It’s been a while since we’ve gotten an reliable update about Cuti Romero. I’m pretty sure we’re still not getting one now, but what the hell, let’s talk about it anyway. According to Spanish daily Sport, Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan are still in negotiations over a Romero transfer (or at least departure), but Cuti is dragging his feet, holding out for a move to Spain and Barcelona.
Before you ask, no, Tottenham and Inter have not come to any sort of club to club agreement over a transfer. Spurs reportedly want a fee of at least €50m (£42m) to let Cuti leave, while Inter are broke bois who are haggling over a fee. Inter are also apparently working on a free agent deal to sign Manchester City’s John Stones, which probably tells you something about their finances.
Sport says Inter proposed a four year deal for a fee that was well below Tottenham’s valuation and with wages that are lower than what Romero is making now. There’s also a possibility that the clubs come to an accord where Cuti would head to Milan on a season long loan with a purchase obligation next summer, but the main thrust of the article is that Cuti doesn’t really want to go to Inter at all, and is holding out for a move to Barcelona who has apparently shown some interest in bringing him in, though he’s a secondary option if their first choices of Ronald Araujo or Jules Kounde fall through. The acquisition of Stones, according to Sport, means that Inter will now not sanction a deal for Romero unless they can offload Benjamin Pavard.
This does feel like one of those situations where the insane fees commanded by Premier League clubs for their players is at odds with the relatively poverty-stricken status of the rest of the continent. £42m does not seem like a fair price for a player of Romero’s ability, but I can’t see anyone other than Bayern Munich, Barca, or Real Madrid stumping up £65m or more for him either. Inter has basically done price discovery for a Romero sale on the continent, and it now feels like we’re waiting around for Barca to make up their mind about making a bid.
I dunno. The rumors have been all over the place on this transfer with the general consensus being that Romero is leaving this summer no matter what — it’s whether Spurs can get a decent price for him now or if they’ll need to kick the can down the road with a loan-to-buy option. Doesn’t feel particularly great, especially if Spurs are hoping for the funds from Cuti’s sale to finance an attacking purchase (which also feels kinda spurious).
Remember, this is a Sport rumor and they’re basically the Daily Star of Spanish football reporting, but we also haven’t gotten anything about Romero apart from Fab Romano retweeting his post from two months ago about DEFINITELY leaving Spurs this summer and a bunch of unreliable ITK. Sport… isn’t much better, but it’s at least a newspaper that is one step above Fichajes.
My guess is that there’s some nuggets of truth in here, and one of them is that it’s pretty unlikely that Spurs and Inter come to an agreement over Romero. That opens the door for a late move, either on loan or permanently, to another continental club. But I don’t think it’ll happen until the clock starts to wind down on the window.