Christian Eriksen has been thrown the proverbial lifeline by Spurs and offered a new contract. Initial talks with the Dane about extending his stay in North London have been going on for some time but the midfielder made it known in an interview this summer that he was looking for a new challenge and with Eriksen's contract due to expire in 2020 one way or another something was going to break.

Real Madrid and Juventus were both rumoured to hold an interest in the playmaker while Barcelona had also cast an eye over one of Spurs most prized assets in years gone by. However, Eriksen's poor performances at the back end of last year culminating in a truly dreadful showing in the Champions League Final appear to have changed what might have been a stampede for his signature to a couple of polite enquiries about his health.

It is believed that Daniel Levy has slashed his initial asking price from around £90million to £70million and yet there has still not been any firm offer from Europe's elite clubs. The club is now left in a difficult position whereby they can either let Eriksen sit it out for the next year and leave on a free this time next summer à la Aaron Ramsey at Arsenal, flog him at a discounted rate this year or try and get him to sign a new deal.

For what it's worth I don't blame Eriksen for shopping around. Footballers shouldn't be held to a higher standard than the rest of us and if you have unquestionable loyalty to your employer then more fool you because you can be sure as eggs is eggs that when push comes to shove they won't return it! In fact, Eriksen has good cause to be somewhat miffed with his current Spurs deal.......

You would have thought that his performances over the years should see him sitting in that top wage bracket and presumably Levy and Poch have put together an offer that would see him become a 6 figure earner at Spurs.

Eriksen at his best is a player that we undoubtedly want in our squad. In his 206 Premier League appearances to date, he has scored 49 goals and created 60, in other words, he directly contributes a goal better than every other game which is some stat! It's a record on a par with Mesut Ozil who reportedly earns around £300k a week to drift around the Emirates like a lost soul. By contrast, Eriksen offers more than just flair in the final third with one of the best work rates in the league and the Dane is regularly seen topping the kms run per game charts.

The rhetoric coming out of Spurs this week has indicated that a contract offer might be forthcoming. Eriksen was included in the pre-season tour of Asia albeit that he hasn't been training with the first-team squad. The message has been that this is because of a slight niggle that he is carrying as opposed to anything else. By contrast, the likes of Danny Rose, Vincent Jansen and Kevin Nkoudou were all left behind with the express instructions to find another club to play for. Jan Vertonghen, another player whose future is far from certain, has suggested that Eriksen is happy at the club but that remains to be seen.

In previous years, we have generally acted quickly to secure the long-term futures of our best players so the Eriksen saga can be seen as something of an oversight by the club. At the same time, the manner in which Eriksen has acted will have left a bitter taste in the mouths of supporters and the club hierarchy.

This is a delicate situation for all parties concerned, Eriksen would have to eat a fairly healthy slice of humble pie if he were to admit that his dream of playing at one of Europe's elite sides will remain just that. At the same time, the club has to balance the risk of losing a valuable asset against offering a lucrative contract to a player who is only lukewarm about playing for Spurs. My hope is that Poch is at the forefront of this contract offer, if he believes that there is still hope for Eriksen then in Poch we Trust ......