'Zero' progress in Tottenham contract talks with influential defender Toby Alderweireld

Tottenham Hotspur defender Toby Alderweireld admits there has been no progress in talks regarding a potential contract extension, although the Premier League title contenders have managed to secure the future of teenage attacking midfielder Marcus Edwards.

Spurs have extended the contracts of most of their first-team players over the last year, with Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Hugo Lloris, Mousa Dembele, Christian Eriksen, Eric Dier, Jan Vertonghen, Danny Rose, Michel Vorm and Kieran Trippier all having penned fresh terms since the beginning of the 2016-17 campaign.

Alderweireld was widely expected to be the next key player to be handed an improved deal, with negotiations said to have begun several months ago.

However, matters appeared to be complicated in March when the Evening Standard reported that the influential Belgian centre-back was seeking parity with top earners Kane and Lloris in terms of pay.

Both of that aforementioned duo are now said to earn in excess of £100,000-a-week ($131,328). Alderweireld, meanwhile, currently takes home around £50,000-per-week on the same contract he agreed when arriving in north London from Atletico Madrid back in July 2015. That lasts until 2019 and includes the option for the club to extend it by a further 12 months.

Alderweireld revealed in June that he was still waiting for Tottenham to present a proposal amid reports that Inter Milan are primed to take advantage of the situation and attempt to lure him to Serie A. He also rubbished speculation that he had already rejected one offer.

Asked again about any progress by Sky Sports in Nashville, where Mauricio Pochettino's side face Premier League rivals Manchester City in their final International Champions Cup match on Saturday night (29 July), the former Ajax centre-back said: "No news that I know of so nothing...zero."

Spurs are unlikely to be willing to want to compromise further on their strict wage structure, although Pochettino will surely be desperate not to even risk the possibility of losing such an integral cog of the top-flight's most stringent defence.

While uncertainty over Alderweireld's contract situation persists, Tottenham announced on Saturday that Edwards had signed a new deal. The 18-year-old academy graduate, whose only senior appearance to date came as a late second-half substitute in a 5-0 EFL Cup drubbing of Gillingham last September, now looks set to stay with his boyhood club until at least 2020.

Edwards, a regular for Tottenham's development side, was part of the England squad that triumphed at the Under-19 European Championship in Georgia earlier this month. Pochettino previously claimed that the way he plays reminded him a little of an early Lionel Messi.