In recent years, Tottenham have had their fair share of transfer frustrations, one of which being their failed pursuit of Bruno Fernandes a few years ago.
In 2019, Spurs were seemingly set to sign the Portuguese playmaker, but a deal failed to materialise due to a last-minute dispute with Sporting over the deal.
This near miss has gone down as one of the most regretful in Tottenham’s recent history as Fernandes has established himself as one of the best in the world at Manchester United.
Fernandes himself has gone on the record to discuss how frustrated he was to not join Spurs at the time, telling The Athletic:
“Obviously I wanted to go to the Premier League. The manager, Mauricio Pochettino, was the one who wanted me there. It was a good offer but Sporting tried their best to keep me.”
“The president (Frederico Varandas) spoke with me but he spoke with me on the wrong day. It was the day after they decided to refuse the offer from Tottenham and I was really angry. Luckily for me, the manager (Marcel Keizer) was the right one at the right time.”
Fast forward to the 2023 January transfer window, and Tottenham once again found themselves in a similar situation as they attempted to sign Pedro Porro from Sporting.
The deal for the ‘really good’ right-back seemed to have collapsed on Monday as was reported by David Ornstein.
But on deadline day, Spurs ended up striking a deal that was over the odds.
The North London club ended up negotiating a loan-to-buy deal with a future fee equal to Porro’s £39.5m release clause, as well as forfeiting 15% of the future sell-on fee for Marcus Edwards.
All in all, this wasn’t a deal that suits Spurs. They’ve ended up putting together a package that is more expensive than Porro’s release clause, and for the first time in a while, Daniel Levy has agreed to, quite clearly, overpay for a player.
So, why did Tottenham agree to such an unfavourable deal for Porro? Well, in our view, the fear of another Bruno Fernandes situation could have been one of the driving factors behind this transfer.
Spurs have lived to regret not signing Fernandes for years after refusing to play ball with Sporting, and they didn’t want that situation to occur once again with another highly-rated star from the Portuguese club.
The fear of missing out on another talented player from the same destination when a deal was there to be done may have been too much for Tottenham to bear, and so they agreed to a deal that may not have been the best in terms of financials.
Only time will tell if Pedro Porro will have the same impact at Tottenham as Bruno Fernandes has had at Manchester United, but at least this time the north London club don’t have to worry about regretting not doing a deal that was there to be done.
Spurs missing out on Fernandes all those years ago may have inspired them to bite the bullet and pay what they had to for Porro.
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