Calamitous Cristian Romero and his painful irony that shows he is Tottenham’s problem | OneFootball

A bit of advice. When highlighting how few footballers are in contention to play for Tottenham, try not to add to the list of absentees. Last Monday, Cristian Romero’s critique of the Spurs board came on Instagram and was liked by a host of his teammates. “We had only 11 players available – unbelievable but true and disgraceful,” he wrote.

And so, as virtually everyone should have predicted, the next Tottenham player to be ruled out was the Premier League's serial miscreant. Romero’s straight red card for scything down Casemiro meant he missed two-thirds of their defeat to Manchester United. He incurred his third suspension of the season – he is two bookings away from a fourth – and will miss four games. He cannot play in the Premier League again until Spurs visit Anfield on 15 March; after his utterly needless red card when Tottenham met Liverpool in December, it may be a risky fixture for a return.

So if Tottenham’s powerbrokers have let the team down, so has their captain. Thomas Frank insisted he did not regret making the Argentinian skipper and will not strip him of the armband; there is the possibility, though, that by the time Romero is able to reclaim the armband, there will be a different face in the dugout.

Frank’s explanation for naming Romero captain was unconvincing. “He is one of the most important players,” he said. Which is not a qualification in itself. Arguably Romero is simultaneously Tottenham’s best and worst player; a high-class defender with a penchant for line-breaking passes, a better finisher than some of the forwards and a man with the sense of timing to score two injury-time equalisers this season.

Not that he is much use when sent off or suspended; captain, leader, liability? In the last year, he has been man of the match in the Europa League final against United, as Tottenham won their first silverware in 17 years, and sent off for a dangerous challenge against them. Romero was apologetic in the dressing room, Frank and goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario reported; perhaps his next social-media post will not be broadside at the board.

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Romero was reported to have apologised to his teammates by manager Thomas Frank and goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario (REUTERS)

He has courted popularity with the fanbase with his regular jibes at the powerbrokers. He may want to be more self-critical. The rebel captain may have cult-hero status but, oddly enough, the chorus of “Romero’s right, the board are s***e” was only heard in the first half-hour at Old Trafford.

He isn’t the first captain to sometimes lead by the wrong kind of example – Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira and Dennis Wise had more than their share of early exits – but his disciplinary record borders on the disastrous. “If you look at how many red cards he had, it is not like that he had that many,” claimed Frank. It was a ridiculous assertion from a usually rational man.

In four-and-a-half years since joining Tottenham, Romero has six red cards: it came as news to Frank that is more than any other Premier League player in that time. The centre-back can scarcely complain if he has a reputation as the worst-behaved player in the division.

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Romero was shown a sixth red card of his Tottenham career at Old Trafford (REUTERS)

His rap sheet could be longer. He might have been sent off in each of the games against Brentford this season. As it is, he also saw red for kicking out at Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate. In 2023, he was dismissed for sliding in on Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez when he perhaps ought to have gone earlier in the same game for kicking Levi Colwill off the ball.

Earlier that year, he got a second yellow card in the Champions League exit to AC Milan for clattering into Theo Hernandez. A month before that, he was on a caution, committed a similarly obvious bookable offence for halting Jack Grealish and saw red against Manchester City.

Romero’s maiden Tottenham red, against Vitesse Arnhem in Antonio Conte’s managerial bow, came for a rugby tackle on Lois Openda when he was already booked. Once again, subtlety was not his forte.

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Romero's crunching tackle on Casemiro that got him dismissed (REUTERS)

There is a pattern: of recklessness, of sliding in on opponents, of studs-up challenges, of committing fouls in parts of the pitch where he does not need to, of involving himself in incidents that need not concern him. There is scant evidence Romero is learning his lesson. His tackling technique could be better; so, too, his judgment.

They might be reasons why he is still at Tottenham. They are probably also grounds to strip him from the captaincy, even if that makes him still more outspoken. But a time in the stands ought to offer Romero some time for reflection; whatever the failings of Tottenham’s various imperfect decision-makers, they are not alone in leaving Frank short-staffed. Spurs’ absentees already included defenders Pedro Porro, Djed Spence, Kevin Danso and Ben Davies even before Destiny Udogie went off hurt at Old Trafford. Now Romero is banned. Again.