Tottenham Hotspur will spare themselves another summer of uncertainty over their star player by triggering an option to extend the contract of Son Heung-min.
Son’s existing deal is scheduled to expire at the end of next season, but Telegraph Sport can disclose that the club hold an option to extend it by at least a further year that they will take up.
It means Son is effectively committed to Tottenham until 2026 at the earliest. Although the option has not yet been triggered and is unlikely to be imminently, the expectation and intention of both the club and the South Korean is that it will be.
Spurs may even wait until the end of the season to formally trigger the option over 31-year-old Son, as the club are so relaxed over his future and do not need to distract him at all in the meantime.
Having been effectively forced to sell Harry Kane to Bayern Munich this summer, with one year remaining on his deal, Tottenham will not face a similar situation over Son, which will be a huge boost to head coach Ange Postecoglou.
Son has started the season well under Postecoglou, scoring a hat-trick against Burnley, and was made captain by the Australian following the sale of Kane and the demotion of goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
Lloris is now effectively third-choice goalkeeper at Tottenham after rejecting a number of offers to move in the summer, but the expectation is he will leave on a free transfer in January.
Despite Tottenham’s impressive start to the season, chairman Daniel Levy has reiterated the fact he remains open to offers for the club in an interview with Bloomberg.
Levy has previously rejected offers from the Far East, Middle East and the United States, and said: “I’ve got no real interest to leave Tottenham, but I have a duty to consider anything that anyone may want to propose. It’s not about me, it’s about what’s right for the club.”
On turning down offers to date, he added: “Nothing has been put on our table that we felt has been in the interests of shareholders.
“We run the club as if it’s a public company. If anyone wants to make a serious proposition to the board of Tottenham we would consider it, along with our advisers, and if we felt it was in the interests of the club we would be open to anything.”
Levy also confirmed Telegraph Sport’s story that the clause inserted into the deal to sell Kane that may allow Spurs to re-sign him was a first-option agreement that depends on negotiating a fee with Bayern and the England captain wanting to return.
“If Harry, one day, wants to come back to the Premier League and he wants to come to Tottenham, we would have the ability to repurchase him,” Levy said. “Harry was a great servant to the club, an amazing player, someone that came from our academy, but you can’t look into the future. Who knows.”
Scott Munn has officially started work as Tottenham’s chief football officer after his initial start date of July 1 was delayed.
