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…
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.
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