Cristian Romero may be the ‘glue’ of the Tottenham Hotspur dressing room, but the club captain is cutting a frustrated figure in North London.
It has been a whirlwind 48 hours for Spurs captain Cristian Romero. After being taken off at half-time against Man City due to illness, the World Cup winner has found himself at the centre of a social media storm and perhaps even the start of a transfer saga.
After the January transfer window closed on Monday evening, Romero took to Instagram to complain about the fact that Tottenham only had 11 available players to face the Citizens. He labelled it as ‘unbelievable’ and ‘disgraceful.’
Romero wrote: “Great effort from all my teammates yesterday. They were incredible. I wanted to be available to help them even though I wasn’t feeling well. Especially as we only had 11 players available. Unbelievable but true and disgraceful.
“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.”
Many fans took this as a dig at the Spurs hierarchy for not investing in the team last month, despite the injury crisis.
It was subsequently reported by Argentine journalist Gaston Edul that Romero will leave Tottenham this summer.
Cristian Romero goes from ‘pussycat’ to Tottenham ‘rebel’
The Telegraph have shared some ‘inside’ knowledge on the situation. Romero reportedly made multiple motivational speeches to his Spurs teammates during the Europa League-winning run of 2024/25. ‘Some believe’ they could have been seen as an ‘us-against-them’ message – referencing the relationship between the players and the club.
Romero has been no stranger to calling out the goings on at Tottenham in recent years. Although he has been described as a ‘pussycat’ behind-the-scenes when he first arrived in N17, it seems his reputation has now been elevated to ‘rebel’.
One source who has worked with the Argentine before told The Telegraph: “He must feel like promises have not been kept. He didn’t join Tottenham as a rebel, so something must have caused him to go down that path. It just seems impossible that he would keep having a pop at the club if something hadn’t happened in the background.”
The same source added: “His emotion and his anger is coming out in his game. In the early days, it was just about learning, but now it looks like he’s trying so hard to be the saviour while he’s also annoyed about what is happening behind the scenes.”
How do Spurs teammates feel about Cristian Romero?
The report claims that Romero has ‘made himself the glue’ in the Tottenham dressing room, after calling out the powers that be on multiple occasions.
Romero accused Tottenham of a lack of spending compared to others in the Premier League. Ange Postecoglou had a meeting with the Spurs star after those comments, which apparently’ went down well with the squad’.
Although it cannot be taken as a firm stance of agreement with everything in the post, nine Tottenham players ‘liked’ Romero’s latest statement on social media.
The two biggest questions still remain – what does the future hold for Cristian Romero, and will Tottenham invest more ambitiously this summer?