In a strange way, selling Toby Alderweireld could help Tottenham
There’s no question that Toby Alderweireld is one of Tottenham’s top players when he’s fit and firing. Unfortunately, injuries this season have derailed the Belgian’s career at Spurs. It now seems very obvious he’s headed elsewhere this summer.
As we reported last week, PSG have stepped up their interest in Alderweireld and are willing to meet his significant wage demands. The Parisian giants also have the wealth to pay the £50 or so million it will cost to satisfy Tottenham’s demands. The fact that PSG are not a Premier League club makes the sale much more attractive to Daniel Levy.
Now it appears selling Alderweireld to PSG might have an additional benefit for Spurs. Recent reports from France claim PSG are also joining the transfer race for Malcom. They’ve seen quite a bit of the Bordeaux winger and would like to add him to their cadre of attacking talent. Malcom, of course, has been a prime target for Mauricio Pochettino for roughly a year.
My logic here is pretty simple. Tottenham can use Alderweireld as leverage to keep PSG’s attention away from Malcom. Not only can Spurs tie up a significant portion of PSG’s transfer cash in the actual sale of Alderweireld, they can also make it clear to PSG officials they won’t make a deal if the French giants poach Malcom as well. Let’s be clear here. Alderweireld is a player PSG need while Malcom is a player they want.
It’s very possible that Financial Fair Play will make PSG purchasing both Alderweireld and Malcom in the same window impossible. The club could certainly try to offload a number of their other players, but the squad isn’t blessed with a ton of expendable talent. It would be very difficult for them to generate enough cash to purchase Alderweireld and Malcom without parting with some key members of the squad.
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Losing Toby Alderweireld will be a blow for Tottenham this summer. No matter how well positioned Spurs believe they are to carry on without him, it’s going to hurt the club to some degree. If they can leverage his sale to bring Malcom into the fold it would definitely soften the blow of losing such a talented defender. It’s time for Daniel Levy to perform his negotiating magic to bring the exciting Brazilian to Tottenham. He’d be foolish to ignore the idea of using Alderweireld as a tool to get the deal done.