Tottenham are sending Juventus and Real Madrid mixed signals on Christian Eriksen

Many pundits claim that Tottenham are “resigned” to selling Christian Eriksen this summer, but their asking price sends a very different message.

Christian Eriksen is the latest player to be featured in a bevy of rumours linking him with a big-money away from Tottenham. In particular, Real Madrid and Juventus seem to be the two clubs mentioned most often. The only trouble for those European powers is that Spurs don’t seem to be keen on parting with their Danish metronome.

The Daily Star reports that Tottenham officials are “resigned” to the fact that they’ll need to sell Eriksen this summer. His contract at Spurs is running down and they can’t afford to let it run down inside a year if they want to receive a reasonable transfer fee in return for his services.

That report certainly seems logical. Spurs are not a club that can afford to let a player of Eriksen’s quality go for free. The club have clearly made multiple attempts to sign him to a new contract but at this juncture, all of their overtures have been rebuffed. It’s not out of the question that Daniel Levy has already decided to sell the classy midfielder.

That’s what makes the claim in the same story that Tottenham are quoting an initial price of £200 million for Eriksen so strange. He’s an excellent player, but there’s almost no chance he’s going to shatter the European transfer record unless he goes on a Gareth Bale style run to end the current campaign. Spurs might struggle to convince another side to pay £100 million for him. They certainly won’t get twice that amount.

Some might assume that Levy is just trying to drive a hard bargain. He’s a notoriously difficult negotiator as Real Madrid officials well know. Even so, quoting that sort of astronomical price goes well beyond the norms of reality.

Instead, it’s much more likely that Levy and company are sending a message to Eriksen and the clubs interested in him that they intend to keep him in North London for the foreseeable future. It’s possible Eriksen will call the club’s bluff and run his contract down inside one year, but that’s a risky play for him. Many would argue the more prudent move for Eriksen would be to take the hefty pay raise Tottenham are offering him and get on with his career.

At the very least, expect lots of twist and turns in the Eriksen saga before his future is ultimately decided. It’s very clear Tottenham haven’t decided they will absolutely sell him this summer.