Tottenham Hotspur have made contact regarding a move to bring Pedro Porro to the Premier League in the January transfer window.
What's the talk?
That's according got a report by Portuguese outlet A Bola (via Sport Witness), who claim that, following a number of reports linking Spurs with a move for the Sporting Lisbon right-back, Fabio Paratici has now 'made the first contacts' for the 23-year-old, for whom the Liga Portugal side are demanding the defender's €45m (£40m) release clause in order to part with this winter.
However, an earlier report by another Portuguese publication Correio da Manhã (via Sport Witness) suggested that Paratici may be able to secure a discount for the Spain international's signing in January, by giving up Tottenham's 50% sell-on clause for Marcus Edwards - who himself is reported to possess a £52m release clause.
Special signing
Considering just how impressive Porro has been in Portugal ever since his move from Manchester City back in August of 2020, it is not difficult to understand why Antonio Conte and Paratici would be interested in a deal to bring the right-back to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the January transfer window.
Indeed, over his 23 Liga Portugal appearances last season, the £21.5m-rated talent was in fantastic form going forwards, scoring four goals, providing four assists and creating 11 big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 1.6 shots, making 2.0 key passes and completing 1.4 dribbles per match.
The £10k-per-week defender also caught the eye in metrics more typical of his position, making an average of 1.8 tackles, 1.1 interceptions, one clearance and winning 5.3 duels - at a success rate of 53% - per fixture.
These metrics saw the one-cap Spaniard who Zach Lowry dubbed "special" average a quite breathtaking Sofascore match rating of 7.28, not only ranking him as Sporting's second-best performer in the division but also as the 12th-best player in the Portuguese top-flight in its entirety last time out.
It has been a similar story over his 10 Liga Portugal appearances in 2022/23, with Porro having already registered four assists and created four big chances, in addition to making an average of 2.2 key passes, 1.4 interceptions and completing 1.1 dribbles per game.
These returns have seen the 23-year-old average a rather remarkable Sofascore match rating of 7.11, currently ranking him as Ruben Amorim's fifth-best performer in the league.
As such, considering just how talented a right-back Porro evidently is, the argument that the former City starlet would be a special signing for Paratici to get over the line this winter is an extremely easy one to make, especially if the Italian can negotiate some sort of discount with Sporting for the defender's signature.