Tottenham will take up their option to extend defender Toby Alderweireld s contract through to 2020, Mauricio Pochettino confirmed on Thursday.
Alderweireld s deal was due to expire at the end of the current campaign, but the club are set to trigger an automatic 12-month extension to avoid losing him on a free.
The Belgium international was heavily linked with Manchester United following the World Cup, and his new terms are reported to contain a transfer clause which could see him leave for as little as £25million at the end of the 2018-19 season.
Spurs earlier this month made an identical move to tie down fellow centre-back Jan Vertonghen until 2020.
Asked whether the club would trigger their option to extend Alderweireld s stay, manager Pochettino told a news conference: Yes, for sure. It is obvious. The same situation as Jan.
Mauricio: We are playing with very good quality and to keep the momentum is so important for us.
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial)
Alderweireld, who joined from Atletico Madrid in 2015, played the full 90 minutes on Boxing Day as Tottenham crushed Bournemouth 5-0 to move up to second in the Premier League.
Their position has been achieved without any off-season arrivals and Pochettino suggested signings would only be made in January if he is able to shed unwanted members of the squad, with Fernando Llorente, Victor Wanyama and Georges-Kevin N Koudou among those reportedly close to the exit.
It depends on if players are going to leave, and to have space to sign players, Pochettino said.
It depends on players [going] out and then we re going to see if we can add some quality to help the team. But I think it s not going to be easy to add players in January. For sure it s going to be tough to add.
Until the market is open it s difficult to talk because now we have a lot of games to play.
But for sure in January when the market is going to be open that s the moment when we re going to talk with different players – players that maybe come to talk with us because they want to leave or they want to play more.
It s a normal period that we need to be open and careful about our decisions.
