Tottenham Hotspur continue negotiating for Cristian Romero, as Atalanta eye three alternatives in Takehiro Tomiyasu, Merih Demiral and Sven Botman.
Spurs have their sights set firmly on the Argentina international and are already close to the €55m asking price.
La Dea are therefore looking to the future and trying to find a centre-back who can replace him for the coming campaign.
Demiral was mentioned as the first choice, as he would resolve another transfer issue, giving Juventus the necessary funds to pay Sassuolo for Manuel Locatelli.
However, Tuttomercatoweb note that Tomiyasu is the new favourite, especially as they had been battling Tottenham for the Bologna man for several weeks, even before Spurs showed interest in Romero.
Not only is Tomiyasu 22 years old with 23 senior caps for Japan already, but he is also remarkably versatile, able to play in central defence, right-back or in a more advanced midfield role.
Another candidate identified by both TMW and Sportitalia is Botman of Lille.
He is a 21-year-old Dutchman who came up through the Ajax academy and joined LOSC last summer for €8m.
📢⚪️ Proseguono i contatti per Cristian Romero dall’#Atalanta al #Tottenham, col club londinese che ha fiducia verso la fumata bianca.
Per la Dea i nomi per la successione sono tre: Tomiyasu del #Bologna, Demiral della #Juventus e Botman del #Lille.@TuttoMercatoWeb
— Marco Conterio (@marcoconterio) July 26, 2021