Tottenham 'unwilling' to break wage structure in pursuit of Everton contract rebel Ross Barkley

Wantaway Everton contract rebel Ross Barkley will need to lower his wage expectations if he hopes to complete a summer move to Tottenham Hotspur, reports suggest.

The Mail understands that Spurs are unwilling to compromise on their strict wage structure for a player who reportedly turned down the offer of a new £110,000-a-week ($131,162) deal at Goodison Park earlier this year, with only Harry Kane and Hugo Lloris believed to earn that sort of money in north London following their respective five-and-a-half year extensions.

Tottenham are the only Premier League club yet to make a single summer signing less than a fortnight away from the start of the 2017-18 season despite banking in excess of £50m from the sale of Kyle Walker to Manchester City, a fact that has caused no shortage of consternation among supporters.

Mauricio Pochettino admitted following a 3-0 friendly defeat to City in Nashville on Saturday (29 July) that last year's runners-up were a "little bit behind" their title rivals but continued to work hard on securing new additions.

The manager is said to be confident that he can kick-start the flagging England career of Barkley, who Everton boss Ronald Koeman "100%" expects to leave Merseyside before the end of the current transfer window as he enters the final 12 months of his existing deal. The big-spending Toffees are pressing hard to sign Swansea City star Gylfi Sigurdsson as his replacement.

Tottenham's ongoing refusal to meet Everton's asking price - an initial £50m that is believed to have dropped to £35m - has potentially opened the door to several fellow top-flight heavyweights, with Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal all rumoured to be monitoring the situation closely. Antonio Conte in particular is keen to boost the number of homegrown players in his title-winning squad.

Barkley is currently recovering from groin surgery and did not travel with Everton on their pre-season trips to Tanzania, the Netherlands and Belgium or feature in their Europa League third qualifying round first-leg win over MFK Ruzomberok last Thursday.

However, he is expected to return to full fitness within the next three to four weeks. Reports that he was demanding to become the highest-paid player in Tottenham history on wages of £150,000-a-week have been dismissed.

In addition to affecting their pursuit of new signings, Spurs' apparent refusal to budge on that aforementioned wage structure may also be preventing them from ending their contract stalemate with Toby Alderweireld.

The influential Belgian defender, currently paid around £50,000-per-week, revealed over the weekend that there had been "zero" progress with negotiations and it was previously reported that he was seeking parity with top earners Kane and Lloris.

Alderweireld, one of the last remaining Tottenham first-team players yet to sign an extension, is under contract until 2019 and the club have the option to extend that by a further 12 months at the cost of the addition of a £25m release clause.