Peter Crouch believes Philippe Coutinho would have been a “perfect” signing for Tottenham in the summer.
Coutinho was linked with a loan move to Spurs after falling out of favour at Barcelona.
However, a deal failed to materialise and he instead joined Bundesliga outfit Bayern Munich.
Crouch believes Coutinho would have been the man to replace Christian Eriksen, who is out of contract at Spurs at the end of the season.
“He would have been perfect, especially with what is going on with Eriksen at the moment, he’s a readymade replacement,” he said on BT Sport.
Coutinho lined up against Tottenham in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
And ex-Spurs star Gary Lineker was looking forward to seeing the former Liverpool man.
“It will be interesting to see Coutinho in action, obviously we all saw him perform brilliantly for Liverpool,” Lineker said.
“Struggled a little bit at Barcelona. Started well and then he kind of went off the boil and then he was left out a lot.
“[Spurs] were obviously linked with him on loan, it didn’t quite happen for Tottenham.
“That would have been a good addition. He played under [Mauricio] Pochettino at Espanyol of course, that’s obviously where the link comes from, that’s where they know each other from.”
Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was working alongside Lineker and Crouch.
And he was also disappointed Coutinho did not return to England in the summer.
“I would have loved to have seen him, just in the Premier League,” Ferdinand said.
“Wherever he went he would have been fantastic because what he done here with Liverpool, he did some magical things.”