Romano: Tottenham and Juventus agree fee for Rodrigo Bentancur

We got the Fabrizio Romano blessing! Just a few hours after a deal was reached between Tottenham Hotspur and Swedish attacking midfielder Dejan Kulusevski, Spurs have reached another agreement with Kulusevski’s Juventus teammate, midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur!

That’s a pretty spectacular price for a player who is likely to improve Tottenham’s midfield options. Even if he hits all his escalators, Spurs won’t pay more than £20m for him and could pay as little as £15. A very nice and tidy piece of business.

According to Friend of the Blog Dan Kilpatrick, Bentancur’s signing means that they’ll now drop their interest in Fiorentina midfielder Sofyan Amrabat. That’s fine, because while Amrabat was apparently wanted by Spurs manager Antonio Conte, Bentancur is the better player, and is coming on a permanent deal.

With the signing of Bentancur, Spurs have addressed one of their most pressing needs — central midfield reinforcement, especially with the imminent departure of Tanguy Ndombele and (possibly) Gio Lo Celso. Kulusevski appears to offset the possible departures of Dele, or Steven Bergwijn (who is still linked to Ajax).

That leaves a backup striker, right wing back, and central defense as the largest areas of concern. Not all of them are going to be addressed in the January window, although I’d be slightly surprised if Spurs didn’t have any more aces up their sleeves with one day to go in the window.

But all in all — a pretty nice piece of business, even if they left it late.