AS Roma ‘hope’ to sell €30m star on Tottenham Hotspur’s transfer radar | OneFootball

AS Roma want to sell Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United target Roger Ibanez

Tottenham Hotspur have been handed an apparent boost in their pursuit of AS Roma centre-back Roger Ibanez.

Newcastle United and Atletico Madrid have both been linked with the 24-year-old star. And now, local outlet Giallorossi.net claims that Roma want to sell the defender.

Apparently, the Italian club want to raise €60million this summer from player sales, and for that, Roma director Tiago Pinto wants to part ways with Tammy Abraham and Ibanez.

Roger Ibanez speaks with Chris Smalling of AS Roma. (Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)

The one-cap Brazil international is apparently rated at €30million by them. That isn’t a bad fee for an up-and-coming centre-back who can get better with age.

Good move?

Spurs are in need of centre-backs. Cristian Romero is perhaps our only world-class player in that position. Eric Dier, Japhet Tanganga and Davinson Sanchez are not.

At least not right now. They seem to have an error in them whenever they play. We can certainly upgrade in this area and Ibanez will be a good place to start from.

WhoScored.com metrics say Ibanez is a good passer of the ball and is also an able tackler. That will help us play out from the back. He left Brazil for Atalanta in January 2019 and has since, step by step, made a name for himself in Italy.

He is one of Jose Mourinho’s most trusted soldiers this season, having made 42 appearances across competitions this summer. Hopefully, the Portuguese manager’s past affiliations with Spurs don’t lead to him blocking the move for one of his team’s best players.