Spurs set to seal £17m David Bentley deal

David Bentley was last night on the brink of leaving Blackburn for Tottenham in a £17million deal.

The midfielder missed last night's 2-1 friendly win at Macclesfield, fuelling speculation he is on his way out of Ewood Park.

Bentley made no secret of his desire to quit this summer and new boss Paul Ince confirmed Blackburn had received a bid from Aston Villa.

But Spurs have since emerged as favourites to sign him with keeper Paul Robinson going to Rovers for £6m.

Ince remained defiant yesterday and blamed an injury for Bentley's absence from the team that played his old club.

"I want to keep all my best players and that includes David Bentley, Brad Friedel and Roque Santa Cruz," he said.

"There has been interest in David. We have had an offer from Villa but that's as far as it goes.

"But he would have played tonight if he had been fit. He picked up a knock on his calf and we wanted to give him a couple of days off. Only time will tell if he is here in August." Tottenham plan to use money from the sale of Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane to fund their summer spending.

But last night both featured in Tottenham's 8-0 thrashing of Tavernes in a friendly in Spain.

New signing Giovani Dos Santos, 19, scored twice.

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