Danny Mills believes that Tottenham already have a ready-made replacement for defender Toby Alderweireld in the shape of Davinson Sanchez.
Alderweireld is thought to be leaving Tottenham this summer, with the Belgium international having a £26million release clause in his contract which is about to enter its final year, and the defender has been linked with the likes of Manchester United, Juventus and Barcelona according to the Mirror.
Mills though has given his verdict on why Tottenham do not need to panic over finding a big money replacement for the departing Alderweireld, as he sees Sanchez as the perfect player to take the 30-year-old’s place in Mauricio Pochettino’s line-up.
“Davinson Sanchez is starting to come into it and could be a really good player. He has two seasons of Premier League experience under his belt and is a quality centre-back who is young and will get better. He’s a little rash and makes errors, but those will be ironed out as he gets more experience,” Mills told Football Insider.
“The possibility of key players going – Alderweireld and Eriksen particularly – may be a big problem for Tottenham this summer. But I think replacing Alderweireld is less of an issue, a perfect replacement is there. Eriksen is almost irreplaceable.”
OPINION
Mills is right to suggest that Tottenham might already have the ideal replacement ,in Sanchez, for Alderweireld, who looks likely to be leaving the club this summer as he enters the last year of his current deal. The Colombian, as Mills acknowledges, has had two years to get to grips with the challenges posed by the Premier League since making the move to Spurs from Ajax. The defender has averaged 1.3 interceptions and 4.4 tackles per game in the Premier League this season [whoscored.com], which is higher than the 0.7 interceptions and 1.4 tackles per game Alderweireld has averaged [whoscored.com] in the English top flight this term. That suggests that as Mills states Tottenham might already have the player who can step in to fill the void left by the Belgium international should he leave the club this summer. However, Sanchez is more prone to making mistakes than the Belgian, but if given more regular game time the Colombia international should be able to get rid of those from his game.