CRISTIAN ROMERO appeared to aim a dig at Tottenham’s lack of transfer business – by claiming it was “disgraceful” they had only 11 available players against Manchester City.
Spurs made just two major signings in January in Conor Gallagher and teenage full-back Souza, with no senior faces coming through the door on deadline day.
That is despite a crippling injury list with ELEVEN first-team players currently sidelined and the club lying 14th in the Premier League table, nine points off the drop zone.
They also sold last season’s top-scorer Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace for £35million – the same fee as they splashed on Gallagher.
Captain Romero has been struck down with illness over the last week but made it through Wednesday’s 2-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt which secured Spurs a top-eight finish in the Champions League group stage.
Yet he had to come off at half-time in Sunday’s league hosting of City, where Dominic Solanke’s second-half double salvaged a 2-2 draw.
Romero appeared to wait until after the transfer window shut before posting on Instagram: “Great effort from all my team-mates yesterday, they were incredible.
“I wanted to be available to help them even though I wasn’t feeling well, especially since 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, the fans.”
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His post comes a month on from the explosive one he also wrote on Instagram which seemingly hit out at the hierarchy for never speaking publicly and that when they do, it is only to “tell a few lies”.
The lie comment was later redacted but not before numerous Spurs fans had seen it.
Romero, who signed a new contract in the summer and was made skipper by Thomas Frank, was not fined for that outburst.
Spurs are currently without Kevin Danso, Richarlison, James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall, Mohammed Kudus, Dejan Kulusevski, Pedro Porro, Djed Spence, Rodrigo Bentancur, Ben Davies and Micky van de Ven due to injury.
They did make one signing on deadline day, that of 18-year-old James Wilson who joined on loan with an option to buy from Hearts, but the Scot is viewed as an Under-21 player.