Tottenham remain keen to tie Toby Alderweireld down to a new deal.
The Belgian was the club’s Player of the Year last season and has enjoyed another impressive campaign despite a spell on the sidelines with a knee injury.
Spurs have conceded the fewest goals in the league, thanks largely to the centre-back’s partnership with Jan Vertonghen.
The 28-year-old is one of the few players yet to have his picture taken alongside Mauricio Pochettino and a lucrative new contract, but the club are thought to be working on it.
Most of their first-team stars haven’t thought twice about putting pen to paper, such is the good feeling around White Hart Lane at the moment.
Alderweireld, it appears, is a little different. The Times suggest that he is stalling over the deal, and while wages are an issue, there is another reason for the standoff.
The defender wants a release clause inserted, but chairman Daniel Levy sees no reason why the club would give in to a demand that would allow him to easily leave north London.
Spurs can extend his contract by a year beyond 2019, but his representatives want a £25.3 million clause that can then be activated from that year. If that were the case, it raises the question whether there is any point tying him to a new deal at all, though by the summer of 2019, he will be 30 and perhaps that little bit less desirable.
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