Romero finally ships out to Atletico Madrid for £34m after five Spurs years

The 28-year-old Argentina international, after 124 appearances for Spurs, made it official on Instagram Friday. No surprises there. Tottenham's coffers swell by £34.2m, with a tidy 15 per cent sell-on clause tacked on. Not bad coin for a player whose original deal ran until summer 2029.

He'd been sniffing around an exit all summer. Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, even Arsenal — all had a look. Sky Sports confirmed his heart was set on Madrid. And now, he's got his five-year contract.

Let's be blunt: his final season at Spurs was a disaster class. Two red cards in Tottenham's alleged 'relegation battle' — remember that? Then a knee injury benched him for the run-in. Oh, and who could forget the drama? He looked dead set on skipping the crucial final-day scrap against Everton, reportedly to catch his boyhood club Belgrano play back home in Argentina. He turned up in the end, but the optics were atrocious.

Then came the inevitable Instagram goodbye. Romero, ever the diplomat, 'highlighted his pride' in helping Spurs 'end their 17-year trophy drought.' Right. He even trotted out the boilerplate: "When I arrived, I had a clear dream: to leave my name in this club's history," he wrote. "I knew the only way was through hard work, sacrifice and achieving something that had seemed so difficult for so long: lifting a trophy again. And we did it."