Keep calm and trust Levy! Pochettino tells Spurs fans to stay calm over Alderweireld

Mauricio Pochettino has delivered a soothing message to Tottenham fans who are worried about Toby Alderweireld’s contract situation: keep calm and trust Daniel Levy.

Alderweireld’s deal, which is reportedly worth £50,000 a week, expires in 18 months, in the summer of 2019.

Spurs have the option to extend it by a year to 2020, but that would trigger a release clause, allowing rivals clubs to sign him for £25million during a brief window in the summer of 2019.

Although Alderweireld would be 30 years old at that point, there is concern among Spurs fans that he is yet to agree a new contract with the club – but Pochettino is rather less worried.

“This is a message for our fans and for everyone: he still has two and a half years of contract,” he said. “Messi had six months left on his contract. Messi!

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“Nothing happens. If something happens [on Alderweireld], the club is going to communicate it. But I don’t understand all these things when the players are all under contract.

“Daniel Levy said to me ‘don’t worry gaffer. It’s two and a half years’.

“Players like [Erik] Lamela still haven’t signed, or another player signs with two years left. But still Alderweireld has two and a half years, and then it’s different contexts, different reasons. It’s not only to say ‘the club needs to do this and this’.

“Hey, calm. Calm, our fans, because Daniel is very good. He has managed the club for 17 or 18 years. Look at how Tottenham was 18 years ago and how it is today.

“I think full credit to Daniel, and let Daniel work. It’s important the fans trust in Daniel.”

Alderweireld is currently recovering from a hamstring injury after limping out of the victory over Real Madrid on November 1, and he is not expected to return until February.

Spurs initially struggled in his absence, winning just one of five games from November into the start of December – partly because they fell behind early on in three successive matches against West Brom, Leicester and Watford.

The Lilywhites have since improved and have won five of their last six matches – the exception being the 4-1 drubbing at Manchester City.

Yet they have conceded from corners in four of the last six top-flight fixtures – against Watford, Stoke, Man City and Southampton.

“It’s true we’ve been talking in the last few weeks, trying to improve that,” said Pochettino. “We made a mistake at Manchester City. The small details can change the game, and Manchester City was the example.

“After 15 minutes the game was even, and then we conceded a goal like this [from a corner] and it changed completely – and then you lose, and they deserved to win.

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“But that is a time in football when you need to be focused, and it’s true that in the last two weeks we were very focused on trying to improve our set-up, or our mentality, and being more aggressive, with more commitment in this type of action.

“If you see some actions, I think it’s more about mentality [than the set-up]. It’s a collective mentality. We need to be more focused.

“I think in the last few games we were better, but it’s a thing we need to improve. Maybe we were more focused on different things rather than set pieces, and now we need to recover that strength.”

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