Tottenham Hotspur defender Toby Alderweireld has thrown his White Hart Lane future into further doubt by labeling his exclusion from Mauricio Pochettino’s starting XI for most of last season as unjustified.
The 29-year-old has established himself as one of the Premier League’s top centre halves since moving to Spurs from Atletico Madrid in 2015.
However, after suffering an injury last November he barely featured for Spurs for the rest of the season, despite declaring himself fit. There has been speculation that Alderweireld has actually been involved in dispute with his club over his apparent demands of a similar contract to those being offered to other top defenders in English football, such as Liverpool’s £75 million man Virgil Van Dijk.
Alderweireld was superb during Belgium’s excellent run to the World Cup semi-finals, and his latest comments are bound to give Manchester United, who have been heavily linked with bringing him to Old Trafford, plenty of encouragement:
“I was very focused on this tournament,” he said in quotes carried by Sky Sports.
“I wanted to prove something to me, show that the period before the tournament in which I, for whatever reason, did not play, it was unjustified.
“I wanted to show that I’m still Toby, same as in November.”