Japhet Tanganga has made Jan Vertonghen expendable for Tottenham

Japhet Tanganga has been the biggest beneficiary of Jose Mourinho’s arrival at Tottenham. He is playing well enough to push Jan Vertonghen out.

Jose Mourinho’s installment as the manager at Tottenham has drastically changed the fortunes of several players at the club. His appointment has given Japhet Tanganga a meteoric rise into the first team. That also means that Jan Vertonghen no longer has a place at Spurs.

Tottenham fans are expectedly torn about this development. Vertonghen has been a fixture in the club’s back line ever since he arrived from Ajax. His partnership with countryman Toby Alderweireld was a driving force behind Spurs’ success under Mauricio Pochettino.

Tanganga was nowhere near the frame of the first team when Pochettino exited North London. Somehow, he managed to catch Mourinho’s eye in training. The Portuguese manager threw him right into the fire of tense Premier League competition early in his tenure. To Tanganga’s credit, he responded by playing excellent football against tough competition at multiple positions.

The writing seems to be on the wall for both players moving forward. Tanganga is only going to get more and more playing time. He’s a natural centre back who could, theoretically, grow into Alderweireld’s new partner in the starting XI. More likely, Tanganga will alternate that responsibility with Davinson Sanchez in the immediate future.

Vertonghen is currently playing the last year of his current deal at Spurs. There’s been precious little information regarding talks between his representatives and the club as of late. It’s hard not to see Tanganga’s emergence as a first team player as a contributing factor to that ominous silence.

It now looks that Vertonghen’s future lies elsewhere. He could still turn into a highly coveted free agent all across Europe in the next few months. A move to a foreign league with a little less foot speed and physicality might extend the left-footed centre back’s prime for a few more years. Tottenham fans would hate to see him leave in such an uncouth fashion, but such is life in professional football.

The key for Tanganga will be to keep his feet on the ground while he receives plaudits and attention from all kinds of newcomers in his life. His intense work rate in training is what got him into Mourinho’s first team. The more he can focus on football the more opportunities he’s going to get in the coming weeks.

Even so, Vertonghen looks to be set for a relatively sad end for Spurs. Tanganga’s rising star will obscure that darkness in the hearts and minds of Tottenham fans, but it’s still a tough blow for fans who watched him grow into a star at the Premier League club.