Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has claimed the club are not “scared” of selling Christian Eriksen to a domestic rival in January.
The 27-year-old, who is out of contract this summer, has rejected several offers from Spurs in the region of £200,000 a week and can negotiate a free transfer directly with foreign clubs from January 1.
However, Standard Sport understands Levy is willing to listen to offers for the midfielder next month to avoid losing him for nothing, with Manchester United among his domestic suitors, in addition to Real Madrid leading the chase by overseas sides.
When asked in an exclusive interview with Standard Sport whether he would sanction a sale to another Premier League club, Levy said: “We are honestly not scared to trade with our rivals.”
Defenders Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen — two further players with six months left on their contracts — are rumoured to be considering committing their own futures to the club following Jose Mourinho’s arrival and Levy added: “My view is really simple. For a player to sign a new contract, not only have the conditions got to be right but the player has got to want to do it. It is up to those players whether they want to stay at Tottenham and we’ll see.
“I don’t want to comment on individual players too much. I actually think it is unfair. Every circumstance is different. There may be a player who wants to stay, there may be a player we don’t want to stay.”
Although Mourinho has repeatedly stated he is happy with his current squad, Spurs have been linked with signing two players next month — a striker to support Harry Kane and a defender to bolster his options at the back.
Levy, however, distanced the club from doing any business during the January transfer window, adding: “Jose is on record as saying what we need now is to get the players playing better, which is what they are doing.
“He’s made it clear he is not looking for new players in January. He is happy with what he’s got and that’s why he said that.”
Levy brought in Mourinho last month to replace Mauricio Pochettino and when asked whether he had set the former Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Manchester United manager the target of ending the club’s 11-year wait for silverware, he said: “Firstly, there’s no guarantee to finish in the top four. Nobody has the divine right to be there. We all come back and watch football all the time because it is so competitive.
“Wouldn’t it be boring if we were guaranteed to be there? Obviously, we aspire to be there every season but there is no guarantee whatever we do. When we are there, we want to go as far as possible in the various competitions but sometimes it is the luck of the draw. We just want to go as far as we can.”
