Philippe Coutinho wants Barcelona to sign Tottenham central defender Toby Alderweireld according to a report by The Express. The Belgian defender’s contract runs till June 2019 and there has been no progress in talks about his extension so far. Reports have suggested that Alderweireld is demanding £150,000-a-week which will break Tottenham’s tightly controlled wage structure as star man Harry Kane himself earns £110,000-a-week. Daniel Levy has done a brilliant job so far maintaining a strict wage structure at the club but the next few years might see a lot of stars leave because of that. It remains to be seen whether Spurs are forced to accept the reality of modern football and pay their stars more. Arsenal recently signed Mesut Ozil to a new contract which sees him earn a massive £350,000-a-week which shows that no club is safe from the insane wage inflation in modern football.
Transfer Rumour Reliability
Diario Gol(Quoted by The Express) is the source of this transfer rumour and the Spanish outlet are a Tier 5 source in our Football Transfer Sources Reliability Guide. A Tier 5 source is not at all reliable and they do tend to report without any actual source.
If Alderweireld refuses to agree to a new contract at Spurs, then Daniel Levy would like to sell him in the summer rather than see him go for free. This would be a big blow to Spurs and they would prefer selling him to a foreign club rather than a rival in the Premier League.