Tottenham have completed the £47million signing of Cristian Romero from Atalanta on a six-year deal.
The Serie A defender of the year from last season, becomes Nuno Espirito Santo’s third - and most high-profile - signing of his Spurs reign.
Romero follows Pierluigi Gollini and Bryan Gil to North London with just a week until their Premier League campaign kicks off.
The 23-year-old has become one of the most sought after young defenders plying their trade in Europe, thanks to a string of impressive performances for Atalanta.
It is understood that Barcelona were interested in the Argentinian, but it is Spurs who have won the race for the centre-back.
At £47m, Romero becomes the club’s second most expensive signing in their history, below only the £60m they paid Lyon for Tanguy Ndombele two years ago.
The transfer also marks the first serious investment into the playing squad since the stadium relocation in April 2019.
It’s also an outlay which runs against what chairman Daniel Levy had told supporters to expect from this window.
Due to the new stadium and the coronavirus pandemic, Levy warned that it would be difficult to make huge moves in the window.
“We have to be realistic where we are,” Levy said in June of this year. “We are still in a pandemic, the consequences for this club have been more severe than any other club in the Premier League, over £200m of lost revenue. Revenue we cannot recover.
“We have the most expensive stadium in Europe, the highest level of debt of any club in Europe,” he added.
“Fortunately for us it is long term and we are in a good financial position in that sense. We have not been getting the revenues we had hoped for from our stadium and as a consequence we have to be careful over the coming years and be prudent.
“Our duty is to protect the club even though we want to win. We will spend but we are a self-sustaining club, we have to be sensible.
“Sometimes the fans think we should be spending but there have been circumstances when the coach hasn’t wanted to spend on a player. We will make investments in the squad.”
And while Romero is undoubtedly a player rich with talent and potential, the huge fee signifies that Levy is still committed to improving the on-field product at the club.
Harry Kane is another that will likely be delighted by Levy’s slight U-turn in the window.
The England captain is set to return to pre-season training over the weekend after moving to quash claims that he skipped sessions earlier in the week.
Kane has consistently made it clear that he wants to be playing for a team competing for trophies and Levy’s willingness to splash the cash on Romero, may signify that could still happen at Spurs.
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