Tottenham Hotspur Weekend Roundup: Porro, Gil, Hincapie, more

Hey happy people! Last weekend’s roundup seemed to be well received so I thought I’d do another one this weekend (and also because I spent most of Saturday in a sweaty high school pool). There are some updates, some rumors, some Spurs Women stuff, and even a line on a couple of new academy forwards.

See below!

Pedro Porro

It’s (relatively) quiet on the Pedro Porro front, now that a deal has been reached for between €45-48 to bring Porro to Spurs on a five year contract. Porro is reportedly on his way to London where he will complete a medical, sign the paperwork, and start media stuff ahead of an expected announcement on Monday.

It’s an open question as to whether Porro will feature against Manchester City this weekend. It’s not a lot of time to learn The Patterns™ but while I’d guess he won’t start it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he is a late substitute, especially since the match is at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Bryan Gil

Potentially big news for Bryan Gil. There were reports that Spurs had rejected a loan offer with a purchase obligation for Gil from his old club Sevilla, as Jorge Sampaoli was very interested in bringing him back to La Liga. Today, according to Fabrizio Romano, it looks like a second approach was successful — Romano says that a deal has been done that will send Bryan back to Seville (and to Erik Lamela) on a straight loan for the rest of the season.

As recently as last week it appeared that Bryan would be staying in North London after a series of promising performances while Dejan Kulusevski was injured. However, it sure looks like the loan acquisition of Arnaut Danjuma (who scored in the FA Cup against Preston North End) has changed that calculus.

Piero Hincapie

There’s interesting news coming out of Germany this morning. German daily BILD (via Get German Football News) is reporting that Spurs have made a €25m offer to Bayer Leverkusen for the January transfer of Ecuadorian defender Piero Hincapie.

Fabrizio Romano had previously said on his podcast that Spurs were negotiating to bring Hincapie in during the summer, so this would be a bit of a surprise. BILD is basically the German Daily Mail so don’t get your hopes up too high — GGFN says that any deal in January would require Leverkusen to get a replacement in before the window shuts which might be a non-starter. Still, a defensive reinforcement would not at all be unwelcome. Hincapie’s a bit of a manic hyper-aggressive defender (similarish to Cuti Romero) but he’s still just 20 and his ceiling is massive.

Spurs Women

It was an exciting weekend of football for Spurs Women. Spurs played London City Lionesses in the FA Women’s Cup Fourth Round on Sunday morning, smashing them 5-0 at Brisbane Road. Spurs’ newest signings Bethany England and Mana Iwabuchi both scored in the first half, with three goals in the second 45, from Drew Spence, Eveliina Summanen, and an own goal from Harley Sophie Bennett. London City play in the Championship and so this was not an unexpected win, but this is a team that has found it difficult to put the ball into the back of the net. Hopefully it’s a confidence builder, with Spurs hosting Chelsea in the WSL this coming Sunday.

In addition, Tottenham’s young defender and academy graduate Esther Morgan is heading back out on loan; the club announced that she is heading to FAWC side Sunderland for the remainder of the season.

Morgan spent the first half of the season on loan at Coventry United, and there was some thought that she could be worked into the fullback rotation with Spurs’ first team, but she apparently needs a little more seasoning.

New Academy Players?

Do you like it when new kids arrive in the academy? You might be in luck! Reports came in over the weekend about two potential additions to the academy this month — Jude Soonsup-Bell and Jobe Bellingham.

Literally the only thing I can tell you about either of them is that Jobe Bellingham is 17, a forward, just starting to break into Birmingham’s first team, and is also the younger brother of Jude Bellingham. Alasdair Gold thinks he’s more likely to follow his brother’s path and head to Germany for first team minutes this summer, but Spurs “have scouted him extensively.”

Soonsup-Bell looks much closer to signing with Spurs. He came through the Chelsea academy but ran down his contract and was looking for new opportunities with another club. Gold suggests he’s likely going to help make up the numbers in the U21s, but could head out on loan this summer. Chelsea apparently retain a sell-on clause for him.

Are either of these kids any good? No idea! They’re mystery boxes and mystery boxes are fun.