Tottenham extend Kieran Trippier’s contract to 2022

Of the slew of new contracts Tottenham have offered over the past year, the one signed by Kieran Trippier on Tuesday is perhaps the most curious.

No one could claim to be shocked when Hugo Lloris, Danny Rose or Dele Alli were presented with new and improved deals. It’s a bit trickier to unpack Tottenham tying Trippier down until 2022 however.

Were this to have come during the previous season, it would hardly have registered. Spurs’ backup left back Ben Davies also signed a new deal after he successfully covered for Rose when the England international succumb to a hip injury in January. Mauricio Pochettino values depth he can trust, and both Davies and Trippier have proved worthy over the past two seasons.

The departure of Kyle Walker last weekend makes Trippier’s new deal more significant. Is this a sign that the club is prepared to entrust right-back duties to Trippier? Or are they, like the deal for Davies, simply holding on to a valuable bench player?

News this week that the club will not be pursuing Porto’s Ricardo Pereira — thought, for the past two months at least, to be among the leading candidates to become Walker’s successor — seems to suggest that the job might be Trippier’s.

While that isn’t exactly shocking, it might come as grounds for concern for some. Trippier’s time on the pitch since his arrival from Burnley two seasons ago has been sporadic, for one. Barring cup games or rare matches where Walker was unfit to play, Trippier really doesn’t have a lot of experience in lilywhite.

When he did get on the pitch, he often proved to be something of a liability — especially early on. He can be adventurous going forward, but that often means he neglects his all-important defensive duties. Walker earned such a high price in part for his ability to be a threat in all directions, calmly keeping things tight at the back while also regularly participating in the attack.

In fairness to Trippier, he improved greatly over his spate of appearances at the tail end of last season. Pochettino, anticipating perhaps that Walker was destined to leave the club, began giving Trippier more and more minutes — most notably in bigger games against Chelsea and Arsenal.

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The 26-year-old hardly broke any records in those performances, but he proved at least that he could be the composed presence on the right that Pochettino needs.

Does that make Trippier the ideal replacement? Perhaps not, but he’s certainly a good deal cheaper than Pereira or virtually any other option on the transfer market.