Arsenal have been mentioned in connection with a surprise move for Tottenham Hotspur captain Cristian Romero, but the story may already be fading. Atl\u00e9tico Madrid are reportedly in talks over the Argentina defender, while Spurs would not consider selling him to their local rivals in any case.<\/p>\n
Romero\u2019s recent spell has not been straightforward. He was sent off twice last season, missed games through suspension, dealt with injuries and was briefly set on skipping the final match of the campaign to watch boyhood club Belgrano take on River Plate in Argentina. He eventually returned to England for that game, which was also attended by other unavailable players.<\/p>\n
The reaction around him has been sharp at times. Glenn Hoddle said: \u201cI\u2019d drive him to the airport and say don\u2019t bother coming back.\u201d Roberto De Zerbi said he understood \u201c100%\u201d why supporters were angry, even though Romero\u2019s trip to Argentina for injury rehabilitation had been arranged with staff.<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s reported \u201cadmiration\u201d for Romero was noted by The Athletic, but the move is regarded as a \u201cnon-starter.\u201d The idea also recalls the Sol Campbell transfer in 2001, though that move was very different. Campbell joined as a free agent after running down his Tottenham contract and was free to choose his next club without Spurs having a say.<\/p>\n
William Gallas was the last player to move directly between Arsenal and Tottenham, joining Spurs in 2010 after leaving Arsenal on a free. Others, including David Bentley and Emmanuel Adebayor, represented both clubs without switching straight from one to the other. Harry Kane also had a brief spell in Arsenal\u2019s youth system before Spurs took him on after he had been released as an eight-year-old.<\/p>\n
The direct path between the clubs has been rare for decades. Since 1919, only a small number of players have crossed the divide.<\/p>\n
For Arsenal, the timing is driven by defensive pressure. Mikel Arteta has seven players who can operate in central defence, but only Gabriel, William Saliba and Cristhian Mosquera are regular centre backs. Piero Hincapi\u00e9, Jurri\u00ebn Timber, Riccardo Calafiori and Ben White have all been used elsewhere, and Saliba is set to miss an \u201cextended period\u201d with a back injury.<\/p>\n
Spurs, meanwhile, have already strengthened. They have brought in Jan Paul van Hecke and Marcos Senesi, while also having Kevin Danso, Ben Davies, K\u014dta Takai and Archie Gray available in or around central defence. Even so, the club will not move Romero to Arsenal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal\u2019s Romero interest meets Tottenham resistance, with rare direct transfers between the clubs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[1961],"class_list":["post-18311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","tag-tottenham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}