RUMOR: Real Madrid interested in Cristian Romero

Just when you thought it was safe to jump back into the world of transfer rumors.

Tottenham Hotspur are a big club with some world class players. They are also just outside that elite echelon of teams, of which there are maybe a half dozen, both on the pitch and in terms of money. That means Tottenham players are great rumor fodder for news outlets. Harry Kane plays well? Link him to Manchester City! Eric Dier is in form? Hello, Manchester United. Hey, Dele Alli is the next big thing? Real Madrid are interested!

It’s therefore often a never-ending and frustrating saga with football media, with Spurs’ top players continually linked away. A lot of the time it’s rubbish to fill column inches (not what I’m doing at all here, nope) but sometimes there’s merit to the rumors. This latest one probably falls somewhere in between.

Esteban Edul, on panel show ESPN F12 out of Argentina, announced that Real Madrid are interested in Cristian Romero, and have been testing the waters with the Tottenham front office as to what it would take to bring the Argentine to the Spanish capital. If Edul’s name sounds familiar, that’s because it is: his brother, Gaston Edul, routinely reports on Argentinian football matters with a pretty good track record. No one leaks Argentina football news like Gaston.

You would think then that there’s some merit to these reports, and it’s possible there is, but at the same time it’s odd that Esteban is the one reporting this (via ESPN) as opposed to Gaston - though that didn’t stop plenty of Tottenham Twitter aggregators from attributing the reports to Gaston. To add to the murkiness, ESPN Argentina have been pushing links between Real Madrid and Argentina national team players hard, reporting interest in Romero, Julian Alvarez, AND Alexis Mac Allister in recent days. All of those can’t be true, right?

Now, it’s quite likely Real are interested; Romero is one of the best center backs going around right now, but there’s also three years left on his contract, he’s a key part of Ange Postecoglou’s squad, and he’s been quoted recently saying that he’s happy where he’s at and is a huge fan of Ange. That doesn’t mean a big bid from a club like Real Madrid wouldn’t turn his head. Spurs’ vice-captain did recently say in an interview that he “analyzes” offers that come in for him, which, sure, that makes sense. He’d be silly not to, and if nothing else, it gives him ammunition when it comes to contract negotiations.

Alasdair Gold, for what it’s worth, speaking on the Last Word on Spurs YouTube channel, rubbished the links somewhat. Though he didn’t directly address the sourcing of the rumors, he mentioned some of the points above: contract length, importance to Postecoglou, etc, and said that Romero seems happy enough as long as the club is heading in the right direction. And he’s right! Real Madrid would have to pay an astronomical fee for Spurs to even consider the mere possibility of letting Romero go, a fee which you’d have to think they’d balk at given their recent outlay on Kylian Mbappe.

You do wonder if this is one to keep an eye on though; maybe not for this season, but in the years coming. Romero is an elite player and World Cup winner, entering the prime of his career. It’s potentially only a matter of time before the big guns come calling.

Until then, though, I’m going to chalk this one off as tabloid noise (albeit not quite Bat Country territory) and enjoy him doing things like this: