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Toby Alderweireld

This guy represents one of the great pi55-takes in football media. He's a staunch Arsenal fan and was up to no end of Spurs-baiting mischief whilst working for The Daily Goonergraph. Now, he's a Spurs beat writer for The Athletic, sharing space with avowed ManCity supporter Jack Pitt-Brooke. How does something that unlikely come about?

The Athletic's senior football editor, Brooks Peck, is an Arsenal supporters and has packed his squad of club beat writers with fellow gooners. The thinking with Spurs, no doubt, was that as things continued to go sour under Pochettino, they'd have a grand time digging up dirt and poking fun at them. With Pitt-Brooke, there's an anti-Spurs agenda due to the hurt Spurs have caused City in recent times (even back to 2010, qualifying for CL with a 1-0 win at City).

Thanks to Daniel Levy's decisiveness, it hasn't totally gone to plan for The Arseletic.

Have to disagree about Pitt-Brooke. I've always found him very much Tottenham-friendly.
 
Have to disagree about Pitt-Brooke. I've always found him very much Tottenham-friendly.

Do you subscribe to the Athletic? He doesn't batter us over the head - and in past seasons it was hard to justify - but the sly digs are routinely there. Same when he's on that Sunday morning bun toss that Neil Ashton hosts on Sky.
 
True. But the resulting impasse was presumably a factor behind Levy pulling the lever and ejecting Poch into the piranha tank. I do hope that Toby has taken a bit of a bath on the eventual financial package, though.
There was no real impasse, Toby eventually became a regular again, his £25m option came and went (surprisingly). Poch and Levy sat and watched with no control over that. And he remained as no-one fancied him.
 
I know their ages. I just think Jan is more important for us and would rather we bought the youngsters through alongside Verts rather than play two ageing centre backs. Wouldn't

Dude you crack me up, you really do. I love how you describe Toby as an aging centre back at age 30.

Do you know that both Klinnsman and Ginola were 30 when they signed for us? They were among two of our best signings in the nineties.

It is just foolhardy to want to get rid of a player at that age if he can still combine his vast experience with quality performances. And only a blind man would deny that Toby is not looking revitalised under Jose
 
Dude you crack me up, you really do. I love how you describe Toby as an aging centre back at age 30.

Do you know that both Klinnsman and Ginola were 30 when they signed for us? They were among two of our best signings in the nineties.

It is just foolhardy to want to get rid of a player at that age if he can still combine his vast experience with quality performances. And only a blind man would deny that Toby is not looking revitalised under Jose
I don't think Toby is a comparable talent to the two players you mention. Neither do I think we struggle when Toby is not in the size. For me he is no longer the game changer he once was.

I would like us to develop another player for that role, with the experience coming from Verts rather than Toby. Plus it looked to me like he has wanted to leave for a couple of seasons and has now stayed because his options for a move no longer look great. So yeah I am not a fan of his either in a football sense or as a player who particularly cares about the club. Perfectly reasonable view. Of course it is your prerogative not to agree with it.
 
Do you subscribe to the Athletic? He doesn't batter us over the head - and in past seasons it was hard to justify - but the sly digs are routinely there. Same when he's on that Sunday morning bun toss that Neil Ashton hosts on Sky.

No I don’t subscribe to the Athletic (although I am tempted to do so) and don’t have the Sunday Sky programme. I can only go on articles of his I have read in the past (pre Athletic) and when I have heard him speaking on podcasts - he has always seemed very complimentary of Spurs. He may well have another side that I haven’t seen.
 
No I don’t subscribe to the Athletic (although I am tempted to do so) and don’t have the Sunday Sky programme. I can only go on articles of his I have read in the past (pre Athletic) and when I have heard him speaking on podcasts - he has always seemed very complimentary of Spurs. He may well have another side that I haven’t seen.

He's a Spurs fan and one of the hosts of the Atlantic's new Spurs podcast
 
He’s actually a City fan but I think he’s adopted us as a second team.
The Athletic Spurs podcast that he hosts has been pretty good so far.
I certainly don’t get any anti-Spurs vibes from him.

I stand corrected but agree on the podcast
 
I am absolutely chuffed that Toby has signed an extension to his contract. He’s a fabulous defender and has an attacking long ball that adds to his armoury with Spurs. Deli has scored two already this season from his pinball accuracy with a raking pass... great, great player, and now he knows he’s settled he’ll go from strength to strength.
 
I doubt that at any stage Levy thought "I'm brick at transfers, better get the players that we've got on new contracts".

No, he carefully weighed up the cost and chance of replacing Toby with someone better and came to the obvious economic conclusion.
 
If Vertonghen signs a new contract we would have two experienced old-timers and two young centre backs. Not a bad situation if it means the older players can rotate and the young ones learn from playing with them. Ideally we'd have a player at his peak, but this would mean we could focus on other areas.

The Alderweireld saga just shows that even the best managers have their weaknesses. Poch really mishandled the situation with him. Shutting players out is not a good approach unless they are being really unprofessional. Hopefully his form improves now the uncertainty is over and he will get more playing time.

There's not much incentive for Mourinho to be thinking about succession planning with our CBs if Alderweireld and Vertonghen have a couple of years left in the tank - odds are stacked against us finding better options in the transfer market and neither Sanchez or Foyth are close to the level of the senior pair currently so it makes sense to stick with the 2 senior + 2 younger options for the time being
 
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