Tottenham ready to pay £22m release clause for Ricardo Pereira

Let the speculation on who will replace Kyle Walker begin! On the heels of reports that Walker will leave Tottenham Hotspur for Manchester City in a blockbuster deal worth £50m (or more!), a world record fee for a fullback, all eyes now turn to Spurs to see what they’ll do to replace him.

The Evening Standard wasted no time, releasing an article claiming Spurs are ready to meet the £22m release clause for Porto wing back/midfielder Ricardo Pereira.

We’ve written a lot about Pereira on here. He’s fast, young, and offensively-minded, which could potentially mean he’s a great fit as a Pochettino wingback. He spent last season on loan at Nice where he was a regular in the starting lineup, splitting time between right back and right midfielder, and scoring one goal.

Tom Collomosse, writing for the Standard, suggests that Mauricio Pochettino wants to sign a right back replacement to challenge Kieran Trippier, who is now the de facto starting right back, and that makes sense. Assuming Walker is sold, right now, Kyle Walker-Peters is the only other natural right back on the team, and he’s 20 years old and has yet to make his Tottenham first team debut. Relying on him, or someone like Eric Dier or Toby Alderweireld to spell Trippier next season would be a bit foolish.

I quite like what I see out of Pereira, and in this season’s market £22m is not a crazy outlay for a talented young player. It’s also less than half of the reported fee for Kyle Walker.

Whatever happens, let’s hope that Spurs can get something going quickly so whoever comes in has time to get some actual good preseason training in.