Vertonghen downing tools comes back to haunt him
3 min read
Well some interesting news that appears to support my long held view that Jan Vertonghen's refusal to sign a new contract is because he didn't get the Tottenham captaincy.
It seemed clear to me when I wrote the original article that that would be the reason when you consider the press in Belgium were reporting that Vertonghen had been offered the captaincy, so clearly as part of contract negotiations the captaincy of the club was discussed.
Michael Dawson sought confirmation that he was still going to be the captain while he remained at the club and was assured if he was playing he would be captain. There were reports early in the summer Vertonghen has been offered a contract and everyone was expecting him to sign it.
A section of fans were keen to see him installed as captain, conveniently forgetting how he downed tools last season and went through the motions in an apparent disregard for the club. You would expect better of a future captain, always giving 100% even in adversity, that was not the case.
It now emerges in an article in Telegraph Sport, that the players themselves didn't want Vertonghen as captain and as such his name wasn't put forward to the club as a vice-captain either. That strongly suggests that what we saw last season was true and the players themselves could see it. Pochettino asked his new squad their opinion, clearly it wasn't Vertonghen.
He appears to have now dug his heels in and refused a new contract, Pochettino has left him out and played him with the second team using the excuse that the UEFA Europa League captain, Federico Fazio was new and he didn't want to play two inexperienced centre-backs together. However Vlad Chiriches isn't inexperienced, he has been at the club a year. The folly of picking him for the Premier League was exposed against WBA with a disastrous performance culminating in giving away a needless corner from which they scored the winner.
Thankfully Vertonghen was restored to the side and Chiriches consigned to the second team, we all know what happened then against Besiktas. You can't hide players in the Premier League and especially not at centre-back, we shouldn't have tried to do so. If Pochettino felt that was how he had to bring Vertonghen down a peg or two or show him who the boss is fair enough, but I'd still rather have seen Fazio playing.
It was rumoured Vertonghen and Pochettino had a row at the WBA match, whether Pochettino's hand was forced by Chiriches performance or whether the pair had settled their differences we don't know.
He has stated he is happy and enjoying working under Pochettino, he likes the way he works and gets plenty of individual attention to work on his game so it seems the only problem is that of the captaincy.
If Vertonghen desires the captaincy in the future then he is going to have to win over the players and he can only do that through his attitude and commitment. That can only be good news for Spurs.
It seemed clear to me when I wrote the original article that that would be the reason when you consider the press in Belgium were reporting that Vertonghen had been offered the captaincy, so clearly as part of contract negotiations the captaincy of the club was discussed.
Michael Dawson sought confirmation that he was still going to be the captain while he remained at the club and was assured if he was playing he would be captain. There were reports early in the summer Vertonghen has been offered a contract and everyone was expecting him to sign it.
A section of fans were keen to see him installed as captain, conveniently forgetting how he downed tools last season and went through the motions in an apparent disregard for the club. You would expect better of a future captain, always giving 100% even in adversity, that was not the case.
It now emerges in an article in Telegraph Sport, that the players themselves didn't want Vertonghen as captain and as such his name wasn't put forward to the club as a vice-captain either. That strongly suggests that what we saw last season was true and the players themselves could see it. Pochettino asked his new squad their opinion, clearly it wasn't Vertonghen.
He appears to have now dug his heels in and refused a new contract, Pochettino has left him out and played him with the second team using the excuse that the UEFA Europa League captain, Federico Fazio was new and he didn't want to play two inexperienced centre-backs together. However Vlad Chiriches isn't inexperienced, he has been at the club a year. The folly of picking him for the Premier League was exposed against WBA with a disastrous performance culminating in giving away a needless corner from which they scored the winner.
Thankfully Vertonghen was restored to the side and Chiriches consigned to the second team, we all know what happened then against Besiktas. You can't hide players in the Premier League and especially not at centre-back, we shouldn't have tried to do so. If Pochettino felt that was how he had to bring Vertonghen down a peg or two or show him who the boss is fair enough, but I'd still rather have seen Fazio playing.
It was rumoured Vertonghen and Pochettino had a row at the WBA match, whether Pochettino's hand was forced by Chiriches performance or whether the pair had settled their differences we don't know.
He has stated he is happy and enjoying working under Pochettino, he likes the way he works and gets plenty of individual attention to work on his game so it seems the only problem is that of the captaincy.
If Vertonghen desires the captaincy in the future then he is going to have to win over the players and he can only do that through his attitude and commitment. That can only be good news for Spurs.
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