Cristian Romero has delivered a scathing Tottenham assessment to, seemingly, give chairman Daniel Levy a major decision. The Argentina international has been hampered by injuries this season – and now looks to have called on the club’s hierarchy to add some much needed depth to the squad.
Key players have missed large periods of action over these last few months with Guglielmo Vicario, Richarlison and Rodrigo Bentancur, at least for domestic games, among those currently unavailable. Micky Van de Ven and Romero returned from spells out against Chelsea, but both appeared to pick up injuries.
While Van de Ven’s withdrawal was precautionary, reports have since claimed Romero could miss up to six weeks with a quad issue. Given the significance of that update, it would be expected that Romero is in the headlines for that reason, but he’s actually there for something else.
Defeat to Chelsea this past Sunday made it just one win in seven for Spurs, with that coming against Manchester City. In the wake of a fourth defeat in seven, he delivered his support for Postecoglou and, on Monday evening, quotes from Romero emerged where he made it clear that Tottenham must do more to support the Spurs boss.
“Manchester City competes every year, you see how Liverpool strengthens its squad, Chelsea strengthens their squad, doesn’t do well, so strengthens again, and now they’re seeing results. Those are the things to imitate,” he told Spanish broadcaster Telemundo Deportes on live TV.
“You have to realise that something is going wrong, hopefully, they [the board] realise it. The last few years, it’s always the same; first the players, then the coaching staff changes, and it’s always the same people responsible.
“Hopefully they realise who the true responsible ones are and we can move forward, because it’s a beautiful club that, with the structure it has, could easily be competing for the title every year.” Considering what has happened at Spurs in the 21st century, this could be the major turning point.
Fourteen managers in 23 years is far from sustainable with Levy showing on a number of actions that, in volatile situations, he’s quite often reactive rather than patient. Such a major admission from Romero could finally turn the screw for Levy to fully and wholeheartedly back a manager that clearly still has the support of the squad.
What happens next will be crucial to the long-term future of Spurs. Either nothing changes and the same cycle is repeated with Postecoglou relieved of his duties, or the Tottenham chairman makes one of two drastic decisions.
The first of those would be to depart or accept investment with Spurs open to new minority shareholders, but given how successfully he has navigated the last decade – at least from a business perspective – Levy repeating those steps on the football side is certainly possible.
Though many may not want to admit it, Levy has done an excellent job at making the club a European superpower, but it is now time that is reflected on the pitch through trophies and a squad brimming with talent. In the space of 12 months, Liverpool signed Virgil van Dijk and Alisson for a combined £140million.
