'Liverpool lead the queue to sign Jan Vertonghen in the summer'.... Well that’s the headline summary that most of the tabloids (Dailymail, Metro) are running with today.
Belgian defender Vertonghen last week hinted that he would be ready to leave White Hart Lane in search of Champions League football.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has made it plain as day that to continue on the upward turn in the Reds rejuvenation, improvements must be made to the back four - especially the centre of defence.
A move for Jan Vertonghen makes perfect sense in my opinion; he's a strong reliable defender who's a menace in the air winning 74% of headed duels which dwarfs the current Reds CB's: Kolo Toure (50%), Mamadou Sakho (57%) & Martin Skrtel (68%) and still beats Daniel Agger at (71%) - stats courtesy of Squawka.
A massive problem over the last few years has been defending from corners/set pieces as we haven't really ever replaced the aerial presence we had in Sami Hypia, and having the Belgian in the lineup would certainly help remedy this.
According to Squawka his Total defensive errors (1) are also less that all of the current Liverpool backline (3 each) which again would help result in less goals being conceded.
We all know that Brendan Rodgers is a fan of versatility which was made ever more obvious on Saturday evening when he brought on Raheem Sterling and played the winger in what should have been an unnatural position (centre of the park) and still managed to help swing the game in Liverpool's favour.
Vertonghen fits this model again as he can play in either CB position and at LB when needed and occasionally at DM.
There is one glaring stumbling block to any potential move for the player that I can see: Daniel Levy being that obstacle. We all know Levy is notoriously hard to deal with and even though Vertonghen is valued around £19.5m (transfermarkt valuation) Levy surely wouldn't listen to offers of anything south of £25m.
The counter argument for that is that the extra income that has been generated from commercial deals over the past year and the prospect of Champions League money would offset the somewhat over the top price tag that Spurs would be asking.
Source: DSG
