Tottenham and Manchester United have opened negotiations over Toby Alderweireld, according to the Mirror.
Aldeweireld is expected to leave Spurs this summer after failing to agree terms on a new contract.
The Mirror claims Tottenham and United are now in discussions over a deal for the Belgian, but Spurs’ asking price could complicate things.
It is believed Tottenham want United to match the £75 million fee Liverpool paid for Virgil van Dijk in January.
A clause in Alderweireld’s contract will allow him to leave for just £25 million next summer, so Daniel Levy wants to take advantage of the current situation by raking in £50 million more.
Mauricio Pochettino is thought to be keen to sell Alderweireld – as well as Danny Rose and Mousa Dembele – in order to raise funds for new recruits.
United forward Anthony Martial is reportedly a top transfer target, while Spurs apparently want to replace Alderweireld with Ajax teenager Matthijs de Ligt.
It now seems inevitable Alderweireld will leave Tottenham in the current transfer window – Spurs fans will be hoping the transfer doesn’t drag on and become a saga.
That is probably in the ball park of a fair and sensible price.
A) Toby is probably the best centre back in worl football
B) if we wait until next year we still get 25m for him
C) Mourinho needs alderweireld desperately or will be gone next year.
D) We hold all the cards in negotiations
E) we dont sell our best players to Man United or really any rivals.
Sad departure but inevitable -buying De-ligt would mean reverting to 3 centre backs with full backs pushing on ?- big change in tactics – so who drops out of midfield /attack?…
Good question! If we are keeping CCV and we have Juan Foyth, surely that is enough cover for Sanchez and Jan next season as it was last. Rather take Martial in part exchange. £50m for an 18 year old sounds high risk no matter how promising De Ligt looks. But £75m is a great price even though we will get the usual comments about selling to a rival.
I dont think its a great price, not when you consider how much Liverpool paid for VVD, a player who is half the defender that Toby is…. and we’d be selling to a direct rival which is why Utd said they won’t sell Martial to us…
I can’t believe that Levy is even considering selling to Mourinho given that we want Martial but Utd are refusing to sell to a direct rival.
Spurs will continue to be seen as a small club all the time Levy puts money before reputation but you know what? I don’t care all that much. I will hate to see the world’s best centre back in someone else’s shirt but, if we get de Ligt or someone along the same lines (already very good but younger than Toby and eith lots of potential) it won’t be so bad… if we don’t, I’ll be devastated. We have looked weak at the back, we went from the tightest defense in the leagye to leaky when Alderweireld was injured, Sanchez (as well as Aurier) looks like a free kick (or worse) waiting to happen.
The worst thing is that when Toby leaves it will give Utd and Mourinho a direct link to some of our other players. Toby can then tap up and/or unsettle anyone he wants on behalf of Mourinho (don’t be naive enough to think it doesn’t happen, of course it does) when/if Mourinho feels we may threaten his team… all he has to do is mention money and the players heads are turned and our season takes a back seat to their personal greed (they’d call it ambition) so selling to Utd is a mistake regardless of how much Levy gets. Sell abroad for half of what we’d get FROM Utd and its good business because Mourinho can’t play his silly (illegal) games.
Excuse the rantyness of this, I’m thinking ‘out loud’ more than stating.