Toby Alderweireld is “not comfortable” at Tottenham and doesn’t want to sign a contract extension, according to his former host family.
Tom Mechelse and his wife have known the Belgium international since he made the move from Belgium to Ajax as a 15-year-old, where he spent four-and-a-half years living in their house while he forged his professional career in Amsterdam.
They explain how they have heard that Alderweireld, who played for Ajax from 2008 to 2013 before joining Atletico Madrid, doesn’t see his future in north London.
“We had Toby Alderweireld in the house for four and a half years, and he doesn’t feel comfortable at Tottenham,” Melchese told Veronica Inside, as quoted by Belgian publication Voetbal Primeur.”Then I think: maybe he’ll come this way again, because he hasn’t signed a new deal yet, he doesn’t want to sign. His salary will go down at Spurs.
“We have contact with his parents, I have his mother on the phone.” His wife added Alderweireld is “a very nice boy” and also hopes that he chooses a return to Holland, joking, “we’re working on that, man, and that’s what we’re doing”.
OPINION
The Belgium media are giving serious air time to the comments of Alderweireld’s former host family, whose knowledge of his situation appears genuine and extensive. They claim to be in contact with the Spurs defender’s parents, and the information they are getting is that the defender is going through a rough time. Out of contract at the end of the season, Tottenham can trigger a 12-month extension, but that would open the door for a £25million release clause to be triggered. Alderweireld, who is 29, was frozen out of the team earlier this year after failing to accept the offer on the table from the club, prompting a summer of extensive speculation about his future. A move to Manchester United eventually collapsed and Alderweireld has been welcomed back into the fold by Mauricio Pochettino. But his former host family’s claim suggests it is an uneasy truce and that all is not well with the key Belgian.