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Not sure how I missed this a couple of days ago, but in the wake of the Boss Rarkley saga limping to its inevitable (and Chelsea-involved) conclusion, we’d probably all welcome a bit of good news right now.
Enter Miguel Delaney and the Independent, who writes that Tottenham Hotspur are ready to reward Harry Kane and Toby Alderweireld with new contracts! If the reporting is solid, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is ready to smash the club’s existing wage structure to give Harry Kane a bump up to £200k/week, almost double what he’s making now, and wants to re-open negotiations with Toby’s representatives to work out an improved deal for him as well.
Is this accurate? Who knows! This isn’t an announcement of new contracts, but a standard, boilerplate “club-ready-to-negotiate” article. That said, neither move would be surprising in the slightest. We already know, via quotes from Pochettino himself, that Levy is working on improved terms for Alderweireld (and that fans need to stop with the Toby-related collective freak-out).
We also already expect that Kane would be the player for whom Spurs would smash their wage structure, as no matter how much he loves the club paying one of (if not the) best striker in European football £125k/week isn’t sustainable. Giving him a pay bump will keep him happy and maybe, just maybe, dial down the rumors that mega-clubs are going to go HAM with bids for Kane this summer. There are also (unsourced) suggestions that the stadium project and its related funding are going very well and that Spurs should have more cash with which they can use for wages and player acquisitions.
So sure, this is still conjecture and rumor, but it’s also extremely plausible. Even if Tottenham decide not to bring in any players during the January transfer window (which, after Barkley, feels more and more likely), tying down Kane and Toby to new deals would sure make supporters happy, not to mention ensure that two of the club’s best talents stay in north London.