Speaking on Last Word on Spurs, Ben Jacobs has made a claim about Pedro Porro that may be of interest to Tottenham.
Spurs, as many will know, are targeting Porro as their top priority heading in this January transfer window with talks already taking place.
Unfortunately for the north London club though, there are a few hurdles in their way.
For a start, Sporting only want to sell Porro for his release clause – so it would be an expensive deal, while Fabrizio Romano has reported that Manchester City have a buy-back clause that they could exercise amid interest from Spurs.
However, interestingly, Jacobs has heard a different account, stating that while City feel they may have made a mistake in selling Porro, they don’t actually have a buy-back clause for the player.
Jacobs contradicts Romano
The journalist said that it is his information that there is no such buy-back clause for City.
“In hindsight, Manchester City may feel that they may feel they made a mistake here, and there is no buy-back at their end either, so it does look like they have to pay the release clause or nothing,” Jacobs said.
“What you can do is offer the monetary amount of the release clause or slightly above it and try to negotiate more preferable terms. If you trigger the clause you’re not just paying the €45m, you’re also giving Sporting the payment terms they want which tends to be a lump sum.”
Surely they’d use it
Romano and Jacobs are reporting different things about City having a buy-back clause here, but, in our view, Jacobs’ account may be more accurate.
Think about it, if City could buy-back a €45m player for just €20m surely they’d have done it already?
Even if they just wanted to sell him on for a quick profit, this would be the smart move to make – and it’s certainly a situation City would like to take advantage of having done similar with Angelino in the past.
It remains to be seen what the truth is here, but if such a buy-back clause exists, we’d expect City to have activated it by now.
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