Jose Mourinho will not lose any sleep over the possible unavailability of Jan Vertonghen for the remainder of the season, according to Alan Smith.
The former Arsenal striker turned pundit told Sky Sports’ Football Show suspects he that Vertonghen may want to protect himself from injury so not to hamper his chances of a good move when his Spurs contract expires.
Sky Sports understands that the 33-year-old defender is weighing up whether to sign up beyond June, to see out the final nine games of the Premier League season at Spurs, amid interest from Inter Milan and Napoli.
However, Smith believes that Vertonghen’s best form is behind him and that he would not be a big miss to Mourinho if he chose not to stay on.
“Vertonghen is 33 years of age and his best form is behind him,” Smith told Sky Sports. “We saw that in the latter stages of this season so Jose Mourinho won’t be overly fussed if he’s not available and if his mind is elsewhere.
“We’ve got to think that most of these players who are out of contract, certainly the most attractive ones to other clubs, they’ll have half an idea at least over where they’re going to go and who’s interested.
“You could understand if they don’t want to jeopardise that move. Vertonghen’s situation is obviously different to a 22-year-old who hasn’t yet had a career or made his money.
“Vertonghen just wants to elongate his career, maybe in another country – he’s spoken about learning another language. Only the individual can answer, but I suspect he won’t want to ruin a potential move coming up by playing in a few games.”
I think Vertonghen will leave a big hole for us to fill long term but I don’t disagree with Smith that I think we’d cope just fine if we had to go without him for the last nine matches of this campaign.
MORE: Next 3 Spurs Fixtures Finally Confirmed
MORE: Spurs Debts Soar To Over £1bn, But It’s Not All Bad News
MORE: Tottenham Could Land Classy Prem Ace For Less Than £20m
I thought I saw that Jan is prepared to sign a short term deal until the season finishes.This would suggest that Mourinho has told him he will get games and he’s not concerned about any injury he might pick up.I want him to get a good sendoff.
We let Dembele and Eriksen leave without direct replacements. Vertonghen’s time is unfortunately up, we cannot let him leave without a replacement too.
He’s going to go into coaching so I’d imagine he’s looking for a club that could further that as well. Italy beckons.
My boy Marcus Edwards scored yesterday against sporting in the 2-2 draw. Marcus. Keep it moving son. Oh and verts is the passed man. He’s not coming to the future with us