Michael Brown has named Djed Spence to question how Antonio Conte will now use Pedro Porro at Tottenham Hotspur. He signed from Sporting Lisbon in a transfer on deadline day.
Spurs finally ended months of speculation by agreeing to sign Porro on loan for the rest of this season. Sky Sports reports the Premier League side have paid his Liga Portugal outfit £5m for the temporary deal. Tottenham have an obligation to buy him for £39m this summer.
Sporting Lisbon ultimately agreed to Tottenham’s terms after weeks of negotiations about Porro’s transfer to Conte’s team. He was a key player for coach Ruben Amorim at the Jose Alvalade Stadium. The 23-year-old left on 11 assists and three goals in 26 games this term.
No Leoes player has registered more assists across all competitions so far this season than Porro produced. He will now compete for minutes with Emerson Royal in north London as Tottenham loaned Spence to Stade Rennais and released Matt Doherty to facilitate a deal.
Doherty mutually agreed to terminate his contract and has joined Atletico Madrid as a free agent. While Spence will spend the rest of the season in Ligue 1 with Stade Rennais having failed to establish himself at Tottenham following his £20m transfer from Middlesbrough.
Brown uses Spence’s transfer to question Tottenham’s plans after signing Porro
Spurs paid Boro an initial £12m plus add-ons to sign Spence on a five-year contract back in July. Yet the 22-year-old only managed to earn six appearances totalling 41 minutes under Conte. He is yet to start a fixture for Tottenham and played three Premier League minutes.
Now, Brown has used Spence’s difficulties to question how Conte will back Porro after the Sporting Lisbon star signed for Tottenham with a loan-to-buy transfer. The ex-Manchester City midfielder also questions Spurs’ transfer policy with multiple voices making decisions.
“It’s a strange recruitment process with the director of football Fabio Paratici, Daniel Levy and then Conte all involved,” Brown has told BBC Sport. “They have been looking for some time and some of their targets have come and gone.
“Then there’s Djed Spence – who signed him? Why has he not played? No one has seemed to be able to do it on the right side. With Porro, will they say it’s his job and back him?”
Conte admitted that Spence was not one of his signings back in the summer
Conte admitted that Spence was not a player who he had asked Tottenham to sign back in the summer. Instead, the Italian stated that it was the Spurs hierarchy who wanted the 22-year-old’s transfer. Even though the north Londoners had targeted his services all summer.
“Spence is an investment of the club,” Conte said, via BBC Sport, in July. “The club wanted to do it. I said: ‘Ok, this player is young but he showed he can become a good, important player for us’. The club decided to buy him.”
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