Tottenham's Pedro Porro: ‘We won. Let them talk and do all the memes they want now'

The Guardian

2 days ago

Pedro Porro had to take a pee. 'I wouldn't wish it on anyone,' the Tottenham Hotspur defender says and then he laughs, which he does a lot. It was late in Bilbao and in the home dressing room at San Mamés, up the tunnel and to the right, players divided by metal bars, the party had begun. But he had been selected for the drugs test and was stuck in a much smaller and much, much quieter room, drinking as much possible as quickly as possible until he could go. And that, he says, took ages. 'It was hard for me. You've just won something huge, you have all your family there, all your teammates, all the people and … '
And the party would have to wait. He Porro missed those moments but at last they did all come together, the Europa League champions in their kit – 'clean,' Porro adds swiftly – and winners' medals round their necks, families joining them dancing downstairs at the Carlton Hotel, a mile east of the stadium where they won the tournament. Around 3am, someone turned the main lights on, so someone else turned them off again; some didn't stop until they reached Tottenham High Road the next day, although he wasn't one of them. 'We wanted to carry on a bit, that's normal,' Porro says, 'although I had to go because my little daughter was tired. It had been a long, hard year and it was lovely to celebrate together.'
A long hard year? How about 17 of them? Or more. Even sitting here in the sunshine at Spain's Las Rozas training camp, focus now turned instead to the Nations League semi-final against France on Thursday evening, Porro admits they still haven't quite assimilated what they have done, despite the congratulations with which he has been met upon arrival – along with Fabián Ruiz and Marc Cucurella, he is one of only three members of the squad to have won a European title this season – and despite seeing it for himself. He had imagined the scenes, he says, but not quite like what he witnessed in N17.
'It's more than 40 years since a European trophy. People's reaction was lovely. When you get on the bus and go round London, you get a feel for how important it is. You change families' lives. They had suffered. We had suffered too inside, day by day.' It's not just that Spurs' season had been mostly awful, or that they hadn't won for almost two decades; it was that they had become a kind of running joke. 'A meme', in Porro's words. 'That's just, like, people's opinion. Of course that reaches you, but we don't care … actually, in fact, I would say thanks to them because it can be extra motivation, petrol to fuel you. And we won. Let them talk and do all the memes they want now.'
There may be no meme, no trope, quite like the old favourite. Lads, it's Tottenham. Porro laughs; oh he heard that one, all right. And? 'And it was used. The coach said: yes, we're Tottenham. We have to believe we're a big team. Now people have to respect Tottenham a bit more because they're Europa League champions. The season had been really bad in the Premier League and winning a European title brought such happiness. The fans had suffered, we had suffered too. But it's not how it starts, it's how it ends.' So much for Spursy.
There is always vindication in victory. For Porro, for the club, and of course for the coach. Yet that is no guarantee that Ange Postecoglou will continue, his future uncertain, the axe still hovering over his head however much of hero he became in Bilbao, even if those familiar old lines were replaced by the one about always winning in his second season, a vow now fulfilled. If at first this is something that the full-back would rather not be drawn into, his position is clear.
'I'm not thinking about club football right now because I am here with Spain and we have two important games this week,' he says, 'but him continuing would be good for the dressing room. He has built a very good group and coaches also need time. In the league things didn't go well but he makes you win a trophy. That's important too. The people in the dressing room with weight have to understand that. But as I say I'm thinking about the national team now; there will be time for that.'
Hang on, do you mean there are some players who don't understand that? 'No, it's simply just that ... we're inside and we know more or less how things are, no? I'm not going to lie, it did impact me to see [people say] they were going to sack him to be honest. I'm very close to him. He's been an important coach for me and it's thanks to him that I have brought out my [best] football these two years. It's complicated because in football in general things don't always depend on you but, honestly, in the team – I think, in my opinion – we're happy with him.'
Yet a trophy is one thing; the daily reality another, and the doubt lingers over whether silverware should eclipse all else. On some simple level, it's almost baffling. How do you explain the difference between domestic form and European success? How can the worst season in decades end up being the best, a team that lost 22 times in the Premier League lifting a trophy at last? 'It's football,' Porro says, smiling. And supporters deserved something good at the end of all the bad, the suffering, he suggests, almost as if fate repaid them. But there is something else: priority, environment, a shift.
'The coach wanted to compete in both competitions because he's a winner,' Porro says. '[But] when you have a clear idea that you can do something big, you focus more on one thing than another. We knew that through the Premier League it was impossible to reach Europe and that the only option, the only objective, was to win the Europa League. In the Europa League, different demands are made of you. You have focus on pressing better, defending better. You saw it: three clean sheets in the last three games. Don't let in goals, and we have dynamite up front. We said if we kept a clean sheet we had a good chance.'
That doesn't sound like Angeball, Postecoglou altering his approach; this was a success that was countercultural, the principles the coach spoke about laid aside, pragmatism allowed in, especially from January. 'Well,' Porro says. 'Look, it's like the final. I say to everyone: people can tell the story of that game any way they like; what matters in the end is that you win it. People say, we didn't have a shot on goal … what does it matter? Football is like that. Sometimes you have 50 shots on goal and you don't score any, and others one is enough.' He laughs. 'That's called effectiveness.'
It brought a Champions League place, even if Arsène Wenger, the former Arsenal manager whose rivalry with Manchester United was fierce, suggested before the final that it should not have done. Both teams had been too bad to be handed such rich reward, the 15th or 17th best teams in England permitted to play alongside the continent's elite. 'That rule has been there for years, it's not news,' Porro says, shrugging. 'We have to concentrate on ourselves, not what old coaches say … even what old coaches of our own say.'
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That'll be Tim Sherwood, then? When Porro made his debut, a 4-1 defeat at Leicester in February 2023, the former Spurs coach described him as 'so bad it's unbelievable'. A smile flashes across the Spaniard's face, that fuel there again. 'You can ask him from me what he thinks now,' Porro says, laughing. 'People can think what they want. I've got no problem with him or anyone. It's normal. It's his opinion. Lots of people have an opinion: if you're good, if you're bad.
'In truth, it does affect you, of course. It's normal. You're new, you have only been in the team a week, it was my first game. But it's football. And football is capricious. A year later I went back to Leicester and scored the first goal of the season. Football is like that. That toughens you. And as I have said before: thanks very much for having a go at me because that makes me strong too. It's true that at first it hurts because you think: 'Bloody hell, let me breathe.' But that's normal: it's the pressure that comes with football. They've paid £50m for you. And I have always had that mentality to change people's opinions.'
To change himself too. Porro eloquently discusses the shifts between full-back and wing-back, for example: when to move, when to wait, when to step out, when to hold. There is, though, a twinkle of mischief when he admits that it's still the 'offensive weapons' that set him apart, even if that spirit may also be what balances him on knife-edge. There's the warrior in him too. Above all, he describes it as a 'mental change'. Opportunity counts and can't always be controlled. 'You have to be hard, self-critical. If someone says something like that, it's because you have to change. You grow. It's a process.'
It has been played out here too, with the selección. Two years passed between Porro's first Spain game and his second. Nineteenth months passed between his second and third. In the meantime, he missed Euro 2024; his absence was possibly the one big surprise in the squad. Now though, still only 25, he has played five of their last six. He is likely to start against France in the Nations League semi-final.
'Look, I'm not going to lie: it hurt [to miss the Euros] because it came off the back of a very good year,' Porro says. 'But, well, football is like that. I had two legends in front of me – Dani Carvajal and Jesús Navas – so it's understandable. They both have their trajectories. It's like what happened with Rodri and Sergio Busquets: until your moment comes [you have to wait]. There's no need to even talk to Luis [de la Fuente, the Spain coach]: I know that if that's what he decided that was what he thought was best for the team. We have known each other for a long time and he doesn't have to explain anything to me. He had his two players and that's that. What matters is that we won the Euros.
'I wouldn't say I feel like a fixture now but I do feel more confident every day. Continuity and confidence is very important, you let go. If you play a game every year it's not the same: you come with the pressure to prove yourself. But Luis has always trusted me. And now we have a semi-final against a very competitive team. Their wingers are very fast, but then almost all the wingers in the Premier League are fast and strong. France have great players but so do we. We have our weapons too. Then there's the final. I played more minutes than anyone this year which is important to me. It's been a big season and hopefully we can put the icing on the cake on Sunday. It's a Nations League, a trophy. And whenever you play for a trophy, it matters.'