Tottenham Hotspur completed the signing of Toby Alderweireld today; in spite of reported potential litigation from Southampton. The Daily Star claims that Spurs heard the Saints’ legal threats, but they fell on deaf ears. The Atletico Madrid Defender is coming off a season on loan with Southampton; having some impressive moments in 26 Premier League appearances.
Various outlets claim the Alderweireld deal is £11.5 million for five years.
According to BBC Sport: “Saints may take legal action as they believed they had an option to buy the centre-back for £6.8m unless Atletico paid £1.5 million to buy back that clause.”
It will be interesting to watch how this plays out.
Tottenham’s official website posted a video feature on Alderweireld early this morning. As you would expect from any feature published on an official team website, no controversial topics were covered, and all the questions and answers are the types of things you would find in a press release.
It goes without saying that the segment doesn’t touch on the Southampton controversy at all.
“I’m very proud to become a Spurs player,” said Toby to Spurs TV. “I’m very happy to be here and I hope to have a wonderful time with this team.”
“From the beginning I knew a lot about it (the club) from Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele and Nacer Chadli.”
“It’s a big club and it’s always been a dream to play at a club like Spurs. Now that dream is coming true so I’m very happy, very proud and I will give my best.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.