Journalist Ben Jacobs has said that Sporting Lisbon’s decision to move the goalposts in the negotiations for Pedro Porro was tactical, and revealed that Daniel Levy decided to get involved at the last moment to get the deal over the line.
The negotiations between Spurs and Sporting for Porro seemingly lasted several weeks and with less than 48 hours left in the window, the deal looked at risk, with reports indicating that the Portuguese club had reneged on the terms of the initial agreement (The Athletic).
However, the Lilywhites were able to clinch the deal before the transfer deadline, although they ended up paying a premium.
According to Sky Sports, Spurs paid a loan fee of £5m for the 23-year-old, with an obligation to pay another £39m while also giving up 15 per cent of the sell-on clause they had for Marcus Edwards.
Jacobs has now suggested that Sporting decided to put pressure on Spurs at the last moment as they knew how urgently Tottenham wanted the Spaniard. The journalist added that the right-back himself was a factor in the deal eventually going through before the window slammed shut.
Jacobs told TEAMtalk about the Porro deal: “There was one point though where for sure the deal looked more off than on. But Porro was a big factor in making it clear to the Sporting hierarchy that he wanted the move.
“Eventually Spurs and Sporting came back to the table and were able to come to an agreement. This was very tough negotiating by Sporting and it’s what we expect from them.
“Sometimes if you get the framework of an agreement and then renege on it, it can be tactical late in the window. It was clear to everybody how urgently Tottenham wanted the player. So, therefore, Sporting held all the cards.
“However, Daniel Levy is also an extremely tough negotiator and when it looked like the deal was collapsing, Levy got involved. You then have two tough negotiators going head-to-head and thankfully for all parties it was eventually resolved very quickly.
“Within the negotiations the twist in everything is that Tottenham also, to get the deal over the line, had to surrender a higher sell-on percentage clause of Marcus Edwards’ contract. So Edwards and Porro became linked in getting this one done.
“Tottenham sold Edwards to Vitoria Guimaraes in 2019 and he eventually ended up at Sporting last year. Tottenham decided to forego a 50% sell-on clause with Vitoria, who ended up selling him for £9m. Instead of cashing in then they opted to carry that 50% over to Lisbon.
“Now, in their mind, they thought that was a better tactic. But Tottenham had to give another 15% of the rights to Edwards back to get that Porro deal over the line. Which means they only now have a 35% sell-on clause.
“So if Edwards goes in the summer, which could happen, it would likely be four or five times the fee Sporting paid for the forward. However, Tottenham will only get 35% of that fee.
“That’s a decent bit of business for Sporting, on top of the total package for paid for Porro himself. This is significant because Tottenham get their top target but Sporting will make more money from the sale of Marcus Edwards.
“That twist is regarded as very good business by Sporting, but not so good for Spurs.”
Spurs Web Opinion
I wonder if Sporting saw the way Spurs conducted themselves in the Danjuma deal (by snapping him up from under Everton’s noses) and decided that it would be fair game to shift the goalposts regarding Porro since the North London club themselves cannot claim any moral high ground in the way they do their transfer business.
