Pochettino: Christian Eriksen contract is out of my hands

Christian Eriksen has suddenly become the topic du jour in the January transfer window. The Tottenham Hotspur attacking midfielder has just over a year to go on his existing Spurs contract but has been delaying signing a new offer from the club. This has led to a bunch of media stories about his contract situation and hand-wringing from segments of Spurs fandom and the media.

Eriksen, to his credit, has been unflappable, saying that he’s happy at Spurs but deflecting questions that might give any information about what his plans are. So now the media is turning to Mauricio Pochettino, and in today’s pre-Tranmere press conference, Poch has said that, basically, the situation is out of the club’s hands for now.

“He is happy here, he is showing his commitment. Then what is going to happen in between him and the club is not only in our hands.

”I’m not a person that suffers too much in this type of situation because football is dynamic. Football is about interests that as managers we sometimes cannot manage. It depends on many things in this business – different parties that have interests.

“Of course Christian Eriksen is such an important player for Tottenham and of course as a person or as a professional coach or manager, you would like to have this type of player with you. But in the end it’s a negotiation and there’s different parties that have different interests.

”It will be fantastic if Christian Eriksen is going to be committed with the club long-term. And if not it’s his right to do what he wants to do.”

There’s a bit to unpack here. First there’s the implicit confirmation that the club has an offer on the table, and that Eriksen has decided not to decide yet. That also implies that Eriksen is either considering offers, likely informal, from one or more mega-clubs, or that he is holding out to see what happens with Pochettino’s own job situation and the interest from Manchester United.

But maybe more interesting is the acknowledgement from Pochettino that players like Eriksen are free to do what they think is best for their career. There’s a comment from Eriksen floating around Twitter right now from 2014 where Eriksen references a “secret plan” that he has for himself and his career. And in the long run, that’s a good thing.

If Eriksen really does want to leave Tottenham Hotspur, then this summer is the time to sell him. He’s 26, in the prime of his career, and Spurs could easily get at least £100m+ for him from a club like Barcelona or Madrid. If we assume (lol) that this money would be funneled back into the club for player acquisitions (lolololol), it’s not insane to think that selling Eriksen could do for Spurs what selling Coutinho did for Liverpool.

I’m not saying Spurs SHOULD sell Eriksen, Heck, I don’t WANT them to — he is, as Ben Daniels said in our writer’s room, “the vowel that holds DESK together” and he’d be a key player into any future hypothetical title run. But Pochettino’s comments have made it clear that what Eriksen wants is what Eriksen wants, and that the club will make accommodations for whatever that turns out to be.