Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly eyeing up one of their former players in Sporting CP star Marcus Edwards and the Englishman could help to unlock Pedro Porro with the Lilywhites.
Could Spurs sign Marcus Edwards?
Last month 90min reported that scouts from Aston Villa, Liverpool, Newcastle United and Spurs had all been to watch Edwards in a Europa League game against Juventus, which suggests that he could certainly be on his way to the Premier League this summer.
Spurs let Edwards go as a youngster as he joined Portuguese side Vitoria in 2019 having made just one senior appearance during his time in north London, despite Mauricio Pochettino likening him to Lionel Messi.
He would catch the eye with Vitoria, contributing an impressive 20 goals and 14 assists in 90 appearances and later earned a move to Portuguese giants Sporting.
Daniel Levy inserted a significant 50% sell-on fee in the deal for the talented young winger but that became just 35% when Spurs signed Pedro Porro from the same outfit in the January transfer window.
Therefore, if Spurs are forced to pay Edwards' reported £52m release clause to bring him back to the club this summer, he will actually only cost around £34m due to the money made from the sell-on.
Could Edwards help to unlock Porro?
The Lilywhites will pay £39.7m to make Porro's move permanent in the summer transfer window but have perhaps not seen the best form of the right wing-back thus far, certainly from a defensive perspective, with only five clubs boasting a worse defensive record than Spurs in the top flight.
However, he has looked good going forwards, with two goals and two assists in just 13 Premier League appearances, which suggests that he could be a big threat for Spurs from an attacking perspective next season.
At Sporting, he registered two goals and six assists in just 14 league appearances, so is clearly a creative outlet and could do extremely well when paired with a right-winger who likes to cut inside to make space for him to overlap.
As per WhoScored, the 24-year-old Edwards excels at dribbling and coincidentally likes to cut inside onto his stronger left foot from the right, which could allow his former teammate to prosper in north London.
It's a combination that certainly worked in Portugal with Ruben Amorim waxing lyrical over their ability to make things happen following interest from other clubs in the duo last January: "We know the amount of attacks that go through Porro and Edwards, nobody is blind here," he said.
The Englishman's performances at Sporting have further seen him labelled as "immense" by journalist Brian Fonseca, while he was dubbed a "generational talent" in the past by Sid Lowe, so he is certainly highly rated across Europe.
Porro himself admitted that it has been a difficult start to life at Spurs, not helped by the fact that he's on his third manager already, but he is still only 23 and could have a bright future in the Premier League.
If the Lilywhites do want to persevere with the Spaniard, what better way to help him settle than by bringing in his former teammate with whom he thrived down the right-hand side at Sporting?
