This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…
Jan Vertonghen is a target of Inter Milan, per TuttoSport via Calciomercato.
What’s the word?
The Belgium international has a contract that expires in the summer and the Serie A giants are said to be keen to bring him to Italy.
Indeed, the report states that Beppe Marotta, Inter’s CEO, is exploring free transfers, of which Vertonghen could be one following the end of the 2019/20 campaign.
The 32-year-old remains a member of the managerless north London outfit’s squad and has made nine appearances in all competitions thus far this term.
Get a fee
Spurs need to stop this from happening.
The club are staring down the barrel of the gun when it comes to three players: Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld and Christian Eriksen.
All three have contracts that expire in the summer, meaning that Spurs could lose three first-teamers without receiving a penny in exchange.
With Vertonghen, they cannot allow him to run down his contract before leaving and would be better off receiving a fee.
If that means taking any bid that comes in during the January transfer window, then so be it, ditto if it means convincing Inter to part with a figure that might well be lower than what Spurs would usually expect to receive with the benefit of signing the Belgian six months early.
At least, in that scenario, Spurs would be able to reinvest whatever funds that landed in their coffers to replace him.