A strange twist in the Tottenham transfer saga: the club claims to be using ‘technicality’ to ask for more money.

Tottenham’s pursuit of defender Pedro Porro has been complicated by Sporting Club de Portugal’s demand for more than his €45 million release clause.

According to AS and TuttoMercatoWeb, the Portuguese side’s desire to get more from Spurs is slowing things down.

TMW is reporting that much to Tottenham’s’surprise,’ new ‘complications’ in the potential Porro deal have arisen because his current release clause is only valid for the summer.

As a result, Sporting has asked for a ‘higher amount’ to let him go, resulting in an ‘unexpected breaking’ in the negotiations at this time.

AS back this up, stating that the talks between the two clubs are ‘going through intense and delicate hours’.

Tottenham has decided to make a final push for the right-back, who has been a target for Antonio Conte since the summer.

Spurs have ‘gone to the limit’ in negotiations with the Portuguese club, who have insisted from the start that they will not sell for less than the player’s €45 million release clause.

Tottenham had tried to negotiate around that but ultimately caved and offered the €45m needed to activate the player’s release clause and bring him to England.

However, Sporting has picked up on a ‘technicality’ in the contract, arguing that Tottenham cannot take advantage of that clause as it doesn’t activate until the summer.

Therefore, they are now ‘demanding more’ from their man.

That’s led to further negotiations between the two clubs, with Sporting asking for more than €45m to make a deal happen. Spurs are ‘determined’ to get the player and now trying to work out the situation.

Now, to be clear this is not being reported anywhere in Portugal, which is strange given Porro’s potential move is the biggest story in the country at this moment in time.

Every facet of the negotiations has been detailed but this part, so far, has not been picked up on. It is also strange for a release clause to be set for just the summer, with this almost unheard of in Portugal.

With both of those things in mind, we’ll take this news with a pinch of salt but there’s no smoke without fire and with both AS and TMW reporting it, it may be something to keep an eye on.