Pretty much from the moment Nuno Espirito Santo was appointed as Tottenham manager, Cristian Romero has been touted as a defensive target for the London club.
It helps that Fabio Paratici knows the player well, as he was the one who bought him at Juventus before sending him off to Atalanta on loan, who have an option to buy him at €16m.
They are set to do that a year early, meaning they are the ones to negotiate with if you want to buy the Argentine.
That’s what Tottenham appear to be doing, already sat at the table with the Serie A side to finalise the transfer of Pierluigi Gollini to Spurs.
Gazzetta dello Sport simply state the London side are ‘in the lead’ in the race to sign him, but it’s Corriere della Sera’s Bergamo edition who have the most information on the matter.
They claim Tottenham are ‘aiming to open negotiations with Atalanta for Cristian Romero’, as the Italians ‘ask for €60m’ while the Premier League club ‘have another type of operation in mind’.
Paratici has put forward the idea of €30m + Davinson Sánchez as a counterpart, but the doubts for Atalanta are ‘whether the Colombian can be worth €30m to get to the €60m required, in addition to cash’.
There’s also the issue that Gian Piero Gasperini has a different target in mind to replace Romero should he leave, and that’s Merih Demiral, currently at Juventus.
So, Spurs have made their first move, it seems, and we now wait and see what comes of all this once Gollini has officially made the swap.
