Tottenham have spent £237m this summer, including a club record £100m to sign Sandro Tonali from Newcastle United, now one star looks to be on his way out of the club
Cristian Romero is closing in on a move to Atletico Madrid from Tottenham Hotspur. Romero signed a four-year deal only last summer when he was made captain.
However, he now appears to be heading to Spain after giving the green light to a move to the Riyadh Air Metropolitano Stadium, despite interest from other clubs around Europe. It is being reported that a deal is close, but both clubs are still understood to be a few million apart on the fixed aspect of the fee while the bonus structure of the deal still needs to be decided.
The Mail is reporting that Atletico with the pull of coach Diego Simeone are understood to be Romero's preference over the other clubs that have been involved. They named Inter Milan, Arsenal and Barcelona as the other clubs who were interested.
Romero has come close to leaving Spurs before, notably after Ange Postecoglou departed. And Roberto De Zerbi told football.london on the club's pre-season tour that he will respect Romero and Guglielmo Vicario's wishes to leave north London this summer.
"At the beginning of my time, in April, I had, I don't know, one million individual meetings!" he said. "And [the players] told me what was their idea. I said: 'Yes, help me to stay up, and then I help you to leave'. If you don't help me to stay up, you stay underwater with me!
"But Romero with me was unbelievable. Top. In his behaviour, his respect, he suffered when he did not play the last game. It is not true that he wanted to leave for Argentina to prepare for their World Cup.
"It's not true. After the semi-final [against England] we text a message, but I never called him to convince him to stay. I respected what he told me. Like for Vicario, like for every player."
De Zerbi added: "Romero as a player is one of the best centre-backs in the world, but at the end I said I want to respect the will of the players."
While former Spurs forward Teddy Sheringham believes new signing Jan Paul van Hecke is a safer option for his former club than Romero.
Spurs completed the £52m signing of defender Van Hecke from Brighton & Hove Albion in June.
The Dutchman, who had a year left on his contract with the Seagulls, signed what Spurs called a 'long-term' deal after they initially saw two bids rejected for the defender.
De Zerbi worked with Van Hecke during two seasons at the American Express Stadium and earmarked the Netherlands international as a key component of rebuilding at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
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And Sheringham, speaking via ComeOn, believes: “Is Jan Paul van Hecke a safer option for Tottenham Hotspur at the back? Yes, because that’s where a lot of the criticism has come from, the way Tottenham leaked goals last season, and there has to be reasons for it.
“Cristian Romero has gone missing. Micky van de Ven has had his moments. Robert De Zerbi needs to do what George Graham did and start from scratch and just make sure his team aren’t conceding soft goals, and if Van Hecke can come in and stabilise that defence a bit, then I think he’ll be a fantastic signing.
“Listen, I wouldn't want to play against Cristian Romero. He might be a loose cannon, but he’s a really good player. He’s a World Cup winner, and you don’t win a World Cup being an average player.
“You’ve got to be careful what you’re doing if you’re Tottenham just getting rid of him because he’s had a bad spell. He could go somewhere else, like Barcelona or Real Madrid, and hit it off.
“I played with Roy Keane, and he got plenty of red cards in his time, and you’ve got to have your leaders and your naughty players sometimes to stamp things out, otherwise people walk all over you, but it’s got to be done in the right way.
“I hope Roberto De Zerbi can put an arm round Romero, but there’s always so much speculation about his future, isn’t there? So maybe the writing is on the wall.”