Source: Telegraph
Tottenham's Darren Bent misses preseason tour as Sunderland move draws closer
Bent dropped out of the club's pre-season tour to China at the last minute as Peter Crouch completed his switch to White Hart Lane from Portsmouth.
The former Charlton striker has been heavily linked with a move to Sunderland and Redknapp revealed that talks between the clubs are ongoing while confirming Crouch's arrival.
"(Crouch) has joined the club. He has had a medical and everything was fine," Redknapp said.
"We now have four strikers as it looks like Darren Bent could move. I believe he is close to doing a deal with Sunderland.
"With him (Crouch), Robbie (Keane) Jermain Defoe and (Roman) Pavlyuchenko we have a good strikeforce."
Sunderland manager Steve Bruce had earlier admitted his frustration at his lack of progress in tying up a deal for Bent.
Bent joined the club from Charlton for £16 million and chairman Daniel Levy is understood to want to recoup as much, if not all, of this fee.
"I do not know if Tottenham's deal for Peter Crouch will help us. It is one we are visiting but we cannot wait around forever," Bruce said.
"We are still short, a long way off in terms of our valuations at the moment. We will look at it again, but if we can't agree, we will move on.
"We are not making headway at the moment and there hasn't been any progress over the weekend."
Spurs are in Beijing for the Asia Trophy, a biennial tournament that also features West Ham, Hull City and Beijing Guoan.
Meanwhile, Crouch's move was confirmed on the club's website in a deal thought to have cost around £9 million. It will no doubt anger Bruce who last week was reported to have bid £12 million.
"He's different. He holds the ball up. Celtic held the ball up well but we don't do that well enough," Redknapp said on completion of the deal. "He gives you an option and he's played for me a few times before. He's always done a job and he's great on set-plays at both ends."
The announcement is also likely to end Spurs' interest in Real Madrid striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar after Redknapp had indicated he would sign either rather than both players.
