Cristian Romero has said it is “disgraceful” that Tottenham are operating with such a threadbare squad in an apparent dig at the club’s January recruitment strategy.
The club captain is no stranger to outspoken social media posts and he dropped another one on Monday evening shortly after the closure of the mid-season transfer window.
Spurs made two signings during the window – Conor Gallagher from Atlético Madrid for £34.6m and Souza, the 19-year-old left-back prospect, from Santos for £13m. They sold Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace for £35m.
Thomas Frank has been down to the bones of his squad because of an injury crisis; the manager was without 11 players for the visit of Manchester City on Sunday. Romero made himself available despite feeling ill but he was forced off at half-time. Spurs were 2-0 down at the time but they battled back to draw 2-2 with two goals from Dominic Solanke.
Romero did not hide his frustration when he posted on Instagram. “Great effort from all my teammates yesterday, they were all incredible,” he said. “I wanted to be available to help them even though I wasn’t feeling well, especially as we had only 11 players available – unbelievable but true and disgraceful.”
The post was liked by some of Romero’s teammates including Pedro Porro, Djed Spence, Kevin Danso, Gallagher, Pape Sarr, James Maddison and Solanke. Frank actually had 13 established outfield players from which to select. It had been 11 in the 2-0 Champions League win at Eintracht Frankfurt last week.
Romero had caused a stir with a post after the 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth on 7 January. “At times like this, it should be other people coming out to speak, but they don’t – as has been happening for several years now,” he wrote. “They only show up when things are going well, to tell a few lies.”
The 27-year-old deleted the last sentence about the “lies” but the rest of the post stayed up. It was liked by some of his teammates including Porro, who wrote: “Amen. Keep going brother.”
Frank sought to defend Romero, who he said had not been fined. But he did say: “When you’re a young leader sometimes you make mistakes. It is good to keep it internal. We had a good conversation [about it] which we will keep internally.”
In his latest post, Romero wrote: “We’ll keep showing up and taking responsibility to turn this around, working hard and staying together. All that’s left is to thank all of you for being there and for always supporting us. The fans [heart emoji].”
The Argentina defender looked to have been on his way out of Spurs last summer, with Atlético Madrid showing interest in him, after a season that featured a number of controversial comments.
There was the repost of a social media message that claimed he was tired because Spurs had not flown him back on a private jet from Argentina duty. There was the complaint that the club’s lack of spending meant they were falling behind Premier League rivals. “You have to realise that something is going wrong – hopefully they [the board] realise it,” he said.
There was the moment when Romero thanked the Argentina medics for his return to fitness after injury while making no mention of the physios at Spurs. There was the interview when he said he would love to play in Spain’s La Liga. And he appeared to sign off at the end of it as he paid tribute to the club’s outgoing manager, Ange Postecoglou – just after Frank had been confirmed as his successor. “You paved the way despite the many obstacles that always existed and always will exist,” he wrote.
Romero ended up signing a new contract and being named as Son Heung-min’s successor as the captain. It was the definition of a volte-face. Frank can expect more questions about him at his next press conference on Thursday.
