Euro giants Porto are “playing hardball” with Tottenham over the transfer of Ricardo Pereira as the north London club eye a replacement for Kyle Walker, according to Sky Sports.
The popular broadcasters have detailed on their live transfer centre blog (2.47pm) that the 27-time Portuguese title winners are proving to be uncompromising in their negotiations over the 23-year-old right-back, who has been capped twice by the senior Portugal team.
It is said that the right-sided flyer is the north London club’s preferred choice to replace Walker, who left for Manchester City on Friday in a deal thought to be worth £50million.
Pereira himself has a release clause worth half of Walker’s cost at £22million and it is detailed by Sky that Porto had once indicated a willingness to negotiate a lower transfer fee in a bid to build-up funds.
However, it would now appear the situation has changed with Porto recently allowing young midfielder Ruben Neves to join Wolves in a deal thought worth to be around £15million.
Tottenham themselves only spent upwards of £20million once last summer in bringing Moussa Sissoko in from Newcastle for a record £30million, but they may be forced to break their own strict budgets to bring in Pereira.