Atletico Madrid eye Tottenham midfielder alongside Cristian Romero

Atletico Madrid have added Rodrigo Bentancur to a list of transfer targets which already includes his Tottenham Hotspur teammate Cristian Romero, a new report has claimed.

The Spanish giants are no strangers to making expensive Premier League purchases. Just last summer, Atletico splashed roughly £100m to prise Julian Alvarez and Conor Gallagher away from Manchester City and Chelsea respectively.

Romero has been framed as a long-term figure of interest and now it has emerged that Bentancur is another "key target" for Diego Simeone's side, according to The Times.

Despite serving a seven-game ban for, mistakenly or otherwise, aiming a racial slur at Spurs captain Son Heung-min, Postecoglou has hailed Bentancur as "an outstanding person" and "an unbelievable teammate". On the pitch, the Australian boss insists that his midfielder has "gone up a level" in performance.

Tottenham are also reluctant to lose Romero. Spurs have reportedly slapped a £60m price tag on the centre-back, who has a deal which stretches until 2027.

Romero, for his part, has certainly made himself appear available. "My focus is always on growing and looking for new places to continue developing," the Argentine World Cup winner bluntly revealed earlier this week. "La Liga is a league I would love to play in and need to play in because it is the league that I lack [to play in every top division]," he pointedly added.

If Atletico were to have their way, both Romero and Bentancur would be lining up in Spain's top flight next summer.

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