Late into deadline day with Tottenham fans eagerly awaiting confirmation of Pedro Porro's arrival, a very surprising statement was released regarding Matt Doherty. An exit in January was expected for the former Wolves man as football.london reported on Tuesday morning that Doherty was closing in on a loan move to Atletico, with no option or obligation to buy, however that turned out to not be the case.
In that post regarding Doherty's move it was clarified that a mutual contract termination had been agreed and therefore the right wing-back would no longer be considered a Spurs player. The news caught most off guard but the reason behind why a loan move was not secured soon became clear.
A FIFA ruling states that clubs are only permitted to send out a maximum of eight players on loan per season to different countries - a quota that Spurs have already filled. Loan moves in Europe for Tanguy Ndombele, Giovanni Lo Celso, Sergio Reguilon, Harry Winks, Joe Rodon, Destiny Udogie, Bryan Gill and Djed Spence meant that a permanent exit was the only solution if Doherty wanted to leave.
