Imagine him and Romero: Conte can form brick wall at Spurs with £31.5m-rated "monster" - opinion

Spurs have been handed a major transfer boost in their chase to sign Inter defender Stefan de Vrij this summer.

According to Italian publication TuttoMercatoWeb, Serie A giants Inter have slashed their asking price for the Netherlands international, who is attracting admiring glances from the Premier League in both Spurs and Newcastle United.

The report adds that out of the two of both him and fellow centre-back partner Milan Skriniar, it’s De Vrij who looks most set for a departure from the San Siro this summer.

Having arrived from Atalanta last summer, Cristian Romero has quickly set about becoming a cult hero at Spurs with his wholehearted performances and aggressive style of defending.

But while the Argentine has quickly become a mainstay of this Spurs side, he could certainly do with another genuinely quality defender besides him, and De Vrij fits that bill to a tee.

His former teammate, Mauricio, raved: “Stefan is a great defender and deserves to be at a big club. He’s very tall, he’s strong and fast, he runs a lot – he’s a monster. He’s a calm defender who never gets agitated.”

Conte of course knows the Dutchman well from his time at Inter, and the pair rekindling their successful partnership in north London could be a stroke of genius.

Indeed, De Vrij himself has previously spoken highly of the Spurs boss, saying: “Simone Inzaghi and Conte are two important coaches because they’ve won. I had already worked with Inzaghi at Lazio, Conte has had a great career because he’s always won.

“We won the title under Conte and you can see it now. Inzaghi has been working on a solid base and is doing an important season now.”

If Spurs are to take that next step from competing for the top four to challenging for the title like