Tottenham’s Pedro Porro: ‘Tim Sherwood won’t be the first to have had to shut his mouth’

S o this is awkward. It’s a beautiful day at Las Rozas, 25km north-west of Madrid, and Pedro Porro is sitting in the sunshine, happy to be back in the Spain squad among old friends, when that rant is raised. “Well, that’s his thing,” the Tottenham wing-back starts saying, not sure what to say about the moment his own manager tore into the team he has just joined, when he says: “The first thing is, what you’re talking about: I hadn’t heard it until now.” Wait, really? You mean you don’t know what Antonio Conte said? “Yes.”

Oh. And so the first time Porro hears about Conte’s attack on Spurs is here, reported back to him second-hand and 1,000km away. He listens to how after Saturday’s 3-3 draw with Southampton, a game in which Porro scored and one he has just brought up as a sign that things are getting better, his coach claimed they couldn’t be much worse. He hears how Conte criticised the club’s culture, accusing his players of being 11 individuals not a team. And he is told that the manager declared failure “the story of Tottenham”. Talk about ruining the moment.

When the recap comes to an end – “in short, it was quite something” – Porro pauses, goes “pffff” and then grins, swiftly firing back: “Well, that’s his opinion.” There is a laugh – not from him – and then, still smiling, he says: “I’m not getting involved there. That’s not one for me.”

Which seems fair enough. Imagine it: you’re young, you’re a new arrival, you don’t speak the language, and you’re not even sure where you are yet – so much so it takes a while to remember the area you’ve just moved to. During your debut one of the club’s former coaches calls you “so bad it’s unbelievable” and now someone tells you the current coach, the guy who brought you in,