Tottenham Hotspur have been trying to sell star center back Cristian Romero, and after the excellent World Cup he had for Argentina, Spurs fans were hopeful that they would be able to sell the captain for a major fee, presumably to one of the La Liga giants.
Although Atletico Madrid and Barcelona were strongly linked to Romero again this summer, as it turns out, the main team negotiating with Tottenham has been Serie A champions Inter Milan. But Tottenham fans have been disappointed to find out that especially with Atleti and Barca not really even negotiating with Spurs for Romero, the figures thrown around by Inter for Romero are only about 40 million euros.
Inter are a cheap club and do not want to spend the player's value, and because Tottenham seem to be asking for only reasonable fees and not discounts, the Nerazzurri quietly started to turn their attention to Manchester City free agent center back John Stones.
Tottenham's Cristian Romero woes worsen
Now, Fabrizio Romano has dropped the bomba, reporting that Inter Milan have reached an agreement to sign Stones. There is an approval on contract terms between the Italian giants and the England national team player, with a four million euro salary net per season and a contract through the 2027/28 Serie A campaign. Stones's medical will arrive shortly.
So that does mean Inter will save quite a bit of money, because, at the very least, they save about 40 million euros in the transfer fee and at least only pay half the wages to Stones that they would have for Tottenham Hotspur.
Meanwhile, for Tottenham, Stones going to Inter is very frustrating news for them. While some will say that this may not fully exclude Inter from signing Romero, the reality is that Stones in a back three is a perfectly fine option for Inter, especially since the standard of play in Serie A is awful these days; Inter won the league by a blowout last season.
Inter have no real reason to go for Romero anymore, and that means Tottenham are down one less suitor. If anything, that implies Romero will go for even cheaper than Tottenham fans expected, and that is a huge blow for them. There is a world in which Tottenham get less money out of Romero than they did Luka Vuskovic or what they paid for Jan Paul van Hecke, and that is deeply disappointing but make speak to how clubs view his attitude, too.
Add us as a preferred source on Google