Tottenham face Everton on Sunday with their Premier League status on the line after a 2-1 defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night
Cristian Romero has left Tottenham Hotspur supporters furious after it emerged he will not be in attendance for the club's relegation decider against Everton this weekend. Spurs missed the chance to clinch top-flight status after a 2-1 defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night.
A point would have sent West Ham down given Tottenham’s superior goal difference, but the survival battle will roll on to Sunday, when a win or draw at home to Everton will guarantee Spurs’ safety. But rather than be in attendance at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to support his team-mates, Romero will be over 7,000 miles away in Argentina supporting his boyhood team.
The defender will be in his homeland to watch River Plate's title-deciding game against Belgrano. Romero was born in Cordoba and came through the youth ranks at Belgrano before leaving for Genoa in Italy in 2019, and the club’s president, Luis Artime, revealed after last weekend’s semi-final victory against Argentinos Juniors that Romero would watch the final with the club's official delegation.
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Speaking on talkSPORT on Thursday, South American football expert Tim Vickery confirmed Romero's decision, saying: "He will be at the final of the Argentine Championship between Belgrano and River Plate."
Belgrano have never won a title in their 121-year history, while Romero hasn’t played for Spurs since damaging knee ligaments in a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland last month, and is also in a battle to prove his fitness to Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni ahead of next month’s World Cup.
But the defender’s decision has left talkSPORT’s Paul Hawksbee, who is a Tottenham fan, fuming, and he even went as far as saying he will be supporting River Plate this weekend.
He said: "Good club captain, then. Not at Tottenham's biggest game since 1976 – fantastic. True to the end, good old Cristian."
Before he added: "I'll be wearing my River Plate shirt at the weekend. I think that's terrible.
"He goes and watches the club he supports as opposed to the club captain of a team that's threatened with relegation that he's not there with the lads and all the other injured players.
"But you know, I mean, as I said, true, at the end I always thought that Cristian Romero was just passing through and that Tottenham were a distraction from Argentina. But I am quite bitter."
Reacting to a video of Romero at Belgrano’s training ground, one supporter wrote: "Captain Cristian Romero at the training ground of his boyhood club Belgrano, who he has decided to prioritise instead of the club that pay his wages and could potentially be relegated in 3 days time… Absolutely disgraceful!”
Another said: “If it’s true that he won't be there Sunday I never want to see him in a Spurs shirt ever again absolutely shocking behaviour from our captain just sums up how poor our club is run that we've allowed this to happen for our last home game with what's at stake too.”
A third wrote: “What chance of being successful does a football club have when your captain and leader that the players look up to in the dressing room is Cristian Romero.”
While a fourth said: “It just gets worse and worse…Cristian Romero, it is an embarrassment to say that you wore the famous badge of #thfc.”
And a fifth wrote: “Always back Romero. Defended him when so many put him down. Believed in his connection with the club and its fans. Believed that the long standing Argentine link meant something to him. And I understand that his boyhood club could win their first ever title.