“TEAMtalk”<\/a>.<\/p>\nRead also<\/p>\n
Flick surprises Barcelona duo with decision to leave them out<\/p>\n
Real Madrid star heading for the exit: in talks with 8 English clubs<\/p>\n
Talks between Romero and Atl\u00e9tico had gone smoothly. The two parties reached agreement over personal terms, and the clubs edged closer to a fee.<\/p>\n
Atl\u00e9tico stepped things up over the past 48 hours, having finalised the exits of full-backs Nahuel Molina to Roma and Matteo Ruggeri to Aston Villa, deals that handed the Spanish club some financial breathing room.<\/p>\n
Los Rojiblancos want this one done, yet Romero’s representatives and intermediaries have kept talking to other interested clubs. Among them sit Spurs’ fiercest rivals, Arsenal.<\/p>\n
The Gunners have form for signing Tottenham players, none more infamous than Sol Campbell’s switch across north London in 2001.<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta wants to reinforce his defence after William Saliba picked up a back problem that could keep him out until the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa remains one of the options on Arsenal’s list, but the club has also sounded out Romero, making contact with his representatives.<\/p>\n
Outright refusal<\/p>\n
Tottenham, though, are digging in. Sources inside the club told “TEAMtalk” the board has “no intention” of even entertaining a deal with Arsenal.<\/p>\n
Three years remain on Romero’s contract, so Spurs hold all the cards on his future, and they have no desire to strengthen one of their biggest domestic rivals.<\/p>\n
Arsenal’s interest has not turned into direct talks with Tottenham, and the intermediaries have told the club’s board plainly that a deal on those terms simply cannot happen.<\/p>\n
Barcelona enter the race<\/p>\n
Now Barcelona have surfaced as a serious contender, especially after moving close to loaning Uruguayan defender Ronald Ara\u00fajo to Liverpool.<\/p>\n
The Catalans are also weighing up several departures, among them Ferran Torres, Marc Casad\u00f3, Tom\u00e1s Marqu\u00e9s and Roony Bardghji, which could clear both squad space and budget for a move on Romero.<\/p>\n
Atl\u00e9tico know all about the threat from Barcelona. They remain confident of getting it done, driven by Diego Simeone’s determination to land the Argentine defender.<\/p>\n
The Madrid club wants to fast-track talks with Tottenham in the coming days, wary of Barcelona or anyone else swooping in to derail their plans.<\/p>\n
For now, Atl\u00e9tico Madrid lead the race. But the arrival of the Blaugrana, and Arsenal’s audacious attempt to sign the Tottenham captain, has thrown Romero’s future wide open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atl\u00e9tico Madrid looked to be closing in on a deal with Tottenham Hotspur for club captain Cristian Romero…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[366,179,92,26803,88,24822,22983,272,17415,3196],"class_list":["post-68188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-arsenal","tag-atletico-madrid","tag-barcelona","tag-basel","tag-borussia-dortmund","tag-c-romero","tag-hoffenheim","tag-manchester-city","tag-marseille","tag-tottenham-hotspur"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}