Thomas Frank has refused to criticise Cristian Romero following his social media attack on Tottenham’s owners, saying the matter has been “dealt with internally”.
The Tottenham manager made his ambivalence about social media clear – “something I do know is that we all give it too much attention” – but stopped short of condemning his captain’s behaviour after last weekend’s draw with Manchester City, despite it being the second such outburst in as many months.
“Cuti is a very passionate player and captain who wants to leave everything on the pitch”, said Frank. “He is very ambitious and wants to win every single time. Sometimes when you are like that: you can have an outburst like this time but we have dealt with it internally.”
Asked if Romero should have found another way to air his displeasure with the club’s transfer window business, with the player describing the size of the Spurs squad as ‘disgraceful’, Frank said: “I have said before that there are a lot of ways of doing things. Cuti has been very important for us this season and in past seasons and we need to be aware of that. But I wouldn’t have done it.”
Romero posted on Instagram following the City game, explaining he had played the match despite feeling unwell because there were only 11 players fit to play. The number was actually 13. “Great effort from all my teammates yesterday, they were all incredible,” he said. “I wanted to be available to help them even though I wasn’t feeling well, especially as we had only 11 players available – unbelievable but true and disgraceful.”
The post was liked by some of Romero’s teammates, including Pedro Porro, Djed Spence, Kevin Danso, Gallagher, Pape Sarr, James Maddison and Dominic Solanke.
Spurs made two signings during the window – Conor Gallagher from Atlético Madrid for £34.6m and Souza, a 19-year-old left-back, from Santos for £13m. They sold Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace for £35m.
In January, following defeat to Bournemouth, Romero had posted a similar message, demanding ownership take more responsibility for the club’s performance. “At times like this, it should be other people coming out to speak, but they don’t – as has been happening for several years now,” he wrote. “They only show up when things are going well, to tell a few lies.” Romero later deleted the reference to lies.
Frank spoke with Romero following the first post and publicly said the player had made a “mistake”. Asked whether repeating that mistake meant Romero had gone too far, the 52-year-old would not answer. “We’re dealing with it internally that’s my main message tonight,” he said. On whether the reactions from his teammates meant other players shared his feelings on the ownership, Frank said: “We don’t know what a ‘like’ means.”
The Dane said of social media. “I can’t get rid of it, it’s out there, but one thing I do know is that 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 revealed that Micky van der Ven had returned to training and would be available for selection at Old Trafford, when Spurs meet Manchester United at lunchtime on Saturday.
