Tottenham have slapped a £75million price tag on Toby Alderweireld after opening talks with Manchester United over the sale of the defender, according to the Mirror.
The newspaper claim Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is demanding £20million more than initially expected for the Belgium international due to the fee Liverpool paid for Virgil van Dijk in January.
The Mirror report that Tottenham rate Alderweireld in the same bracket as Van Dijk and want similar money even though he has a clause in his contract which means he can leave for £22million next summer.
OPINION
Typical Levy. That will be the reaction of football fans across the land after learning of the long-standing Spurs chairman’s latest ambitious transfer move. Levy is renowned for demanding top dollar for his own players, while refusing to pay over the odds for anyone he is trying to buy. The executive would be worth every single penny of the £6million salary he earned in the last financial year if he can persuade Man United or any other club to pay around £75million for a centre-back who turned 29 in March, spent most of the recent season on the sidelines and has just a year remaining on his contract. Alderweireld is a brilliant defender, sure, and he was bafflingly ignored by Mauricio Pochettino when fit in the final months of 2017-18. Is he as good as Van Dijk? Probably, yes. The duo are the two best pound-for-pound centre-backs in the league. But the giant Dutchman joined Liverpool aged 26 and had five years to run on his Southampton contract. Nice try, though, Daniel.
