Apparent Mauricio Pochettino scouting mission for Riqui Puig surely irrelevant because of clauses

Add as preferred source on Google

Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino cannot even watch a Barcelona B game in Spain’s third-tier without getting papped. The Argentine was spotted in his home-away-from-home, where he spent several years at Espanyol as player and coach, watching the B team of Barca take on Cornella.

It immediately led to claims he was scouting one of the Barce talents. One such player was Riqui Puig. Sky Sports suggested the 19-year-old may have been the object of Pochettino’s desire.

When the youngster’s contract at Barca was coming to an end in the summer Spurs were heavily linked with his signature. As reported by Catalan paper Sport, Pochettino is ‘in love’ with Puig’s style of play.

But there are two major reasons why Tottenham will struggle to do any deal now.

First of all, he did eventually sign a new deal at Barcelona in the summer. Puig is committed to the Catalan giants until 2021 at least. Two optional renewals make that more like 2023 if Barcelona want to keep him.

That deal also contains a €100 million (£89 million) release clause, according to Marca. That is a fee Tottenham would not even consider paying.

The fact is, even if Barcelona did decide to sell him, Tottenham would also be stung by the club’s buy-back policy.

Barcelona often insists on having the first refusal to re-sign a player when moving them on to other teams. Gerard Deulofeu had such a clause. As did Adama Traore, Alen Halilovic and Jonathan dos Santos.

It is hard to see Tottenham doing what Everton, Aston Villa, Hamburg and Villarreal did respectively. If they sign Puig, the spectre of Barcelona being able to sign him back at a set cost will not appeal to Daniel Levy.

Puig is a great talent. But if Tottenham are keen, it seems their best chance of signing him passed in the summer.