Football.London have revealed that Tottenham Hotspur decided to terminate Matt Doherty’s contract as the club had reached the limit of the number of first-team players who can be loaned out.
Spurs confirmed yesterday evening that they had mutually agreed to the termination of Doherty’s contract to allow him to join La Liga side Atletico Madrid (Fabrizio Romano).
The 30-year-old was not the only right wing-back who left North London on deadline day after Pedro Porro’s arrival, with Djed Spence also completing a temporary move to Rennes.
Football.London explain that Spence was the eighth first-team player that Spurs had loaned out – the maximum number that clubs are permitted by FIFA.
Harry Winks, Tanguy Ndombele, Bryan Gil, Joe Rodon, Sergio Reguilon, Giovani Lo Celso and Destiny Udogie had all been loaned out by the North London club in the summer.
That meant that Tottenham had little choice but to offload Doherty permanently, which is presumably why his contract was terminated.
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Some Spurs fans might be baffled by the club’s decision to keep Emerson and terminate Doherty’s contract but we have to remember that the Brazilian’s market value is much higher, given his age and the number of clubs who were interested in him.
Even still, this decision to terminate Doherty’s contract reeks of bad squad planning as Spurs could have likely got a fee of at least around £5m-£10m for the 30-year-old if they had put him on the shop window from the start of January.
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