Tottenham Hotspur have reached an agreement to sell club captain Cristian Romero to Inter Milan for approximately £35m — a fee that represents a £7.5m loss on the £42.5m they paid Atalanta for the Argentine defender in 2021.

The departure has been widely anticipated. Romero's relationship with the club deteriorated sharply last season when he planned to fly to Argentina during Tottenham's decisive final-day survival match. Those bridges were never fully repaired. SportItalia's Gianluigi Longari confirmed the agreement between the two clubs in a post on X.

A sale that breaks Spurs' transfer logic

What makes this deal unusual is not the departure itself, but the fee. At 28 years old, Romero is a World Cup winner, a former runner-up, the club captain, and still has three years remaining on his contract. Inter Milan are paying around €40m — roughly £35m — for a player of that standing.

Tottenham have certainly sold players at a loss before. Tanguy Ndombele had his contract terminated, Emerson Royal left for half the fee Spurs paid, and Davinson Sanchez departed for under £10m. However, none of those players were considered genuine successes at the club. Romero was — and that is what sets this sale apart.

Supporters would have expected Romero to follow the path of Harry Kane, Kyle Walker, or even Brennan Johnson: a player who served the club well and still had plenty left to offer at the highest level. Instead, the fee lands closer to a clearance than a marquee sale.

A shift in approach under new ownership

The timing is also worth noting. Earlier this summer, Tottenham sold Luka Vuskovic to Brighton for £46m — a deal that suggested the club could recover the full outlay on Romero, as they had previously done with Toby Alderweireld and Christian Eriksen. That now appears not to be the case.

Under Daniel Levy's tenure, Tottenham cultivated a reputation for holding out for maximum value — sometimes too long, allowing the likes of Danny Rose, Dele Alli, and Christian Eriksen to depart past their peaks after commanding valuations of £50m or more. Manchester City and Liverpool, by contrast, have consistently cashed in on regular starters — including Sadio Mane, Georginio Wijnaldum, Julian Alvarez, and Ferran Torres — and reinvested successfully.

Tottenham may be pursuing a similar squad-refresh strategy with Romero, who appears to have no future at the club. But accepting a £7.5m loss on an in-demand first-team captain, with elite European clubs queuing to sign him, marks a striking departure from the transfer philosophy that defined Spurs for the better part of a decade.