Gary Lineker believes Chelsea target Luka Modric will leave Tottenham

Luka Modric, Tottenham Hotspur

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Former Tottenham striker Gary Lineker expects Luka Modric to leave the club.

Modric has been the subject of attention from Manchester United and Chelsea, who put in a bid for the playmaker thought to be around £22 million, which Spurs manager Harry Redknapp called ‘ridiculous’.

Redknapp has spoken of Modric in the highest terms and is eager to keep him at White Hart Lane at all costs.

But Lineker, who is second on England’s all-time list of goalscorers and was part of the Tottenham team who won the FA in 1991, is worried that the Croatian will decide to move on to a Champions League club.

He told reporters: “My gut feeling says yes he will leave.

“It largely depends on Modric now. Players have a lot of power. If they want to leave they will make it awkward enough to enforce that.”

Spurs played last season in the Champions League but missed out on a spot in the top four and will instead compete in the Europa League.

And Lineker is worried that missing out on Champions League football will mean that Spurs are unable to keep their best players, as was the case when Dimitar Berbatov moved to Manchester United.

He added: “This is a defining moment where we will find out what will happen in the future for the club.

“These are really testing times for Tottenham. It’s crunch time for them.

“Once you become a club that loses your best players it becomes awfully difficult to continue to compete and try to get back into the Champions League.

“If you lose someone like Modric he will be difficult to replace and for me, the club are now either going to go on to be one of the big clubs or one of the ones that are in the pack behind. If they do drop into that pack, they’ll probably be there for a long time.”

For Lineker, a new striker should be a priority for Harry Redknapp if he is to try and get back into the Champions League as his forwards lacked regular goals last season.

“I think Spurs are genuinely only a couple of players short of being a side that can really compete with the big boys,” he said.

“They need a top-quality striker who will get them 20 or 30 goals a season guaranteed.

“That would make a significant difference. That’s what they lacked last season. None of the strikers scored enough goals.”