Jermaine Jenas delivered his verdict on Tottenham defender Davinson Sanchez and shared that while he rated the player he wasn’t better than his teammate Toby Alderweireld.
The BBC pundit claimed that Spurs needed to hold on to the Belgian international rather than sell him as his potential replacement in the first-team, Sanchez, wasn’t the finished article.
Jenas stated that he thought if Alderweireld isn’t gone by the end of the current transfer window for European clubs then he’ll move to Manchester United in January.
“Spurs 100 per cent still need Toby. Davinson Sanchez is a good player but he’s not the finished article and he’s not better than Toby,” Jenas told the Daily Express.
“Toby and Jan [Vertonghen] together is quite possibly the best or the second-best centre-half pairing in the world.
“People probably argue Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos [at Real Madrid], who run them close.
“Why you wouldn’t want that, I don’t know.
“I think his age and the fact that he’s started to pick up a few injuries doesn’t help Toby.
“From United’s point of view they were saying ‘why should we pay £60million when we can get him for £25million in January?’.
“I’m almost certain if he’s not gone by the end of this window already, then he’ll go to United [in January].”
OPINION
It’s hard to argue that Sanchez is definitely better than Alderweireld at this stage of his career but that doesn’t mean he won’t be one day in the near future. The Colombian centre-back, who earns £60,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac) at Spurs, has consistently improved and learnt from his experiences. Sanchez featured 43 times for Mauricio Pochettino’s side last season and while he may not have the same level of understanding with Jan Vertonghen that Alderweireld has, he has still shown that Spurs can cope if the Belgian international departs anytime soon. The 22-year-old made a decent start to his 2018/19 Premier League campaign as well as he was an asset in both boxes for his side against Newcastle United. Sanchez went close to scoring against the Magpies and registered an assist in that game as well as looking able to deal with the Magpies’ attacking threat comfortably. While Alderweireld may be the better player at this stage if the club can’t sort out his long-term future then it’s right that they cash-in on him and look for Sanchez to continue to improve in order to make them not regret that decision.