How Spurs can move on from Son Heung-min: club face daunting contract dilemma

Son Heung-min was another of the goals for South Korea. He scored in the World Cup qualifiers against Kuwait and Palestine, breaking the 50-goal mark in international football and coming within seven points of his country's record set by Cha Bum-kun.

Son is safe in the land of legends when it comes to his performances and Tottenham boss Ange Posteocglou will be happy to see his captain hit the net a few times ahead of Saturday's visit to Manchester City.

Spurs could do with a lift after losing at home to Ipswich in their last outing, a defeat that left them stuck in mid-table and off the pace of the Premier League. They could also use it if their most reliable source of targets finds its groove again.

Son has scored more for South Korea (10 in 15 appearances) than for Spurs (8 in 26) in 2024, with the theory emerging that he may have lost a bit of his pizzazz at the age of 32.

He has scored in just two Tottenham games this season, despite the team scoring freely. His most recent was the fourth of four against West Ham. Previously there were two in another four-goal match against Everton.

At the end of last season he reaped a late consolation in defeats to Arsenal and Liverpool. His last truly decisive goal came against Luton in March, a goal that took him past Cliff Jones and into the club's top five all-time scorers.

Brennan Johnson on the other flank is a bigger threat this season with seven games in all competitions. Johnson's sheer speed in straights and his determination to get in at the back post make him effective under Postecoglou, who likes his wingers to be wide open in the channels for midfield runners or his wing-backs.

One of Son's strengths has always been his ability to play from his position on the left wing either side of the full-back, but his tendency for years has been to roll into the infield and bombard the goal with shots from his right foot or to accelerate in the left wing. spaces that were created when Harry Kane fell deep.

His best individual season came in 2021-22, where he honed his performances in a team that became clinical on the counter-attack when Antonio Conte took over from Nuno Espirito Santo. He claimed a Golden Boot with 23 goals and seven assists in the Premier League. Spurs finished fourth and qualified for the Champions League.

But under Postecoglou, Son is scoring or assisting every 109 minutes, a better rate than under his other managers at the club.

However, Spurs score more than under Conte or Jose Mourinho and since he left for Bayern Munich there has been no Kane to take the lion's share and all of the penalties.

The goals come from all levels of Postecoglou's team and last season no one finished with more than Son's 17. The most basic statistics are worth a critical look. Even when it comes to pure speed, the Premier League speed gun clocked him at a top speed of 22mph this season, which is faster than five years ago when it was first introduced.

Son's season was disrupted by a hamstring injury. He picked it up late in the Europa League match against Qarabag in September and a setback forced him to miss most of October, prompting a warning from Postecoglou.

“We have to deal with it sensibly,” the Spurs boss said as he admitted injuries to the forwards had meant he played Son more often than he would have liked. 'I don't think it has so much to do with his age because I haven't seen that affect him.

“It's more that I don't think this kind of workload is sustainable in the modern game. “We've talked a lot about the overload of matches and part of that responsibility lies with us to try to protect our players and certainly with Sonny we'll have to take that into account.”

On his return, Son was substituted early in the second half against Aston Villa, with the match tied at 1–1, and threw a tantrum on the bench after coming off the pitch, notable for being so out of character. Spurs emerged 4-1 winners and with his justified changes, Postecoglou calmly dismissed his captain's reaction as just one of those things.

Like all players, Son wants to play. In addition, football is his life, just like his dedication to his career. His great reserves of physical endurance stem from the punishing training regimens of his youth, designed and supervised by his father. This also applies to his discipline and unwavering focus on his football.

He is a true icon in South Korea, determined to lead them to a World Cup in the US in two years' time with his large Korean community.

Postecoglou understands what he means to his country and no one at Spurs expects him to retire from international football, but the stress of long-haul travel will only increase the demands AngeBall's ruthless nature places on his 32-year-old body.

Once again the muscle injuries are piling up at Tottenham. Wilson Odobert has had surgery for a hamstring problem. Micky van de Ven has missed the last three games and Richarlison is sidelined with both hamstrings.

Meanwhile, Cristian Romero, who played despite a toe injury, was forced out of Argentina's World Cup qualifier in Paraguay last week and did not feature against Peru on Tuesday.

Woven into the Son debate and perhaps as important as his advancing years, fitness or tactics, is the loss of Kane and the fading form of James Maddison. Son and Maddison immediately created good chemistry on the left side of the team at the beginning of last season.

It helped soften Kane's departure, but Maddison is now not a guaranteed starter, with Dejan Kulusevski flourishing in a deeper role and Pape Matar Sarr proving important for midfield balance. The team evolves as teams do.

Then there is the matter of Son's contract, which expires at the end of this season with a one-year clause that can be exercised unilaterally by the club.

Mail Sport understands this has not happened yet, although Spurs certainly intend to do so when the time is right. It will tie Son down until 2026, at which point we will be back in the precarious territory of a Tottenham captain with just a year left on his contract at the end of this season.

Daniel Levy has had an aversion to stars walking free since Sol Campbell left for Arsenal the year he became chairman. Kane only had his request to leave granted as his contract entered its final year, despite showing absolutely no indication that he would sign another contract.

Would Levy want Son, Asia's most famous footballer and such a huge commercial asset, to remain free in 2026? Will he want to sell him this summer after protecting his value by activating the clause? Or would he be willing to give a new contract to a player who will turn 34 at the end of this extra year?

With Mikey Moore, 17, and Odobert, 19, there are already big forwards with exciting potential in the building.

Spurs wouldn't want a better role model for them than Son in his final years, but would this hold any appeal for him? He may not want to extend his time at the club by signing another one or two-year contract, while attractive deals and new challenges are likely on the horizon, possibly in the United States.

These questions will become increasingly prominent in the coming weeks. It would be remiss of both parties not to consider their options. Managing an appropriate closing chapter for the legends is easy to get wrong.

In the shorter term, Postecoglou needs Son to score goals and win games for Tottenham again.