Tottenham star’s demands put long-term future in doubt

Mousa Dembele’s preference for a three-year contract extension at Tottenham has reportedly put his future at the club in doubt.

The Belgium star put his future in doubt after revealing that he would not discuss extending his stay at Spurs until after the World Cup.

Dembele’s current deal will have 12 months left to run come the summer and Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino is desperate to keep a player he described as a ‘genius’ earlier in the season.

But a report in the Daily Telegraph claims that Dembele is well aware that this could be his last big contract and wants a minium three-year deal that would take him through to the age of 35.

That would represent a fairly big risk for Tottenham chief Daniel Levy, considering that the player is said to have a longstanding hip injury that sometimes prevents him playing more than one game a week.

Dembele is thought to earn around £80,000-a-week but the report claims that he would be looking for a rise to £100,000-a-week, a figure that actually seems quite low in the current market.

The Telegragh goes on to claim that Spurs do not have a policy in line with some other clubs to only hand out one-year contracts to players over the age of 30, as they only have four of them in that category in  Dembele, Hugo Lloris, Jan Vertonghen and Fernando Llorente.

Lloris and Vertonghen are both being tipped to earn bumper new deals this summer, while Llorente is likely to be moved at the end of the season.

That leaves Spurs with a real dilemma where Dembele is concerned as the Belgian playmaker makes Pochettino’s side tick but hardly contributes anything in terms of goals or assists.

If he continus to try and dictate terms on his new deal, Dembele could well join Toby Alderweireld in finding himself isolated and eventually moved on this summer.

 

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