Daniel Levy to fly to Spain this week to deal over Chelsea-linked defender

More interesting stuff is coming out surrounding the Toby Alderweireld to Tottenham rumors. Today, the Standard is reporting that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is expected to fly to Madrid later this week to negotiate a deal that will bring the 26-year old Belgian defender from Atlético Madrid to White Hart Lane.

Atléltico Madrid own the rights to Alderweireld, and a deal was in place to sell him for £7m to Southampton where he spent the whole of last season on loan. However, a clause in Alderweireld's loan contract specified that the Spanish club could pay £1.5m to Soton in order to then sell Alderweireld to other clubs for a higher fee. That appears to be the direction the negotiations are taking. The Standard suggests that a bid of £10m would be enough to pry Toby out of Spain and to White Hart Lane.

Defense has been an obvious priority for Tottenham thus far this offseason with the acquisition of Austrian center back Kevin Wimmer and reserve right back Kieran Trippier. The signing of Alderweireld would be another indication that Mauricio Pochettino was not satisfied with the state of his back line after last season.

I continue to maintain that Alderweireld would be a good signing for Tottenham, even without signing a central midfielder or reserve striker. A Belgium national teammate of Jan Vertonghen, he would have an instant familiarity with his center back partner in the starting lineup. £10m isn't a whole lot of money for a Belgium international, and it's likely that Levy will find a way to reduce that price as well.