Tottenham Trigger Sergio Aguero Release Clause, Balk At £10m Tax Bill

Chris Wright

31st, January 2011

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By Chris Wright

Like the dirty flirts they are, Tottenham have reportedly stumped up the cash to trigger Sergio Aguero’s ‘buy-out clause’, only to pull out of the deal just as the juice was beginning to flow.

According to Sky Sports News, Spurs submitted a club-record £38.5 million (€45 million) bid for Aguero a couple of hours before ‘close of play’ last night – thus activating the aforementioned clause in the Atletico Madrid striker’s contract – only to balk at the additional tax payments that the prospective deal would entail.

It seems that an extra £10-13 million’s worth of tax would be due on top of the transfer fee, and neither of the three parties involved ( Spurs, Atletico or Aguero himself) were willing to settle the bill with what- or whomever Spain’s equivalent of the HMRC is.

In addendum, SSN also reckon that Spurs may have lodged bids for several other La Liga-based forwards, with Luis Fabiano, Alvaro Negredo, Diego Forlan and Fernando Llorente all rumoured to have been contacted by chairman Daniel Levy over the weekend.