Football
Dan Kilpatrick, Tottenham Correspondent 8y

Jan Vertonghen to sign new Tottenham Hotspur contract - source

LONDON -- Jan Vertonghen is the latest player to agree a new contract with Tottenham Hotspur, a source has told ESPN FC.

On Friday, Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino "promised" there would be another contract announcement in the coming days after Kyle Walker became the seventh player in a fortnight to commit his future to the club. 

And in a separate news conference, Pochettino suggested it could be Vertonghen, saying: "I cannot say anything. I cannot give names. But maybe, yes, it is a centre-back."

"And after we finish with all the players, we start to negotiate with [chairman] Daniel [Levy] for me again," joked the Argentine, who himself signed a new five-year contract in May.

Anton Walkes, the 19-year-old who made his debut in Wednesday's 5-0 win over Gillingham in the EFL Cup, is also in talks with the club but is yet to sign, another source told ESPN FC.

Vertonghen's current contract is due to expire in 2018 after he agreed a four-year deal with an option for two more years in 2012, while he shelved talks with the club in September 2014 shortly after Pochettino's appointment.

Given he is 29, it is unlikely the Belgium international will sign a five-year extension but he could sign for four more years until 2020 -- the same length agreed by Eriksen.

Eriksen, Eric Dier, Harry Winks, Tom Carroll, Dele Alli, Danny Rose and Walker have already signed, while the club remains in talks with Erik Lamela.

Spurs would like to tie Harry Kane to a deal that would make him the first player to be paid over £100,000-a-week outright by the club but an agreement with the striker is not yet close.

All seven players have seen their salaries increased -- in the cases of Eriksen and Alli, it has roughly doubled -- but Pochettino explained the players had to convince the club to let them stay, not the other way around.

"They need to feel that we are in a project [where] we can win everything," he said. "Always, it is difficult to win because only one team can win the Premier League but they need to feel we are serious and consistent and a very solid project, and then they need to ask us to stay here -- not that we need to convince them to stay.

"That is a very bad way. When you need to convince the players to stay here, it is impossible to get success in the future. They need to ask us to stay here. They need to be desperate to be part of us."

A lack of Champions League football and an inability to match the wages on offer elsewhere saw Spurs labelled a selling club before Pochettino's arrival, and Gareth Bale and Luka Modric both forced through transfers to Real Madrid.

Spurs faced no pressure to sell in the summer, however, despite last season's unexpected title challenge, and Pochettino explained that, Champions League football or not, the club was now in a position to hold onto its stars.

"It is important to keep the key players, always under my judgement," he said. "We sell a lot of players. It is impossible to be all agreed [on departures] but we need to be clear and I need to be clear under my judgement to keep the key players and all the players I believe can be important for the future of the club.

"Tottenham is a big club, whether we are in the Champions League or Europa League or not. Liverpool and Chelsea are not involved in Europe and they can sign players because they are big clubs and Tottenham is in this level. We are a big team with a big support and you need to be excited to play for Tottenham.

"It is important for our business to be involved in Champions League or Europa League but a lot of players around the world want to come here."

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