Spurs finally confirm Pedro Porro deal after terminating Matt Doherty's contract

Tottenham have finally confirmed the signing of Pedro Porro from Sporting Lisbon after terminating the contract of Matt Doherty to allow him to join Atletico Madrid on a free transfer.

In a manic late scramble of moves, Spurs loaned Djed Spence to Rennes – which meant they had reached their limit of eight overseas loans – and ripped up Doherty’s contract before unveiling Porro on an initial loan deal.

The north Londoners had identified the Spanish right-back as their top target for the January window but a deal appeared to be off on Sunday night when Sporting were accused of ‘moving the goal posts’.

But another round of negotiations on Monday, and a desperate plea from the player himself to Sporting’s hierarchy after skipping training, managed to unblock the situation.

Porro touched down in the UK in the early hours of Tuesday morning with Spurs desperate to get him to London as soon as possible, but Tottenham fans had to wait all day for the move to finally be confirmed.

At the request of Sporting – who want to register the transfer in the next financial year – the deal is an initial loan with an obligation to buy in the summer for a fee of around £39.5million.

Sporting manager Ruben Amorim had effectively confirmed the move earlier in the day, saying: ‘In relation to Porro, it’s more than what happened with Nuno Mendes, with Matheus [Nunes].

‘More than the professional relationship, and of course they are missed, the personal relationship is something we are very sorry about. Our relationship is very close, he will be missed.

‘In football we get used to change from a very young age. One day they are our children, our best friends, and now he is Conte’s son. If we play against him, I already know his difficulties. We remain friends, I move on, now my favourites are others. My players are always the best in the world.

Doherty, meanwhile, was initially expected to be loaned to Atletico Madrid but, having reached their quota, they agreed to mutually terminate the Irishman’s contract so he could link up with Diego Simeone’s side.

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