‘What I can say is’: Romano says Tottenham have verbal agreement over ‘world-class’ player

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Tottenham Hotspur have a “verbal agreement” with Barcelona over a potential permanent deal for Clement Lenglet.

This is according to Fabrizio Romano, who spoke about the Spurs loanee on the Here We Go podcast.

Tottenham signed Lenglet in the summer from the La Liga giants on a straight loan deal.

This came after Spurs failed in their pursuit of Alessandro Bastoni, who chose to stay put at Inter Milan.

Lenglet, a left-footed centre-back, arrived to provide competition for Ben Davies in the back three.

The 27-year-old has made nine appearances for Tottenham to date.

While Romano didn’t speak of how likely Spurs are to buy Lenglet, he suggested that there will be talks.

“So it’s a straight loan,” began the transfer insider.

“But what I can say is that both Tottenham and Barcelona have a verbal agreement to discuss Lenglet’s potential permanent deal in the summer.

“It will be up to Tottenham, so let’s see at the end of the season, but it’s true that there is no buy option.”

Although Lenglet has previously been described as a “world-class” talent, the jury’s still out on him at Spurs.

In Tottenham’s loss to Newcastle at the weekend, Miguel Almiron went past Lenglet like he wasn’t there for his winner.

Much depends on how Lenglet fares over the coming months, and whether Bastoni does become available.

‘We want to grow’

Lenglet has admitted that one of the biggest challenges he initially faced at Tottenham had to do with the language barrier.

He told The Guardian: “I didn’t speak English when I came … a few words.”

In the interview, Lenglet also spoke about the difference between the kind of pressure at his loan club and his parent club.

He added: “When you are in this type of club [Barcelona], you know that every day you have a lot of pressure. You have to accept it.

“Here at Tottenham, we put ourselves under pressure because we want to grow and the media is putting more pressure on because they see we can be a really good team.

“It’s not really different to Barcelona. Of course, in Barcelona, every day you have something different. But I didn’t go out of Barcelona for this reason.”