Tottenham reach ‘agreement in principle’ to sign ace, he’ll hold press conference to say goodbye

 

We’ve had a bit of backtracking from the Catalan press today over the potential transfer of Espanyol’s Pau Lopez to Tottenham.

On Wednesday, Mundo Deportivo were convinced the deal was on the verge of being done, with a loan offer of €500k with a view to buy at €7m being reported, but now they’ve reeled it in a bit.

Marca, who aren’t Catalan media, on Thursday morning disagreed with Wednesday’s Mundo report, saying that Espanyol weren’t too keen on the idea of selling the goalkeeper as the transfer window went on.

Well, Mundo on Thursday now disagree with themselves, going with the headline “PAU STILL ‘NO’”, referring to Espanyol’s reluctance to see the 21-year-old go.

They claim that, despite information leaking on Wednesday afternoon that a deal was done, there have been no new developments in the talks between the two clubs, but that these ‘could be his last few hours at Espanyol’.

Pau is reportedly pushing for an exit, feeling the Premier League would be a good move for him, especially to Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham where he could develop further than he would at Espanyol.

The youngster isn’t guaranteed to be a starter at the Barcelona-based club, and, while that would also be the case at Spurs, learning from Hugo Lloris would probably be better tutelage than he would get from Roberto, who recently signed from Olympiakos.

Interestingly enough, Sport, also Catalan media, go the other way with the headline “Pau is going to Tottenham”.

The reason behind this is Espanyol having already started a search for a backup goalkeeper after both clubs reached an agreement in principle, with only official documents needed to be signed and offers to be made (so quite a lot, then).

They say Mauricio Pochettino’s insistence is what got the deal over the line, and that Spurs will pay an initial €600k rather than €500k (not sure that makes much difference) with the €7m buyout clause.

Furthermore, the player will apparently hold a press conference (no date has been set) before leaving, as seems to be the custom with long-serving members of the club i.e. Coke at Sevilla.

That’s where we’re at with the Pau Lopez situation: two Catalan newspaper disagreeing on where negotiations are at, but the underlying message seems to be the same: it’ll probably happen.