After taking a moment to enjoy the news that Toby Alderweireld had signed a new contract, there was only one question on Tottenham fans’ lips:
Will Jan Vertonghen be next?
As it stands, the 32-year-old will be a free agent at the end of the season but Jose Mourinho has told Sky Sports that he wants him to follow his Belgian compatriot in extending his stay.
WATCH: Mourinho Denies Influence Over Alderweireld’s New Contract
And yet Sky Sports reports that West Ham United’s Issa Diop is a target for Mourinho, and that it’d cost around £50m to bring him across London.
We wouldn’t be in for a central defender, especially one at that price, if there was any confidence that Vertonghen will be here beyond the summer.
A defensive unit of Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davinson Sanchez and Juan Foyth, along with Eric Dier as cover, would give Mourinho more than enough options to go into next campaign without entering the market.
Especially as he has been receptive in the press to Foyth’s apparent desire to play more regularly and ruled out the Argentine leaving on loan in January.
Vertonghen has been used at left-back under Mourinho but would not be retained with the intent of that being his permanent role. He is a short-term fix, with Sky Sports’ Lyall Thomas reporting a new left-back is a possibility.
I cannot see Daniel Levy sanctioning bumper new contracts for two 30+ year old defenders, and Mourinho may have made the decision that Alderweireld is the better player, or at the very least, younger and fitter.
So intertwined have their careers been that one without the other doesn’t seem right. But I think that is the reality that we are preparing for by targeting a defender of Diop’s profile, if the reports prove to be true.