There is little to choose between Saints and Tottenham Hotspur as football clubs at the moment, so it may be a non footballing reason that swings Toby Alderweireld's decision.

Although Spurs fans like to beleive they are right up there with the top club's the reality is that in the past couple of decades or so they have fallen behind in the pecking order and now find themselves scrambling with the likes of Everton, Newcastle and now Saints for a Europa League spot

Perhaps that will change in a few years when they have built their new stadium, but until then they will continue to struggle to hang on to the shirt tails of the big guns.

That being the case what will perhaps swing Toby Alderweireld in Spurs direction will not be football reasons, indeed Spurs face a tough few years if and when they have to spend two years at MK Dons, so what will decide his move will be from off the field.

Some would say that his friendship with Spurs player Jan Vertoghen that will push him towards White Hart lane, but he has made some lasting friendships with Saints players, so that won't be as big a factor as some would think, despite Vertonghen's constant press campaign to attract him to Spurs.

In simple terms it will be the bright lights of London and the ability to pop over to Belgium with a lot more ease than he can from Southampton.

From London City airport Alderweireld can fly direct to Antwerp the area in Belgium his family lives in an hour, from Southampton it is a lot more difficult to do this for geographical reasons.

So for Toby there is little to choose from in footballing terms, both Saints and Spurs are roughly at the same level in footballing terms, both at the moment have similar sized stadiums and attendances, so it could come down to this one little advantage and that is location.

Photo: Action Images

stmichael added 09:58 - Jul 8 But he has already said he wants to stay at Saints. RK himself said it a few days ago. So unless he is lying the reasons we will lose him will be because Spurs came to an agreement with AM and we didn't. Which will not go down very well with me and a lot of others.
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schatfield added 10:12 - Jul 8 he has gone, pictured now in Spurs shirt. We royally f**cked this one up!
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BaselSaint added 10:18 - Jul 8 We literally no nothing about what's going on. After last season I'm now immune to all this speculation. However I do trust Saints to be very very discreet and professional in this and other matters until things are finalised.
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Jesus_02 added 10:30 - Jul 8 A big congratulations to Les on this one. Why spend 10m on a proven defender when we can spend 3m at another player from the Dutch league who isn’t even worth a 3 year deal? Nevermind onwards and upwards , sorry i mean sideways for a while then down. BTW who do you work for Nick? Who are you defending. "The Non Football Reason Why Toby May Opt For Spurs"? The non footballing reason Toby chose Spurs was that we where busy screwing up the transfer while Daniel Levy got on a did business! We got away with last summers screw up because we managed to get Koeman in…Black box my a***e. The players we got in and did well all came from Holland and had some contact with Ron!

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SanMarco added 10:32 - Jul 8 Yes he has gone. I think the club need to explain this one as it is a big hit to morale. Did we bid? Did we want him? What in the hell was all that stuff about missed deadlines? Have we got a strong replacement in mind? Is Koeman being kept in the loop on all of it - because you wouldn't think so from his quotes. I see on the Echo that they are already planning Toby's abusive 'welcome back' but that solves nothing and it quite frankly getting very boring.

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Jesus_02 added 10:39 - Jul 8 I agree SanMarco the club needs to make a statement. However I imagine if one does materialise it will be of the nebulous kind that doesnt really help other than to confue the issue. They may well take the line of "He was not a Saints player therefore we dont need to say anything"
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ExiledSupporter added 10:45 - Jul 8 We've blown it, someone has cocked it up right royally...either complacency, incompetence or sheer idiocy or all three are to blame for our altogether sluggish, tardy approach. This must be down to Reed or one of his lieutenants...who have reveled in the praise of the last two seasons as though some of the disastrous signings of the past should be discounted or never happened. I don't expect Ronald will trust him so much again.

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Whatsforpud added 10:49 - Jul 8 Nick, I hardly think that the air-link to Belgium is a factor here. There are daily flights to Antwerp from Southampton. I suspect that Southampton Airport is nearer to where is has been living, compared with where he will be living to get to London City Airport.
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halftimeorange added 10:49 - Jul 8 Don't be so quick to criticise the Saints negotiators. Sure, it looks like a cock-up but for every problem there's a remedy and when we were falling apart at this time last year Saints pulled a few rabbits out of the hat. I'll be surprised no, astonished, if there is no plan B.
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IWOZTHERE added 10:50 - Jul 8 I think it's more bullsh.. than barefaced lying. Wherever he goes, the fact remains that Spurs moved early and we didn't. If Saints had a contract on the table ready to sign and Spurs were in the background,I don't think these personal preferences would be as significant as they might now be. We also might be talking about a couple of million less. As it stands though, I'd be overjoyed to get him for whatever it takes. Season defining!

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IWOZTHERE added 11:05 - Jul 8 Just seen it.......bloody disgrace......wish I could swear properly!
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SaintBrock added 11:17 - Jul 8 You can look at this two ways. 1) We got lucky, we managed to sign under the noses of the Big Clubs two world class centre backs in consecutive years who had no experience of the premier league, brought them to the attention of all the other clubs who became green with envy and stole them away from us whilst Les was asleep at his post. A lucky co-incidence indeed some might say. 2) We signed two unknown squad players who nobody else wanted, introduced them to the premier league and through astute coaching and management turned them into near world class centre backs who by coming to the attention of the big clubs, suddenly realised they were on the gravy train, promptly forgetting their roots and convincing themselves they were now too big to be with a minnow club like Saints. Take your pick,Lovren, Alderweirald near world class stars or average players whom Saints have turned into very good players. I think the latter and maybe Saints are a lot cuter and shrewder than many of you are allowing for. Just ponder for a moment that Pochettino and Koeman were world class backs. Stephens and Turnbull are both in Austria, both played well at Swindon and both have been retained by the Club, not always the case after a loan spell. Maybe we have our near world class star on our books already as raw material and the Club feel confident that they can mold one of them in the way they have molded Lovren and Alderweirald? Otherwise why would we not go all out tooth and nail to secure the late departed players? Hopelessly optimistic? Well, who rates Lovren now?

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Mclovin added 11:24 - Jul 8 Good article but it would be greatly enhanced if you had some violin playing in the background, I think! ;-)
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Jesus_02 added 11:56 - Jul 8 SaintBrock I voted you up because I want to believe, but I cant keep on if this keeps happening. I do think Fonte is the class behind Lovren and Tobys success however I also worry that he isnt getting any younger and the opertunity is fading to bed someone in before he himself fades. Saints cant keep pulling rabbits out of hats, I cant help but think that it was largly Koeman anyway.

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pintsizedsaint added 12:24 - Jul 8 It's done, so we must move on. Lessons will be learnt. I expect/hope the CFO went as he was in charge of the legal team who agreed to such stupid clauses. But perhaps the biggest lesson is not to do business with that Shyster Spanish scumbag club in the first place. I hope we sue them for all they're worth (which is little).
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corkcitysaint added 13:05 - Jul 8 Gutted!!
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BoondockSaint added 13:24 - Jul 8 Non footballing reasons: He just got married and when his wife tells friends and relatives where they live, London is well known but Southampton not so much. He got a look at our new away shirt.
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DPeps added 13:40 - Jul 8 I love saints but sometimes supporting them is tiring. This is a balls-up and evidently that clause means nothing. Good CBs are difficult to come by. Spurs will be better for having him and us worse.
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REEDYREEDOREEDZ added 13:50 - Jul 8 If people are looking for someone/something to blame then the problem was with the strength of the agreement we had in place with Atletico. Basically, if Atletico failed to pay us the £1.5m in time then we could have first option for the player and offer £6.8m which they could not reject. We could then offer the player a contract. This must've happened. The trouble was Tottenham had already agreed a fee and offered terms to Toby so he rejected our deal which then voids the original agreement, as we'd had our option and he rejected it. At this point Saints then probably made another bid that Atletico accepted, and offered better terms to Toby but he had already made up his mind and signed with Spurs. If Saints had a solid legal case against this then I doubt the Premier League would've ratified the transfer. So it looks as though the original agreement was flawed, which may or may not have been Reed's fault. On the plus side, as gutting as the Toby saga has been, Saints will have a plan B. Without doubt. And when you look at the quality of Lovren and Alderwiereld that they previously bought in, you've got to be confident that they'll get it right again.

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saintmark1976 added 16:41 - Jul 8 Nick please answer me a couple of points honestly. Do you truly think that Saints offered the same deal to Toby,his agent and Madrid as Spurs did? Do you truly think that arguably shorter travel time to Belgium was the reason for choosing Spurs? If your answers are both "yes" then fine. If either or both answers are "no" then with respect it makes your post appear to me a little far fetched to say the least. My own view for what it is worth is that money talks and we either did not want to or simply could not compete at the same level as Spurs.Not the end of the world, just a reflection of our current inability to keep or for that matter attract top quality players.

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ExiledSupporter added 16:43 - Jul 8 The real question is perhaps why didn't we sign Toby permanently in the January transfer window by which time he had already proved himself to be exactly the player we needed at the back. Because of our indolence, complacency or naivety...perhaps all three, we now have the prospect of starting the season with a defence which has only one first choice player left from last season and perhaps one of the best defensive midfielders in the league about to leave. It's enough to make Ronald cry, let's hope that it doesn't sow the seeds of a growing frustration in RK's mind which persuades him that managing Saints is a recuringly thankless task and he goes to manage...well Liverpool, in due course!. We should offer him an immediate extension to his contyract and more money to do our best to avoid him being snatched away

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sidsaint added 18:12 - Jul 8 I think RK is going to have to take a large pinch of salt with whatever Les Reed tells him first Les was confident Clyne would remain and then his urgency in this fiasco is beyond belief, Levy was on his way home with a done deal before Les decided to go to Madrid. We seem to be relying on RK's contacts for any new players as he's not getting any help from Les and the magical black box. Very disappointed we failed to get Tony and wonder now what RK can be thinking.

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SanMarco added 19:27 - Jul 8 The reason we need a club statement is to stop us filling in the blanks (as we are all doing). It could be as simple as Toby chose Spuds at some stage in the last few days. Annoying after all his BS but hardly that surprising. If the club have made an error than just admit it. This is only really bad news if we don't sign an adequate replacement. In the meantime I am worried that Koeman does not seem to be in the loop...he might even have been made to look a bit foolish.

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bstokesaint added 20:01 - Jul 8 There's a staggering amount of naivety on here tonight. I get people's disappointment. I'm gutted myself honestly I am, but the simple fact is Toby opted for Spurs. The chances are he got tapped by his Spurs' team-mates who likely alerted the Spurs' board of his potential interest. He would have known full well he was a target for Southampton, but he chose to go to Spurs at the first opportunity. So what if he says he would love to come back. If that was really true he wouldn't be parading around in a Spurs' shirt today. Time to move on.

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ChristchurchSaint added 21:43 - Jul 8 Have to agree with bstoke - if our draw was bigger then Toby would have come to us. He is newly married and maybe The New Mrs A decided that she prefers London and possibly more cash from Spurs.
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