Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has opened the door to a Manchester United move for Christian Eriksen.
The Denmark international is out of contract in north London next summer and appears to have no intention of signing fresh terms.
Eriksen was linked with United, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid before the start of the season, but remained at Spurs beyond the transfer deadline.
However, there is expected to be renewed interest in the former Ajax playmaker when the window reopens next month.
Levy would prefer a January sale so that Tottenham can receive a fee for one of their key players, instead of losing him for nothing next June.
And the long-serving chairman insists he is not afraid to do business with a domestic competitor in the New Year.
"We are honestly not scared to trade with our rivals," he told the Evening Standard when asked if Eriksen would be allowed to join another Premier League club.
Defensive duo Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen each also have just six months to run on their respective contracts, although Tottenham are more hopeful of persuading the Belgians to put pen to paper on extensions.
But Levy insists he only wants to retain players who are keen to play for Tottenham going forward.
"My view is really simple," he said. "For a player to sign a new contract, not only have the conditions got to be right but the player has got to want to do it. It is up to those players whether they want to stay at Tottenham and we’ll see.
“I don’t want to comment on individual players too much. I actually think it is unfair. Every circumstance is different. There may be a player who wants to stay, there may be a player we don’t want to stay.”
Levy also dismissed rumours that Spurs could be active in the January transfer market in a bid to support new boss Jose Mourinho.
“Jose is on record as saying what we need now is to get the players playing better, which is what they are doing," he added.
“He’s made it clear he is not looking for new players in January. He is happy with what he’s got and that’s why he said that.”
“Firstly, there’s no guarantee to finish in the top four. Nobody has the divine right to be there. We all come back and watch football all the time because it is so competitive.
“Wouldn’t it be boring if we were guaranteed to be there? Obviously, we aspire to be there every season but there is no guarantee whatever we do. When we are there, we want to go as far as possible in the various competitions but sometimes it is the luck of the draw. We just want to go as far as we can.”
Tottenham will climb above Chelsea and into fourth place in the Premier League if they beat their rivals on Sunday.
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