Tottenham are staring down the barrel of a defensive crisis after Real Madrid prepared a damaging raid and Bayern Munich activated a centre-back’s release clause.
Despite possessing Cristian Romero and signing Micky van de Ven last summer and Radu Dragusin in January, Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has called for another addition at centre-half.
Speaking in March, Postecoglou said: “If you’re saying ‘is it an area we can strengthen?’, yes it’s an area we will probably look at.
“With all these things it’s about trying to strengthen the group as much as anything else. If you think about when I first arrived, we had maybe six or seven centre-backs at the club. So it’s not just numbers.
“It’s more about the ability of those players to play the football we want and to fit in to what we’re trying to build here.
“I think it is an area of the park we will look to strengthen, but I think we’ll look to strengthen all areas of the park come the end of the season. That’s planning that’s already underway, and other people are in charge of it at the moment.
”But unfortunately for Postecoglou, Tottenham may soon require two new centre-backs.
Real Madrid make contact with Cristian RomeroContact with the 26-year-old’s camp has already been made and Los Blancos president Florentino Perez is giving serious consideration to launching a bid.
The lure of joining one of Spain’s big two has often proved too much for South American stars to turn down in the past, much to the dismay of many a Premier League side.
If that news weren’t bad enough for Spurs, Bayern Munich have activated the release clause of a centre-back Tottenham had shortlisted.
Bayern Munich snatch Hiroki Ito signingNumerous sources in Germany as well as transfer guru Fabrizio Romano have confirmed Bayern have triggered Hiroki Ito’s €30m/£25.5m release clause.
The Japan international plays for Stuttgart and had recently emerged as a transfer target at Tottenham, though it now appears the 25-year-old left-footer is heading to Bavaria.
An agreement on personal terms between Bayern and Ito is being thrashed out on Wednesday night. The deal is hurtling towards completion and it’s not anticipated there’ll be any last minute drama to derail the move.
Bayern are seeking to revamp their centre-back ranks this summer and have put Manchester United target Matthijs De Ligt up for sale.
The German giant also hold concrete interest in Bayer Leverkusen’s Jonathan Tah and Levi Colwill of Chelsea.
A move for one of those two players is still on the agenda despite Ito’s imminent arrival. However, as yet, there is understood to be a large gap in Bayern and Leverkusen’s respective valuations of Tah who is their preferred target of the pair.
Nonetheless, the signing of Ito is a far more straightforward affair for Bayern thanks to the release clause.
News of his move to Munich will ring alarm bells in north London, especially if Real Madrid do act on their interest in Romero.Elsewhere, Bayern have seen a second bid for Fulham destroyer Joao Palhinha turned down.
Bayern have already agreed personal terms with the Portuguese midfielder, though finalising a fee with Fulham is proving tricky.
Fulham are believed to value Palhinha around the £60m mark and as yet, Bayern have not come close to matching that valuation.
