Tottenham quietly did Arsenal a huge favour in the transfer window, but they'll never know

Arsenal have shown interest in Tottenham's Cristian Romero, according to The Athletic.

Teams like Inter and Atletico Madrid are in the race to sign the Argentine centre-back as well, but the player, according to the report, is now attracting interest from the Gunners, too.

Tottenham are currently unaware of the English team's interest, and would absolutely not be willing to sell to their arch-rivals if it is made known to them that they want one of their players.

Advantage Arsenal.

Arsenal absolutely do not need Cristian Romero

Arsenal already have four great centre-backs.

Their two starting centre-backs are the best pairing in the Premier League at the moment, and there is not really a debate there. William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães are probably two of the best centre-backs in the world right now.

Their understudies, Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapié, are also great at what they do. Arsenal have a really good core of centre-back options across the defence.

It just does not make sense for them to go for someone who is not only playing for Tottenham, but is also not really good enough to be part of this Arsenal defence.

Even if they wanted a fifth-choice centre-back, three of the full-backs they already have can play in that position. Riccardo Calafiori, who has become a left-back under Mikel Arteta, used to play as a centre-back before joining Arsenal. Ben White was also a centre-back, as was Jurrien Timber.

If Arsenal really want to sign someone as a squad player, they should be looking elsewhere.

Romero would not only cost more than what they should be paying for a fifth-choice centre-back, but he would also demand an important role. That is something Arsenal cannot realistically offer him.

For that to happen, Romero would have to improve by a lot, and it just does not seem likely.

The last player who made the switch between Arsenal and Tottenham was William Gallas in 2010, after his contract with Arsenal had expired.

Obviously, Sol Campbell remains one of the most polarising figures in North London. Arsenal fans love him, but Tottenham fans absolutely despise him because of the way he left after running down his contract.

This situation would be a bit different, though, because it would mean Cristian Romero jumps ship directly from Tottenham to Arsenal as a current Tottenham player, which would probably be even worse than those two examples.

Obviously, he does not have the same credentials that Campbell had before joining Arsenal, but it would still be a really bad move for him personally.

And all of this is assuming he actually adds anything to this squad, which is difficult to see, especially considering the role he would be playing.

Arsenal can still go for a centre-back before the end of the window, but that centre-back should not be Romero.

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