Tottenham have agreed to sell their captain and are in advanced talks to sell the full-back who started England's World Cup semi-final. Both are defenders, and both are leaving a team that finished 17th in the Premier League in each of the last two seasons, conceding 65 goals in the first and 57 in the second. That is 122 goals in two years of finishing one place above the relegation places.
The captain
Cristian Romero, 28, is going to Atletico Madrid in a package worth up to 40m euros, a fixed 35m plus 5m in variables, with Tottenham retaining a 15% sell-on clause. He leaves after five seasons, 156 appearances and 13 goals, having arrived on loan from Atalanta in 2021 and signed permanently for £42.5m. Arsenal were interested in recent days. Tottenham did not want to sell their captain to the club across north London.
He was given the green light to go by the club and by Roberto De Zerbi after a season in which he served four separate suspensions. He had been made captain in 2025 after Son Heung-min left, and the armband did not survive the closing weeks of last season intact. He flew to Argentina before the final-day game against Everton that decided whether Spurs stayed up, to receive treatment on a knee injury and with his boyhood club Belgrano playing River Plate, and returned to London in time to watch the 1-0 win from the stands.