Tottenham need to strongly consider cutting ties with Cristian Romero | OneFootball

As bad as things have gotten for Tottenham in the Premier League this season, these are the times when you learn a lot about your club and the resiliency of your players. You learn who is worth keeping around and building the team around, while, conversely, you learn who isn't interested in being here and won't fight for the badge.

It is starting to look like Tottenham star center back Cristian Romero falls into the latter category. Despite being one of the most physically talented central defenders in the Premier League, Romero has now turned in two costly performances in back-to-back Premier League fixtures against Wolves and Nottingham Forest, even getting hooked off the pitch early in the Forest defeat after looking like he flat-out didn't even want to play in the game.

While Romero was significantly better last week in the clean sheet win over Eintracht Frankfurt to help Tottenham punch their ticket to the Europa League semifinals, the way Romero phoned in his performances against Wolves and Nottingham Forest is highly concerning. And for as talented as Romero is, he's earned a reputation for being an inconsistent, streaky defender whom Tottenham are having trouble trusting because of his overly aggressive style of play that seems to place the team second.

Cristian Romero wants to go to LaLiga

And now, Romero has committed a more grievous defense than even playing poorly on the pitch. With Tottenham in crisis mode, the club's vice captain publicly admitted in an interview that his mind is on potentially joining another club in the summer transfer window and that he'd love to play in LaLiga for the simple sake of collecting playing in other leagues like they were infinity stones.

Here is what he told Argentinian reporter Gaston Edul of the famous TyC Sports in an interview for his YouTube channel, as relayed by the Spurs Express:

“We're in the Europa League semi-finals, and I want to finish the season on a high note. After that, we'll see. My focus is always on growing and looking for new places to continue developing.”

Romero should know better

I have seen worse examples of players openly flirting with the idea of leaving a club, but the context of this quote from Romero is absolutely troubling. Romero is the vice captain for a Tottenham team that is rebuilding in the Premier League amidst a historically putrid season. They are facing a likely coaching change this summer, another potential squad overhaul, and further rebuilding while juggling a Europa League semifinal on the other hand with the potential to still qualify for the Champions League outright by winning that tournament.

While Romero does acknowledge Tottenham being in the Europa League semifinal, he uses it to try to soften the fact that he is basically saying that he wants out and that he can't see himself developing at Tottenham. And Spurs fans see right past that, especially since, well, Romero's quote itself and his recent performances at Wolves and Nottingham Forest highlight that he still has a long way to go in his own development.

Romero isn't some young rookie making quotes he shouldn't. Again, he's the vice captain and 26 years old. He knows what he's doing, and either he should know better or, more likely, he means exactly what he is saying and doesn't care about Tottenham or the fans.

As talented as Romero is, he's not good enough to be disparaging the club at this time or focusing on anything other than helping the team at this crucial moment. Tottenham need to seriously question if he wants to be here and if they even want to move forward in the future with him. Micky van de Ven and Kevin Danso are both starting-caliber center backs, and Spurs can always sell him and use that money to buy someone else like Dean Huijsen, who, by the way, had a much better season than Romero.