OPINION
Tottenham must pull out all the stops to keep hold of Toby Alderweireld.
Or, to be more precise, Daniel Levy has to re-open talks with the contract rebel and try and find a solution to the stalemate that threatens to rob the club of their best defender.
Discussions between Alderweireld and Spurs ground to a halt at the start of the year and there has been no indication of the two parties returning to the negotiating table, despite the Belgian’s failure to get a summer transfer.
Mauricio Pochettino has re-integrated the centre-back into his starting XI this season after freezing him out in the second half of the last campaign, and he’s responded with a series of performances not far off his 2015-16 and 2016-17 peak.
Spurs have the option to extend Alderweireld’s contract by 12 months when it expires next summer but that triggers a release clause that would allow him to be sold for £25million.
Watching the Belgium international shut the door on Chelsea last weekend and then Inter Milan in midweek, and it is clear that any side who can get him at that price would get one of the bargains of the century.
Intriguingly, all four Soccer Saturday pundits – Paul Merson, Charlie Nicholas, Matt Le Tissier and Phil Thompson – named Alderweireld in their combined derby XIs, made up from players at Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton ahead of this weekend’s two fixtures.
Each of them paired Alderweireld with Virgil van Dijk in the centre of a dream defence. The only other Spurs player to make the starting XI of the four pundits was Harry Kane.
That is telling, given the level of competition, including from the 29-year-old’s own club.
Levy must get Alderweireld and his agent back round the table and make him an offer he can’t refuse. Before it’s too late.