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Football.London’s Tottenham Hotspur correspondent Alasdair Gold does not believe that Spurs’ new stadium will help them keep their biggest stars.

There are currently doubts over the futures of both Toby Alderweireld and Christian Eriksen at the club.

What’s the word?

Spurs triggered an extension to Alderweireld’s deal in 2018 but, in doing so, activated a £25million release clause that will become active this summer.

Indeed, Gold does not believe that the deal reflects all that well on chairman Daniel Levy, usually such a shrewd operator in the transfer market, with the club poised to lose a key star for such a small fee.

Eriksen, meanwhile, has been linked with Real Madrid throughout the season, with an Independent report in January claiming that the Spanish side had initiated contact with Mauricio Pochettino’s team.

Spurs played their second test event at the new stadium on Saturday, as a legends team took on Inter Forever, and will open the ground officially on Wednesday, as they face Crystal Palace in the Premier League.

Speaking on Saturday, 24 hours prior to the club’s dramatic 2-1 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield, Gold quashed the idea that the new ground could prove vital in keeping the players at the club.

Speaking to Football FanCast, he said: “It was very un-Tottenham like, that clause. That was the weird thing about it. It was very un-Levy like. He (Alderweireld) put something on Instagram after the stadium training session saying ‘this place is amazing, it’s exceeded all my expectations’, so I asked Pochettino about that in the press conference.

“I didn’t name the player but I asked if the stadium could help convince players to sign new contracts and he was just like ‘nope’. He said it’s a lovely romantic notion and you and I would probably feel that way but he said there’s so much around the players, so many people who are so involved in the business side of it that it just doesn’t work like that anymore.

“You kind of have to feel he was talking about Alderweireld. There’s been a lot of background noise about deals that were offered and not taken and the fact that no deal has seemingly been offered in the last year or so.

“I think it’s a player who is coming towards the end of his time at Spurs which is tremendously sad because he’s a terrific player. But I suppose the flipside is £25million for a 30-year-old ends up not being the worst deal in the world. But it is Toby Alderweireld.”

Something of a mess

Levy might well be kicking himself.

The transfer market is so inflated these days that there is little chance of Alderweireld being available for £25m if the clause was not active.

Without it, one would expect the Spurs chairman to be demanding a fee in excess of £50m, more than double.

The Belgium international has been a significant cog in Pochettino’s transformation of Spurs into genuine contenders and has played 148 times for the club, including 39 outings this term.

Pochettino, clearly, is not phasing him out, but he may lose him anyway, new stadium or no stadium.

Levy can set the price for Eriksen, but it remains to be seen if that will become a saga, as Real’s pursuit of players often does.