Fabio Paratici expressed his delight at being able to bring Pedro Porro to Tottenham and admitted that the right-back brings ‘different’ qualities to the table, qualities that the squad currently lacks.
Tottenham made wholesale changes at right wing-back during transfer deadline day, with both Djed Spence and Matt Doherty being offloaded to make way for Porro.
Porro admitted in his first interview as a Spurs player that he cannot wait for his opening game against his former employers, Manchester City, on Sunday.
Paratici has now revealed that Tottenham have been tracking the 23-year-old since last summer and that his performances against the Lilywhites in the Champions League served as confirmation of his talent.
Spurs’ managing director of football told the club’s official website: “Pedro Porro, first of all, he is an international player who in the last two or three seasons played in European competition, played national team for Spain, so he is a player that has different skills that we didn’t have before.
“He has a lot of quality, he is explosive so we are very, very happy and excited to sign him. We were following him even in the last summer but we couldn’t buy him so we followed and then were lucky that he played against us so we could see him.
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“He played very well against us so we continued to follow and I’m thankful to everyone in this club that worked hard about (making) this signing happen. It’s really, really appreciated, the effort of the club and Daniel and all the staff that worked hard to get Porro done.”
The Porro transfer certainly did not prove straightforward for Spurs as the deal appeared on the verge of collapsing on Monday after Sporting Lisbon reneged on the terms of the initial agreement (David Ornstein).
Tottenham eventually had to pay £5m to sign the 23-year-old on loan with an obligation to pay a further £39m to sign him permanently in the summer (Sky Sports).
When asked how important it was to get the Porro deal over the line, Paratici responded: “When you have a target and you believe in one player, you believe that he is the best that you can have, you have to fight until the end and this time, we arrived to the target.”
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One certainly cannot accuse Tottenham of not backing Conte’s vision as not only have the club paid a premium for Porro but they have also taken a hit on Doherty and loaned out Djed Spence.
It is worth remembering that the club have continued to spend despite not being able to cash in on the players like Winks, Reguilon, Ndombele, Lo Celso and Rodon, who have all been deemed surplus to requirements by Conte.
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