{"id":450075,"date":"2025-09-25T09:36:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T09:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/450075\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T09:36:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T09:36:25","slug":"tottenham-lining-up-leeds-gold-as-not-that-new-virgil-van-dijk-in-three-club-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/450075\/","title":{"rendered":"Tottenham ‘lining up’ Leeds ‘gold’ as (not that) ‘New Virgil van Dijk’ in three-club battle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cIn my opinion yeah [best in the world]. I think he\u2019s just very complete all round, he\u2019s very calm on the ball, has a good pass, can surprise, good aerial, quick \u2013 there are a lot of points for me that are really good to have as a centre-half.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

No prizes for guessing which Premier League centre-back this wannabe models their game upon, but gold stars and medals abound for those of you who have worked out which \u2018New Virgil van Dijk\u2019 Tottenham are \u2018lining up\u2019 to provide cover for Sergio Romero and Micky van de Ven. The headline is admittedly a bit of a giveaway.<\/p>\n

Leeds\u2019 last season in the Premier League \u2013 the Jesse Marsch, Javi Gracia, Sam Allardyce mess which saw them finish 19th \u2013 made it difficult to sort the squad wheat from the chaff, and many of us will have failed to avoid the temptation to lump all of those players together as relegation fodder.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Harry Kane to Chelsea: Neville stirs the contract clause pot but Wright, Carragher refuse to bite<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

But Pascal Struijk had already emerged as significant source of pride at Elland Road having emerged from the club\u2019s academy in 2020, before earning the nickname \u2018Virg\u2019 in the 2020\/2021 season.<\/p>\n

When asked in that breakout season about reaching the heights of Van Dijk, he said:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve seen some things but I\u2019m not there yet and if I want to be there I have a lot of improvements to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did sometimes call me \u2018Virg\u2019 but I prefer my own name.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for me yes [calmness on the ball is important] it\u2019s very important because it shows confidence when someone is on the ball and as well having a good pass on you that can help the team, surprise the opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old hasn\u2019t made the \u201cimprovements\u201d required to match Van Dijk\u2019s level \u2013 he wouldn\u2019t still be playing for Leeds if he had. But there\u2019s not a great deal of shame in not being the best centre-back in the world.<\/p>\n

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And as journalist Graeme Bailey told Leeds United News<\/a><\/strong>, with Struijk\u2019s contract expiring in 2027, there are at least three Premier League clubs keeping tabs on the Dutchman, including Tottenham, with left-sided centre-backs \u201cworth their weight in gold\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bailey said: \u201cI never got a feeling he was going to leave. Farke made him feel wanted. I don\u2019t think that\u2019ll [new contract] be far off. He\u2019s a fabulous player. He does attract interest. You know, Leeds have to be careful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the likes of Brighton have looked at him in the past and you know, if they lose a Jan Paul van Hecke, would they look at Struijk? We know that Tottenham looked at him as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeft-sided centre-backs are worth their weight in gold. If Brentford lose Nathan Collins they could come in. Leeds will be looking to extend him because there\u2019s an awful lot of clubs who would take him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIn my opinion yeah [best in the world]. I think he\u2019s just very complete all round, he\u2019s very…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,163,4884,1860,2922,12,201,16,2970,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-450075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-front-page","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-leeds","13":"tag-leeds-united","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-tottenham-hotspur","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-uncategorized","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115264263482961746","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}