Tottenham would have to smash the club record fee and pay £48million if they want to sign Ajax defender Matthijs de Ligt according to the Sun.

The report claims that Mauricio Pochettino is looking to replace Toby Alderweireld ahead of the season and will have to break the bank if he wants to sign the 18-year-old defender.

De Ligt has been one of the rising stars in Dutch football and even became an international recently as the Netherlands faced England last season when they lost the game 1-0 at Wembley.

The 18-year-old developed his game at the famous Ajax academy and has garnered interest from Manchester City too.

There are a number of other top European clubs linked with a move for De Ligt with Juventus, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain all interested.

Spurs to bank on young defenders again

This seems to be a habit of Pochettino as he looks at bringing in young defenders and build a team for the future. We signed Davinson Sanchez from Ajax last season and he turned out to be a brilliant signing, to be honest.

The Colombian will be going to the World Cup and we did pay a hefty sum for the youngster. We even bought Juan Foyth from Estudiantes last season and he could also make the step up next season.

De Ligt does seem to be the real deal at the moment and we should make the switch for him regardless of Aldy staying or not.