‘Early next week’: Romano says Tottenham are about to hold talks about signing £45m player

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Tottenham Hotspur have pencilled in talks with Bayer Leverkusen about the signing of Edmond Tapsoba.

That is what has been reported by Fabrizio Romano on The Debrief Podcast.

The journalist was discussing Spurs’ hunt for a new centre-back, and, inevitably, he got onto the subject of Tapsoba.

The Bayer Leverkusen defender has been strongly linked to Spurs for a number of weeks now, and according to Romano, Spurs are not giving up on this one as they see the centre-back as their top target.

However, Romano does make sure to mention that the pricetag could be a sticking point here and that a compromise has to be found if a deal is to progress.

Tapsoba talks scheduled

Romano shared what he knows about the £45m player.

“Let me say that this is the style at Tottenham, they are still speaking to Wolfsburg about Micky van de Ven and they will have new conversations about Edmond Tapsoba next week. They already have a new round of talks with Bayer Leverkusen early next week. My information is that Edmond Tapsoba is option number one, the favourite player at Tottenham is Tapsoba, but he’s more expensive, so it’s important to find a compromise,” Romano said.

Won’t be easy

Tottenham are going to try to haggle with Leverkusen over the pricetag, but that will not be easy.

The German club have shown on a number of occasions that they won’t be bullied in the transfer market.

They’ve knocked back countless offers for Moussa Diaby over the past 12 months, while they made sure to get a huge fee for Kai Havertz a few years ago when the time came to sell him to Chelsea.

Leverkusen are solid negotiators, and it’s hard to imagine they’ll sell Tapsoba for a penny less than they think he’s worth.