Will Harry Kane be affected if Tottenham sell long ball specialist Toby Alderweireld

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Tottenham Hotspur defender Toby Alderweireld continues to be linked with a move away from the north Londoners, despite there still being another couple of months until the winter transfer window opens.

As reported by The Mirror, Spanish heavyweights Barcelona have joined Manchester United in the race to sign the Belgian.

The Catalans want to take advantage of Alderweireld having less than a year left on his current contract.

At the moment the defender’s existing deal will expire in the summer of 2019, but Spurs have the option to extend it by one year, but doing so would mean clubs could take advantage of a subsequent £25 million release clause, which is active for the final two weeks of the transfer window.

Barca are thought to want to sign Alderweireld as soon as January.

Given what they could lose him for, Spurs may be tempted to cash in. But what would that mean for Harry Kane?

Kane’s game might change if Alderweireld is sold

According to Spurs Stat Man, Alderweireld has made a successful long pass once every 11.3 minutes so far this season.

That means he’s ahead of everyone else, even goalkeepers Hugo Lloris, Michel Vorm and Paulo Gazzaniga.

It’s one huge part of Alderweireld’s game, as well as him being a great defender first and foremost.

Alderweireld is brilliant at hitting raking long passes, with Kane a particular beneficiary of this.

It would be interesting to see how Kane would fare if Alderweireld was sold.

Kane is a fantastic target man as well as a goalscorer, as evidenced for England against Spain on Monday.

Alderweireld has been known to hang balls up for Kane to control and bring others into play around him.

He really is one of the very best in the Premier League at it.

If Spurs cashed in, it could be that we see Kane come deeper more often to collect short passes, as he has shown a tendency to do this season.