Tottenham pulled off a real coup signing Sergio Reguilon from Real Madrid, even if I questioned why we did it at the time. The 23-year-old was named best La Liga left-back last season, resulting him being linked with Manchester United and Chelsea among others.
Daniel Levy managed to sign one of the best defenders in Europe on a five-year deal for a little bit more (£27m) than Ryan Sessegnon (£24.6m) and El Confidencial have explained why Real let him go. It may not have been entirely about their trust in Ferland Mendy…
Fallout with the Zidanes
El Confidencial say things got off to a bad start for Reguilon when he first played under Zinedine Zidane (for Real Madrid’s B Team) in 2015. He featured in one pre-season game and was immediately loaned out to UD Logroñés (August 5, 2015 – February 1, 2016).
Reguilon’s attempts to get in Real’s first-team the following season were again thwarted by Zidane (now the first-team manager), who sent him back to Logroñés (August 23, 2016 – June 30, 2017). The Spanish international was finally promoted to the senior squad a year later and made 22 appearances in all competitions, but only two of them came under Zizou.
He was loaned out to Sevilla (July 5, 2019 – August 22, 2020) the following season, so it was clear he didn’t have his manager’s trust. El Confidencial also say a fallout with Luca Zidane, son of Zinedine, may have contributed to his exit.
Real’s loss is our gain
It’s worth noting that Real did attach a buyback clause of €40m (£36.1m) to Reguilon’s contract, so they have the option to bring him back to the Santiago Bernabeu in the future. For now, their loss is our gain, however.
The 23-year-old has made seven appearances in all competitions for Spurs, notching three assists. In his three Premier League outings, Reguilon has created six chances, made 2/4 successful dribbles, whipped in seven crosses with 28.5% finding a teammate, taken three shots with 33% hitting the target, blocked six passes, made three clearances, only given away a foul every 135 minutes and averaged a tackle (5) or interception (2) every 38 minutes.
Reguilon has started in three of our last four league games, so here’s hoping he can continue to impress.
In other news, a reliable transfer expert says Barcelona are interested in Tanguy Ndombele