Keane welcomes Crouch arrival

Gary Rose,Pa
Wednesday 29 July 2009 10:14 BST
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Crouch's arrival will provide stiff competition for places
Crouch's arrival will provide stiff competition for places (GETTY IMAGES)

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Robbie Keane has welcomed the arrival of Peter Crouch to Tottenham, insisting the added competition can only be good for the team.

England striker Crouch completed his move to White Hart Lane on Monday in a £9m deal while last season's top scorer Darren Bent headed to the north-east to discuss terms with Sunderland.

That means Crouch, Keane, Jermain Defoe and Roman Pavlyuchenko will compete for the places in the Spurs' forward line this season.

Crouch and Defoe previously combined successfully under Redknapp at Portsmouth, meaning that little and large partnership could potentially be reunited.

But, far from being concerned over his place in the side, Keane believes the incentive to perform will spur him on.

"I am looking forward to playing with him," said the Republic of Ireland captain. "He is a tremendous player and he is a good addition to a good squad that we already have.

"As a striker it is always good to be kept on your toes and we now have four good strikers and it is good to have that competition as it now means we all have to perform otherwise someone else is going to come in.

"It is important to have that competition and it will only help us to do well."

Tottenham's hectic pre-season continues this week as they follow up last weekend's Wembley Cup with the Barclays Asia Trophy in Beijing.

Redknapp's side tackle West Ham today at Beijing Workers' Stadium, with the winner of that game set to play either Hull or Chinese side Beijing Guoan in the final on Friday.

Far from worrying about potential burn-out from the volume of games and miles travelled, Keane is instead looking forward to the tournament.

"We want to show what a good team that we have and how good we can play," he added.

"We have been looking forward to the trip and hopefully we can get good results, come away with the cup and get some good fitness behind us."

Redknapp admits the schedule has been gruelling but maintains he and his players will be aiming for nothing less than success in Beijing.

"We had a tough weekend playing two games at Wembley with Barcelona and Celtic but that is the schedule we have been given," he said.

"We are here to play well and do our very, very best to win the cup."

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