Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino calm over Toby Alderweireld contract situation

Mauricio Pochettino insists Toby Alderweireld's future at Tottenham Hotspur "is not an issue" following claims his defender may look to leave the club.

Alderweireld is one of the few Spurs players still to have penned a new contract, with his current deal – signed upon his arrival from Atletico Madrid two years ago – set to expire in 2019.

The Belgium international is regarded as one of the best centre-halves in the Premier League. His representative fired a warning to the Spurs hierarchy this week; either pay his client a wage befitting of his abilities or allow the player to move on.

"When you look at Toby's statistics, they are impressive. Either he deserves an appropriate contract, or else he should be given a transfer," Alderweireld's agent Stijn Francis said, according to The Independent. "Seven or eight big European clubs are interested in signing him. There are not many central defenders around who can play like he can. But these clubs will have to negotiate with Tottenham's chairman, Daniel Levy."

However Pochettino is confident his charge is completely focused on Spurs however, having had one-on-one talks with the player on Thursday.

"He was talking with me in my office this morning and he is so happy, he wants to make it clear he is fully committed with the club," Pochettino told a press conference on Thursday, football.london reports. "He is happy with his contract, two years plus one. It is not an issue. I recognise some rumours in the last few days, but he is so relaxed, so calm. His idea is to try to play here, he is happy here, there is no reason to move."

The Spurs boss also sought to publicly reassure Vincent Janssen over his future at the club, despite his omission from the club's Champions League squad and the deadline day arrival of Fernando Llorente from Swansea City.

"That [leaving him out of the Champions League squas] is about numbers. We only have 17 places, we are 19, so him and Lamela we decided [to leave out]. But in January we will check again to see if we change the names in the squad. But, yes, he has a future like other players here."