Thomas Frank has refused to criticise Cristian Romero after the defender's social media attack on Tottenham's owners, with the Argentina international remaining club captain. Speaking ahead of Saturday's Premier League fixture at Manchester United, the Spurs manager would not give any steer as to the outcome of Romero's outburst – the second in two months – only saying: “We have dealt with the matter internally.”
Frank described Romero as a “very passionate player and captain” who is “very ambitious and wants to win every single time”. He added: “Sometimes, when you are like that, you can have an outburst like this time but we have dealt with it internally.” The manager refused to say whether disciplinary action had been taken, though he insisted there “is always one line you can’t cross for any player” or “can’t cross too many times”.
On the question of whether Romero would remain captain, Frank was more direct: “The answer is yes. Leadership is many things. I’m 52 and I think I’m pretty good at leadership but could I get better? Yes. Do I make mistakes every day? No, but probably weekly. Romero is 27 years old. He will still make mistakes going forward as a leader. Does he do a lot of good things? Yes.”
Romero posted on Instagram after Tottenham's 2-2 draw with Manchester City, saying he had played despite feeling unwell because there were only 11 players fit – a number that was actually 13. He described the situation as “unbelievable but true and disgraceful”. The post was liked by several teammates, including Pedro Porro, Djed Spence, Kevin Danso, Conor Gallagher, Pape Sarr, James Maddison and Dominic Solanke.
Frank defended the Spurs ownership, saying they were “very serious” in their ambitions and that it was unfair to judge them on a January window. He pointed to the club's two senior signings – Gallagher from Atlético Madrid for £34.6m and left-back Souza from Santos for £13m – as a “very good” window compared with other top-flight teams. The manager also said he had spoken with Romero after his earlier outburst in January, when the defender had demanded more responsibility from ownership, and had publicly called it a “mistake”.
Asked if repeating the mistake meant Romero had gone too far, Frank declined to answer, saying: “We’re dealing with it internally, that’s my main message tonight.” On social media, he remarked: “We all give it too much attention. It’s such a small number of people who are writing things out there and everything they write we take as truth. I think that’s a challenge overall.” Frank also revealed that Micky van de Ven had returned to training and would be available for selection at Old Trafford.
