Former Tottenham player and talkSPORT pundit Jason Cundy has said that no bids came in for Christian Eriksen over the summer because his representatives had told teams he was going to run his contract down and leave for free.
Cundy was talking on Drive (talkSPORT, Friday, 5pm) and added that the current situation at Spurs would leave Pochettino questioning his future there.
“The reason that no one came in for him [Eriksen] is because his agent has said he’s seeing out his contract and that he’s going to walk in the summer,” Cundy said.
“After Sol Campbell, they said they’d never get in this position again. Daniel Levy has done good things in the transfer market but right now he’s staring in the face of losing £100m.
“I don’t think Eriksen will down tools but I do think that something’s not quite right. I’m thinking that Poch must be thinking, ‘What more can I do here’?”
Spurs to lose Eriksen for free?
There’s every chance of this happening.
A recent report in Marca claimed that Eriksen had rejected all offers put to him by Tottenham and that his representatives were phoning clubs in Europe.
The report also claimed that Spurs were convinced he would end up at Real Madrid.
If he does go for free – and he can sign a pre-contract deal in January with overseas clubs – it will be a big financial blow for Tottenham and a rare misstep by Daniel Levy.
Back in 2017, then Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said that players running their contracts down would become the norm over the next ten years. [Reuters]
He said this would happen because of transfer fees sky-rocketing, but he pointed out that there would be a silver lining for the owners. He said that players looking to leave on a free would have to play well to impress potential suitors and negotiate the best possible deal.
That hasn’t happened so far this season. Eriksen’s highest WhoScored rating this season was a 7.78 in the 2-2 draw against Arsenal.
He hasn’t got out of the sixes in any other game and got a 6.18 in the defeat to Newcastle.
Tottenham fans and Pochettino will be expecting more.