him to go if a deal doesn’t make sense for them.
Bent also added that he believes Spurs fans will be fine over Eriksen wanting to go as they know he has been a loyal servant to the club over the last few seasons and as a result will let him go with open arms.
“It was interesting listening to the statement Eriksen put out as he sorta of put it out there that he would like to leave and go to Real Madrid or Barcelona, but if he has to stay, he’ll stay due to backlash of the fans,” said Bent on Sky Sports News (9:36am, Friday June 7th).
“However one thing I will say about Christian Eriksen is that he has put the time in at Spurs, he has played really well, I think he is only second to Eden Hazard for assists since he came to the Premier League.
“He has given them his all, scored big goals for them, he is a big game player, he has never thrown his toys out the pram and for me I think he is 27 or 28 so he probably feels now is the right time to go as Real Madrid are rebuilding and he wants to be part of that.
” When he doesn’t play you can see they miss him (creatively) and it’s how you replace him, but it’s not going to be a foregone conclusion that he is going to get to leave as at the end of the day, as I know how Spurs operate.
“And if it doesn’t make sense for the club, he won’t be going anywhere but then again he only has one year left on his deal, so do you sacrifice another year where he could walk away for nothing or cash-in now, so it’s a difficult one.
“As I said no Spurs fan will look at Eriksen and give him any stick because he has been loyal to them, a great servant and has created more chances in the Premier League than nearly every player so for me, it’s a bit like the Chelsea situation (Eden Hazard) the fans will let him go with open arms as he has been brilliant for them.”
OPINION
Bent clearly believes there is a chance of Eriksen leaving Spurs due to his contract situation this summer, he only has a year left, but doesn’t think Spurs will be bullied into selling him. The 27-year-old really turned up the pressure on Spurs to let him go sooner rather than later by speaking publicly about his desire to try something new, but Bent is confident Spurs will play hardball in negotiations if it comes down to it. As for Bent’s remarks on how Spurs fans will feel about Eriksen’s potential exit, surely he is barking up the wrong tree. It’s highly unlikely that Spurs fans will happily stand on the sidelines and wave goodbye to Eriksen as he is one of the club’s best players. Also no doubt some Spurs supporters will also be hurt by the fact he has chosen to go public over his desire to leave as you get the feeling that it’s his way of trying to force through his exit, and that surely leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouths. Eriksen may have impressed by scoring 10 goals and assisting 17 in his 51 outings in the 2018/19 campaign, but that won’t be enough to protect him from the potential wrath of Spurs fans.