Tottenham tell Barcelona that Vertonghen is not for sale

Well now that Hugo Lloris has resigned with Tottenham it would seem that the vultures are moving onto the rest of our players, namely Jan Vertonghen. However, according to Sky Sports News Tottenham will refuse any offers for our Belgian defender.

Some of the more cynical members of our fan base may be surprised at this given that Spurs have sold our two best players to a Spanish club over the past two years. When you combine this with some less than commited comments from Vertonghen's agent and the fact that the defender always looks like he's being forced to eat his vegetables, the idea that he's on his way out isn't a huge logical jump to make.

However, when you look at the Hugo Lloris deal, I think you can see that Spurs are moving to stop the bleeding of the last two summers. And even if the team wasn't looking to prove a point by not selling, the relative weakness of our back line makes a sale even more unlikely. In addition to all that, for all his agent's mild posturing, Jan's comments following Sherwood's sacking (which, admittedly, are worth less than the paper this isn't printed on), were about as good as any of us could have hoped for.

"I've got more years left at Tottenham and I'm happy," he said following Tim Sherwood's sacking at the end of last season.

"I want to stay so it doesn't matter who the manager will be. The chairman will make a good decision."

This is obviously bad news for FC Barcelona as they had been linked to a move for Vertonghen. However, if Sky Sports is to be believed then they haven't even contacted us. Still, Barcelona need a defender very, very badly. So regardless of whether Spurs are willing to sell or not, I expect this isn't the last we'll hear about this.