Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has defended the summer signing of Darren Bent.

Spurs bought Bent in a £16.5million deal from Charlton, but the striker has struggled to make an impact - with Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane hitting the 40-goal mark as a partnership.

"Sometimes in transfers you have to take opportunities when they present themselves. It was never a case, as some people are suggesting, of spending the money on a striker without being able to bring in anyone else," Levy told FC Business magazine.

"One of the reasons we decided to bring him (Bent) in was that we believed one of our other strikers (Jermain Defoe) may be going.

"Okay, it didn't happen at the time. But we took the view we wanted a target man - and there are not that many.

"We knew were paying a full price but we were competing with a lot of other clubs and took a long-term view."