Tottenham Hotspur center back and vice-captain Cristian Romero has been banned from driving for six months after the Argentinian pleaded guilty to speeding charges in recent court proceedings, as reported by Tristan Kirk in The Standard.
The infringment that triggered the ban was a relatively minor one, with Cuti captured by a traffic camera driving 60 miles per hour in a 50 mph zone. Typically, such an offense would result in a fine, but as Romero already had several similar infringements on his license Magistrate Gilles Casse doled out a suspension, as well as a number of financial penalties - largely insignificant given Cuti’s wage packet.
Negative articles involving our players are never nice to write, and the timing of this from a club optics perspective could not be worse, following the news of the devastating passing of Liverpool attacker Diogo Jota in a car accident. Though the full details of that event are not yet public (with speed potentially not a factor), the reality is that even incremental increases in speed can have a huge impact on outcomes in the event of an accident. I’m sure many of us on this site (myself included) have pushed the limits a little more than they should have when in a hurry; however, losses like Jota’s are a sobering reminder that doing so is rarely, if ever, worth it.
That said, this isn’t quite the same sort of disregard for safety as that shown by former captain Hugo Lloris in his drink driving saga - but Romero, as one of Spurs’ leadership group, is under a higher level of scrutiny and should know better.
To leave things on a lighter note, it’s well known that Romero could be heading away from Spurs this summer should the club receive a significant bid. When talking transfers, a well-known idiom when a club receives an offer that is somewhat... astronomical... is, “I’ll drive him to the airport myself!”
With this suspension, if Spurs receive such an offer that idiom may need to become reality.