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With slicked-back hair and teeth as bright as floodlights, Toby Alderweireld carries himself with a sophisticated ease which feels a world away from Tottenham’s scrappy, ham-handed struggles.
Life is slower these days. A return to football is on the cards down the line, but not yet, and not as a manager. Mr Alderweireld is the poster boy for his luxury spirits venture MM Antverpia – a more forgiving existence than being fermented by Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid. In his year since retirement, he has also been hiking in the Andes, partying in Ibiza, and treasuring time with his wife, Shani, and their two kids.
And yet, speaking from Antwerp, the 37-year-old still cares, deeply. He speaks in specific terms about Spurs, where he was garrisoned in the backline between 2015 and 2021, and watches with concern as the walls come tumbling down.
What, then, can save Tottenham? After two seasons of watching them circle the drain, Alderweireld pulls no punches.
‘The squad was not good enough for Spurs. We need to go back to players who can perform and handle the pressure and play with heart for the club,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘Fans want players who will fight for the club and badge. Getting new players, that’s the way it is. You need players you can count on. Before, there was Sonny (Son Heung-min), Harry Kane, players who were never below a 7/10.
‘You need to buy players who are ready. Of course you can buy players with potential, but you need the core to be so solid. Then you can have a young guy with potential who can learn from some situations.’
With slicked-back hair and teeth as bright as floodlights, Toby Alderweireld carries himself with a sophisticated ease which feels a world away from Tottenham’s struggles
‘Spurs need players they can count on. Harry Kane (left) was never below a 7/10’
Son Heung-min is another Spurs star that Alderweireld pines for when looking at the current team
Tottenham have already set about on that path. Not long after we speak, the club confirm the signing of Andy Robertson from Liverpool. Marcos Senesi looks set to follow him through the door from Bournemouth. Perhaps our call was being tapped by Spurs’ recruitment chiefs.
They’ve also submitted two bids for Brighton’s £70million-rated centre back Jan Paul van Hecke, an oven-ready Premier League player, though both overtures have been rebuffed.
It looks like a correction on recent summers, which have seen Tottenham spend lavishly on some mercurial talents with little, or no, Premier League experience. Obviously, these things work on a case-by-case basis – some of the best players in the league’s history arrived as outsiders – but assembling a dressing room of tried and tested names feels a safe bet.
The hope is that those experienced voices will help to solve an apparent leadership crisis. Captain Cristian Romero is an enigma.
On one hand, in the winter, he stuck his neck on the line by appearing to criticise the club’s hierarchy for ‘lies’ and blasted their ‘disgraceful’ transfer window in a later social media post. Such bravery is disruptive but commendable.
On the other hand, he has lacked discipline on the pitch, with four red cards since he turned up in 2021 – more than any other Premier League player in that time. Moreover, the 28-year-old has been mealy-mouthed about his future at the club, which appears to be running out of road. For Alderweireld, it’s symbolic of the chaos enveloping the club.
‘It’s not positive when your captain is rumoured to go away,’ Alderweireld admits. ‘That needs to be cleared very quickly. If he goes, he goes. If he stays, we need to get back to the mindset to become very solid.
‘I don’t want to kill him. He’s an unbelievable player. He has a good attitude and fights for the club. Your captain needs to be the face of the club, the team, and when he’s doubting staying, if that’s true, you need to go. We’d need someone else.
‘Your captain needs to be the face of the club, the team, and when he’s doubting staying, if that’s true, you need to go. We’d need someone else’
Spurs have already brought in the experience of Andy Robertson (left) from Liverpool
Bournemouth centre back Marcos Senesi (centre) is also expected to join when his contract on the south coast expires at the end of June
‘I like him very much. He’s very aggressive, he wants to win duels, but you need to know when you do it and when you don’t. If you’re playing away at Old Trafford, your team cannot go one man down, that’s impossible, and not in the 20th minute.
‘You have to balance that, this is a 50-50 duel, but always in your mind, if I lose it, it’s not a big, big problem. If I get a red card, that’s a big, big problem. Keep your mind always and try to get the right decision. It goes very quick but you need to learn. So many red cards doesn’t help the team, that’s very simple.
‘We have to have an answer very quick. If he’s staying, keep him captain. But he needs to be good for the team. The club needs to be number one.’
You can count on Roberto De Zerbi to fight for the badge. Alderweireld has been impressed with the Italian, who won three of his seven games to steer the club to safety.
He and his six backroom staff slept at the hotel at Spurs’ training ground and would obsess over tactics late into the night, even dragging in players for discussions past 9pm if they were staying over before a home game.
But the issues facing De Zerbi are gargantuan. Goals were a problem for Spurs last season – at both ends. Only the relegated sides conceded more, and their total of 48 scored was in the same ballpark as Nottingham Forest and Leeds.
‘They need a good striker,’ says Alderweireld, seemingly not sold on Dominic Solanke or Richarlison. ‘That’s the most difficult position in the team. No one really took the responsibility to score goals.
‘Comparing with Harry Kane is normal because he was there a lot of years. Keep the ball. I call it a rest point, when things are getting difficult, he can play the ball, he can hold it, the team can move up.’
Alderweireld has been impressed with Roberto De Zerbi, who won three of his seven games to steer the club to safety
‘They need a good striker,’ says Alderweireld, seemingly not sold on Dominic Solanke or Richarlison (left)
‘The one thing you don’t want is another season like this, the stresses… you have to see progression’
Two seasons of failure in the league have made it hard to judge where Tottenham belong. They certainly have no right to European football after years of being outwitted by smaller clubs.
But if Manchester United can bounce back from 15th to 3rd in the space of a season, why can’t Spurs reclaim a Champions League spot?
For Alderweireld, just moving up the table would be a start. ‘The one thing you don’t want is another season like this, the stresses. Even just a midtable season, people will sigh for,’ he says, poetically. ‘You have to see progression.’
Toby Alderweireld was speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail in association with BOYLE Sports 2 Goals Ahead. The early payout offer allows fans to back a team and if they go 2 goals up at any point during a 90 minute match (e.g 2-0, 3-1, 4-2), BOYLE Sports will immediately settle as a winning bet, no matter the final result. Go to BOYLE Sports for more.
