Tottenham Hotspur believed they were close to signing the Atlético Madrid defender Toby Alderweireld for a fee thought to be £11.5m until it was reported that the Spanish club had failed to cancel the buy-out clause included in his loan agreement at Southampton. That error means Southampton now hope to sign him for the buy-out fee of £6.8m.
According to reports on Sunday, Tottenham had agreed the fee after talks between the Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, and the Atlético chief executive Miguel Ángel Gil reached a successful conclusion over the weekend.
Tottenham thought that they were likely to beat Southampton, where Alderweireld had a successful year on loan last season, to the Belgium international’s signature. But the Southampton manager, Ronald Koeman, said last week that he had “a good hope” that Alderweireld would stay at St Mary’s.
Alderweireld would have been Tottenham’s third defensive signing of the summer. They have already confirmed the arrivals of the Austrian centre-back Kevin Wimmer from the Bundesliga side Cologne and the right-back Kieran Trippier from recently-relegated Burnley.
