Antonio Conte has left no doubt as to Cristian Romero's future at Tottenham Hotspur once his loan deal is over this summer.
The 23-year-old Argentina international signed for Spurs last summer, having just been named as Serie A defender of the year while on loan at Atalanta.
Tottenham's managing director of football Fabio Paratici had originally signed Romero for Juventus from Genoa in 2019 before sending him back there on loan and then to Atalanta for the following campaign on what could have been a two-season loan.
That second loan however contained an option for Atalanta to buy the Argentine for just £13.6m, which they duly did before he joined Tottenham in a deal that will be worth much more.
There was confusion when Romero's signing was sealed by Spurs, with the club announcing it as a permanent transfer but Atalanta as a loan deal with an option to make the move permanent.
Those within Tottenham told football.london at the time that it was an option that was all but an obligation for the north London club to sign him, with the defender believed to have agreed terms on a long-term contract with the club when he first joined.
Six months on and the deal is described as a complicated one, but essentially a loan with an obligation to buy for £46.7m and when asked what comes next for Romero, Conte confirmed that he will be a Spurs player next season.
"I think the club bought him. I think so," he said. "He's on loan but we have an obligation to buy. We bought him!"
Earlier Conte had told football.london that Romero was "an important player for me and the team", before adding: "He’s strong physically, he has the timing to anticipate, good personality to play with the ball. Despite being a young player he has good experience, he’s strong and I like him. For sure, he has a lot of space for improvement."
When asked whether the Argentine was made for a physical competition like the Premier League, the Italian nodded in agreement.
"Yeah. He is perfect for this league, but if you can play in this league you can play in all the leagues in the world," he said.
"The problem is when you stay in another league, you have to ask if you can play in the Premier League. When you play here, you can play in any league in the world, because the intensity, the quality, the physicality that you have here is not present in other leagues. For sure Romero is able to play in this league. This league is a perfect suit for him."
Romero returned on Wednesday night from a hamstring injury that has kept him out since November, meaning he has played just one Premier League match for Conte.
"Romero is a really good defender and is a good signing for the club and he is very good but don’t forget that his injury was on one hand a problem for me, for the team," said the Spurs boss.
"On another hand it was a great opportunity to improve, to develop players that maybe if Romero was fit couldn’t play or didn’t play. Tanganga … it was the same for Sanchez, for Davies.
"In the difficulty of his injury we have found other players that can be good to give us good performances and defensively to be complete as a player but I’m happy about my defenders. Happy because now the players stay here and I can count on them."
Spurs welcome Southampton on Wednesday night as they return to Premier League action, looking to start climbing up into the top four with their games in hand over others.
Conte admitted that he is still not setting high targets for his squad and that much will be down to how other teams respond in the months ahead.
"Our target has to be to do the best of our possibility. If you are to ask me now our level of possibility, it is very difficult to answer this question," he said.
"For sure we will do our best, I am sure about this. I don’t know the point we will reach to do our best but for sure we will do everything in every game to get points and try to do our best. I am sure about this.
"Then it is very difficult to talk about our target because it depends on many situations that at this moment are not in our hands."
When it was pointed out to him that technically the top four race was in Spurs' hands due to their number of games to be played, he added: "We just have to win! To win is very simple to talk about or use this word, but then you have to play and to win.
"We want to play every game to win, because I don’t know one team who goes out to play a game in order to lose.
"There are the opponents, the difficulty of the game. There are a lot of situations that can affect the game, but we are trying to improve, to go step by step and to try to get the best we can do in this league."
One player who will be crucial to Tottenham's attempts to finish the season in a Champions League spot is Harry Kane.
The England captain said this week that, under Conte, he is fitter than he ever has been before and he scored twice against Brighton in Saturday's 3-1 FA Cup fourth round win.
"For sure, for sure it is not simple [to improve Kane]," said his head coach. "It is not easy to improve a player of this level but at the same time I think that Harry I think is improving a lot in his position because I think in this moment with us he is playing much more like a number nine.
"In the past I have seen him a lot, often to go outside and I think that Harry into the box, he is very good outside because he is also a number 10 and he has this quality to pass the ball and to make an assist but at the same time to [shoot] and to score.
"I think that he has improved a lot in his position to be also a number nine, a strong number nine and I think he is improving a lot in the duels with his opponent, to defend the ball and in my opinion he is becoming a complete player, 120 per cent.
"He is a player that in this moment he can play in every team of the world and to be the striker."
Conte won it all as a Juventus player but admits he would have liked to have shown what he could do in England, with one club in particular interested.
"In the past I would have liked to play in the Premier League. I tried to get this experience," he said.
"I know that Alex Ferguson liked my football. I know that in the past it was a moment that maybe Manchester United wanted to bring me there.
"My agent told me this but I don't know if this is a lie or the truth!"
