Spurs manager Juande Ramos is in desperate need of attacking reinforcements, having sold Robbie Keane to Liverpool for £20 million and with Dimitar Berbatov likely to be on his way to Manchester United.

According to reports, Spurs and United have agreed a deal in principle, thought to around £30m, but the sale will only go through once Ramos has secured a replacement for the Bulgarian.

Ramos is known to be a big fan of Cruz, who scored 19 Premier League goals, and 23 in total from 42 matches during his debut campaign last season.

Rovers paid just £3.5m to Bayern Munich for the Paraguayan international, but such has been the 26-year-old's impact that they have recently rejected a £12m offer from City for his services.

At the time, City manager Mark Hughes said: "We made a substantial offer, but we'll just have to wait and see. We're trying to address certain situations in the team.

"We've had Blackburn's response, we appreciate it, but we're in the market for a top striker."

City's current financial restrictions, due to owner Thaksin Shinawatra having almost £800m of his assets frozen by the Thai government, means they are unable to match the league's big spenders, which puts Tottenham in pole position to land Cruz.

Ramos said: "We are aware there are only two weeks to go before the end of the window and that's something we are working on constantly.

"We work without rest to look for players. We are working calmly, trying to work on one or two things."