Tottenham Hotspur terminated the contract of defender Matt Doherty on deadline day and the 31-year-old ended up joining Atletico Madrid on a free transfer.
According to a report from the Athletic, the defender was happy to stay at Tottenham and fight for his place with Pedro Porro and Emerson Royal. He was confident that he would get playing opportunities at the London club.
However, Tottenham decided to part ways eventually.
Apparently, the £65K-a-week defender was dropped without explanation against Manchester City earlier this season, despite producing an impressive performance in the north London Derby against Arsenal.
The report from Athletic claims that Doherty believed that he had produced one of his best performances of the season in the defeat to Arsenal but he was left out of the team against Manchester City without any explanation.
Emerson Royal went on to start the game against Manchester City and Tottenham were comprehensively outplayed.
The right-back area has been a major concern for Antonio Conte this season and the Italian has not been able to trust the likes of Doherty and Royal throughout the season. It will be interesting to see if January signing Pedro Porro can earn the trust of his manager and hold down a starting spot now.
The 23-year-old has been hugely impressive this season and he produced an important performance against Tottenham in the Champions League earlier this season. The defender has 3 goals and 11 assists to his name across all competitions and it will be interesting to see if he can help Spurs improve during the second half of the campaign.
