The Belgian had a poor game for Tottenham Hotspur against Burnley at the weekend.
Tottenham Hotspur earned a lot of praise for extending Toby Alderweireld’s contract and rightly so. The Belgian has been one of Spurs’ most important players since his arrival and it was a deal that needed to be done.
His compatriot, Jan Vertonghen, is in the final few months of his deal as well. But there is no clear indication yet about a potential renewal of his contract.
Despite the possibility of him leaving for free, Vertonghen has played a fair few games this term. 25 starts in all competitions isn’t bad at all, but his performances haven’t been at the level that he is capable of producing.
The Belgian’s latest showing against Burnley on Saturday was arguably one of his worst performances in a Spurs shirt. In his defence, he started as a left-back instead of his natural centre-half role, but a player of his experience should have done better.
Vertonghen lost possession 26 times, the most by any player on the pitch at Turf Moor. His passing accuracy of 71% isn’t that great either, while each of his seven crosses in the game failed to find a teammate. (SofaScore)
Jose Mourinho has a tough decision to make in the summer regarding Vertonghen’s future. A player of his experience is invaluable to any side but recent poor performances are a huge worry ahead of the Spurs boss’s first full season in charge.
Vertonghen currently earns £100,000-a-week (Spotrac) at Tottenham and a new deal could see him get a slight increase.
However, with Tottenham slowly slipping away from the top four, their summer budget could take a hit and letting Vertonghen leave could well become a financial decision.
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