Thomas Frank breaks silence over Cristian Romero’s future at Tottenham – days after captain labelled their recruitment strategy as ‘disgraceful’

Cristian Romero will remain as Tottenham‘s captain despite his second social media swipe at the club’s hierarchy inside a month.

‘Leadership is many things,’ said Spurs boss Thomas Frank, as he tried to make sense of an issue that has tarnished a brilliant fightback to take a point against Manchester City and four games unbeaten.

‘I am 52-years-old,’ he added. ‘I think I’m pretty good at leadership. Can I get better every single day? Yes. Do I make mistakes? Maybe not every single day but probably weekly.

‘Romero is 27-years-old. Is he still going to make mistakes going forward as a leader, does he do a lot of good things? Yes.’

Romero fired his latest social media grenade on Monday soon after the transfer window closed. In it, he wrote it was ‘disgraceful’ that Spurs had been left with only 11 available players.

Frank said the matter had been dealt with internally. Last month, Romero was not punished for a cryptic post later amended about those people at the club who, ‘show up when things are going well, to tell a few lies’.

Romero took a swipe at Tottenham’s January recruitment in a social media post days ago

Romero called it ‘disgraceful’ that Spurs only had ’11 players’ available for the Man City match

His discontent casts fresh doubt on his future, reviving rumours of interest from Atletico Madrid despite a new four-year contract signed in August which launched him into the club’s top tier of earners.

‘That’s a question I have no idea about,’ said Frank. ‘Right now, he is the captain, he has a long-term contract, we signed a new contract with him.’

It has also intensified the spotlight on recruitment strategy at Spurs because Romero’s sentiment is echoed by many fans.

Unlike Frank, who arrived last year, they have seen a succession of transfer windows open and close with an anticlimax and a wave of logical excuses. And for them, the Spurs captain has now validated their theories.

Romero is in his fifth season as a Spurs player. He arrived from Atalanta in the summer of 2021, initially on loan converted into a permanent deal a year on. He has experienced nine transfer windows and probably recognises a pattern.

Spurs make all the right noises about how they are going to be ambitious and have money to spend but frequently see players they like end up elsewhere to strengthen rivals. It might be because they are not offering as much money as others or because they predict they are less likely to compete for the major honours. Or both.

It happened last year with Eberechi Eze and Bryan Mbeumo last summer. It has been happening for a long time. Think of Willian, way back. And Virgil van Dijk when he left Southampton or Liverpool hijacking the deal Spurs had set up to sign Luis Diaz from Porto. There was Gabriel Jesus when he joined Arsenal from Manchester City, and it is still happening with Antoine Semenyo in last month.

Spurs can hijack Kevin Danso’s proposed move to Wolverhampton Wanderers or muscle Brentford out of the way to sign Archie Gray but rarely win a transfer battle with the biggest clubs in England.

Romero went off during the draw against Man City at half-time because he was feeling unwell

So, Romero is probably thinking he has heard it all before. Maybe also those teammates liking his posts. It’s what many of the fans think, too, so they applaud Romero for speaking out and his cult status is reinforced.

On Wednesday, Spurs rolled an interview with sporting director Johan Lange out on their club channels. In it, Lange explained the difficulties of business in January and what a quiet transfer window it had been.

Only 33 signings had been made by Premier League clubs, he pointed out and put this down to limited availability in the market caused by the new format in European competition, fixture congestion and injuries leading more clubs to stockpile players.

Lange has been at the club since October 2023. In his time Spurs have spent £420million on 15 players across five transfer windows, plus four loans not yet or not made permanent.

None have made a definitive impact. Dominic Solanke, signed for £65m, is closer than most and might have done more had he not missed the first half of this season through injury.

Solanke is fit again and Spurs look stronger with him up front. Xavi Simons is starting to sparkle. Mohammed Kudus flickered at times before his injury. So much of it though is a question of promise and pleas for patience be that with Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Wilson Odobert or Mathys Tel.

‘I know the club is very ambitious and the owners are very ambitious and I’ve no doubt we will see that going forward,’ said Frank, as he named-checked Simons and Kudus as ‘two good signings’ from last summer and Joao Palhinha as a ‘good loan’.

‘So, it’s not as though we don’t want to loan players to strengthen the squad,’ he added. ‘And if you compare us to other top six clubs, we think it was a big signing with Conor Gallagher.’

Still, there is no jaw-dropping signing of intent. No statement signing to compare with Arsenal’s decisive swoop for Declan Rice made to signal a new era of aggression in the market. Or Liverpool’s raid on Newcastle for Alexander Isak.

Action can speak louder than words. When Spurs wanted a wide forward, they did not have the clout to prise Jarrod Bowen out of West Ham and settled for Kudus.

Frank, much like Ange Postecoglou last season, has not been helped by injuries and bemoaned the problems of combining Europe and the Premier League, but Spurs have been in Europe for 18 of the last 20 years.

If they do not know by now what it takes to build a squad to compete on all fronts, perhaps they never will.

This is the direction in which Romero’s words point us. Towards a case that many fans disenfranchised by ENIC’s ownership have been making for a long time.

Frank’s predecessors came up against this and now, despite the exit of chairman Daniel Levy in September and a new regime in control, there are players in the dressing room making the same point led by their seemingly untouchable captain.