Tottenham are keen to tie Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen to new contracts but have stepped up plans to sign a new centre-back, according to Sky Sports.
The broadcaster claim the north Londoners would like the Belgium centre-backs to remain beyond their current agreements, which expire at the end of the season.
Sky Sports report Spurs have been looking at successors to the pair since last season, with Bournemouth 23-year-old Nathan Ake one of their top targets.
OPINION
Alderweireld and Vertonghen are immensely popular players among Spurs supporters, who widely regard them as two of the best defenders to ever play for the club. Certainly, they have been central pillars of the Mauricio Pochettino era in which the club have become established members of Europe’s elite. But all good things come to an end, and there is a strong likelihood that at least one of them will not be at the club next season. Vertonghen turns 32 before the season is out, but it is more likely to be the younger Alderweireld – who will blow 30 candles out on his birthday cake – who will move on. Spurs can trigger a year’s extension but that will activate a £25million release clause. The top brass would hope they can sell him for around £15million more than that, and then recruit a centre-back replacement of quality and the potential to be a mainstay for the next half-decade.