Pep Guardiola plays down speculation he was keen to sign Spurs man last month

Pep Guardiola insisted he was not actively looking to re-sign Pedro Porro for Manchester City before the player moved to Tottenham Hotspur earlier this week as both sides prepared to meet on Sunday in the Premier League.

Porro was the subject of attention from Tottenham all throughout January, and the North London side eventually got their man on deadline day, after a multitude of complications along the way.

The 23-year-old joined Spurs on an initial loan deal for £5 million, before the move will be made permanent in the summer, for a fee believed to be around £39 million as part of an obligation to buy clause (Sky Sports).

The Spaniard joined Manchester City in the summer of 2019 from Girona, but never actually played a game for City before moving out on loan to Real Valladolid and later Sporting Lisbon, who he would eventually join permanently.

City did hold a buy-back clause in the deal which saw Porro move to Portugal, but that clause was not activated during the January transfer window.

Instead, the Etihad outfit will pocketed around £10million of the transfer fee which Spurs paid to Sporting due to a sell-on clause inserted into his contract when he departed Manchester (Daily Star).

With Spurs taking on City at the weekend, there’s every chance Porro could make his debut for the Lilywhites against his former club. Ahead of the game, Guardiola has addressed the rumour that City were keen to bring Porro back to Manchester last month.

He told the Manchester Evening News: “[Porro is] perfect to play five at the back, last season we suffered when we played against Sporting. This season Tottenham vs Sporting, a good signing for Spurs. No [we didn’t think about re-signing], he was on the list but we didn’t think about the buy-back. He decides to go to Spurs.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I can’t lie, I was a little worried City were going to swoop in at the last minute and steal Pedro Porro away from us, especially after they let Cancelo go. But, he’s here and he’s perfect, and hopefully, he can do some damage against his former side on Sunday.

Porro adds a completely new attacking dimension to Tottenham’s right side and the likes of Harry Kane will be relishing the prospect of getting on the end of his accurate delivery into the opposition penalty area.

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