In the first two weeks of June, we covered four different stories linking Tottenham Hotspur to Ricardo Pereira. The Portuguese press claimed Mauricio Pochettino was keen on taking him to England, and his €25m release clause sounded like a very reasonable price.
Pereira spent the last two seasons at French side Nice, so Porto weren’t really counting on him anyway. But things have changed a lot recently.
O Jogo’s cover today says it’s Ricardo Pereira’s time at Porto. Their article claims he will finally have a chance to be the club’s number one left-back, all because he’s shown some great form for Nice.
What O Jogo doesn’t even mention is Tottenham interest. It simply disappeared in the past few weeks, and now it’s forgotten.
Have Spurs changed their mind? Maybe.
At that stage of the rumours, Pereira was presented as a replacement for Kyle Walker, who had been much linked to a Manchester City move. But it now seems Pep Guardiola is close on reuniting with Dani Alves, which could leave the English right-back at Tottenham.
Walker will be hard to get from Tottenham, and with Guardiola having the Alves option, it may make missing out less painful.
That’s just a theory, but may not be far from the truth. Porto, and their friendly press, wouldn’t fabricate Tottenham interest to raise the player’s price, because of his low release clause.
Or was it the agent negotiating a new deal? We’ll never know, but Walker’s staying at Tottenham would be a pretty clear clue.
