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Explained: Why Mauricio Pochettino dropped Jan Vertonghen against Aston Villa

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Jan Vertonghen was left out of Tottenham’s matchday squad in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Aston Villa despite being fit and available for selection. According to Adrian Kajumba of the Daily Mail, the 32-year-old was dropped by Mauricio Pochettino because of his poor fitness and was forced to watch the game in the stands.

Toby Alderweireld and Davinson Sanchez were instead chosen to start at the heart of the defence. Pochettino was said to have told the Tottenham players of his decision on Friday and Vertonghen travelled to the stadium to watch the match after undergoing a training session on Saturday morning. The Belgian international was said to be furious with his manager.

Vertonghen’s contract is up next summer and his future remains up in the air at Spurs. The centre-back’s deteriorating relationship with Pochettino won’t boost the chances of him staying past 2020, so Tottenham could be waving goodbye to the 32-year-old when his deal expires next June.

Tottenham next face Manchester City in the Premier League on Saturday, August 17, but whether Vertonghen will make the squad remains to be seen. After Alderweireld and Sanchez were on the winning team last weekend, Pochettino may not want to change his backline to face to the champions.

Read Crippy Cooke’s previous article

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Sports journalist who is an avid football fan, enjoys debunking transfer rumours, loves to write pieces about players out in the cold and takes a large amount of pride getting a predicted XI 100% correct.