{"id":21750,"date":"2026-07-27T01:50:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T01:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=21750"},"modified":"2026-07-27T01:50:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T01:50:31","slug":"arsenal-and-chelsea-join-race-for-tottenham-defender-cristian-romero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=21750","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal and Chelsea join race for Tottenham defender Cristian Romero"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>The 28-year-old is expected to leave this summer having fallen out of favour with some sections of the Tottenham support towards the end of last season. His decision to fly back to Argentina for treatment on a knee injury was poorly received, particularly given fears he would miss the club&#8217;s crucial final-day Premier League match against Everton in a fight against relegation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>Romero did return in time to feature as Spurs secured their survival, but his long-term future has looked uncertain since the club brought in Jan Paul van Hecke and Marcos Senesi as defensive reinforcements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>Inter Milan emerged as early contenders for his signature, with <\/span><span><em>Corriere dello Sport<\/em><\/span><span>  reporting that Cristian Chivu&#8217;s side have identified the former Atalanta defender as their top defensive target and explored a loan deal with an obligation to buy, similar to the structure previously used to sign Manuel Akanji from Manchester City. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>But Italian outlets now say Inter may have to see off competition from both Arsenal and Chelsea to complete a deal, with Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta seeking centre-back reinforcements after William Saliba was ruled out for a significant chunk of the season following back surgery.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>Chelsea, meanwhile, are poised to confirm the signing of Crystal Palace defender Maxence Lacroix but are believed to be pursuing an additional centre-half regardless, with free agent John Stones also linked to both London clubs. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>Mundo Deportivo report that Tottenham are seeking around \u00a325.9 million for Romero, having previously valued him at closer to \u00a360.3 million, a discount that could make a move to one of their two biggest rivals a genuine possibility this summer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>Romero signed a new contract at Tottenham running until 2029 only last year and was handed the captaincy following Son Heung-min&#8217;s departure, making any exit a notable departure from the club&#8217;s recent planning. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm md:text-(17px) leading-relaxed text-gray-700 mb-4 md:mb-5\"><span>Even so, the emergence of Arsenal as a suitor would represent an especially awkward twist given the rivalry between the two north London clubs, while Chelsea&#8217;s interest adds a further complication as Tottenham weigh up their options in defence following the arrivals of Van Hecke and Senesi.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 28-year-old is expected to leave this summer having fallen out of favour with some&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}