“Questions about Spurs are not on the agenda today. Toby can’t and won’t answer about it either.”
Not for the first time, it’s been claimed in Belgium that Toby Alderweireld either can’t or won’t (or both) speak about the difficult situation at Tottenham.
Previously, the club have denied instructing the defender not to talk, and the quote above, coming from Belgium’s press officer (via HLN) certainly doesn’t seem to apply to other players in the Spurs squad.
Over in Denmark, Ekstra Bladet have a big feature on Christian Eriksen, with him talking about the difficult situation at the club right now. He instructed the media not to ask questions about his future, but seemed happy to speak about everything else.
The Tottenham star is quoted as saying: “It’s definitely my hardest time right now at Tottenham. The first year when I came was probably a bit up and down, but since Pochettino came in 2014 it has been a success story.
“Expectations for us are at a completely different level now. We have to win every time and it’s the same feeling we have as players as well.
“We as players must try to keep all the negative things completely out. But the reason for our results is actually hard to answer. We can’t close the matches, even though we are ahead. But we have also been unlucky.”
Eriksen denied that Tottenham’s poor start to the season is down to several players, including himself, being surrounded by transfer rumours in the summer: “It doesn’t matter at all. Everyone is professional and in all clubs there is talk of players who have to go away.
“That side of the matter has no bearing on how we have performed so far this season.”
Some fans may disagree with that sentiment. There’s been a negative feeling around Spurs for a while, largely based upon the thought some players wanted out, and that Pochettino was keen for a squad rebuild.
Despite not wanting to talk about his future, Eriksen touched upon it: “If I, as a football player, let all the rumours get to me, I would float on a cloud, but I know that it can’t all be true.
“It does not affect me what is written, but I do know that the bigger the name becomes internationally, the more there is written.”
