OPINION
With Toby Alderweireld likely to quit Tottenham in the summer and Jan Vertonghen turning 32 in April, there will be major chances to the club’s central defence in the next year or two.
Alderweireld and Vertonghen have been two of the best in the business during Mauricio Pochettino’s reign, dovetailing superbly together or in alliance with the club’s many other centre-back options.
All good things come to an end, and it is difficult to imagine the Belgian pair playing too many matches in the new White Hart Lane, even though Vertonghen has committed to another year after a year extension was triggered in his contract.
So, what does the future hold at the back of one of the Premier League’s most resolute and well organised teams for so long?
Spurs have been strongly linked with some emerging European centre-back stars in recent times, notably Ajax’s Matthijs de Ligt and Sampdoria’s Joachim Anderson.
But Football London’s Spurs correspondent Alasdair Gold is convinced that the answers to the defensive conundrum will be found inside rather than outside of the club.
In a Q&A for the site (26 February, 5.02pm), he explained how Pochettino is a massive fan of his countryman Foyth and “has been delighted with his progress this season”.
Gold added how “Foyth and Sanchez as the long term Spurs central defensive pairing could be very good in the years to come”.
That may raise the eyebrows of those who regard Foyth, 21, as too callow and lacking in physicality to be a first-team regular for an elite Premier League club.
Sanchez, 22, is only 18 months older but has much more top-level experience for club and country, and has no problem dealing with the physicality of the Premier League.
Yet, his game does not have the refinement or composure of Vertonghen or Alderweireld, and there is a sense he should not be higher than second in the pecking order at Spurs.
With Pochettino on record as stating Eric Dier will eventually settle as a centre-back, perhaps the answer for Tottenham is to recruit one blue-chip replacement for Alderweireld and Vertonghen over the next couple of transfer windows, rather than two.