Cristian Romero has once again called out the Tottenham board - nine months on from making a tongue-in-cheek comment directed at former chairman Daniel Levy
Tottenham's players delivered a telling response after Cristian Romero made a tongue-in-cheek comment to Daniel Levy following last May's Europa League final.
At the after-party of Spurs' 1-0 win against Manchester United in Bilbao, Romero, 27, is said to have opened each bottle of champagne one after another and made the comment 'this is on the president' in reference to former chairman Levy, who left his role in September.
According to The Telegraph, those in the dressing room claim the gesture was met by cheers from the rest of the celebrating players but the feeling is that Levy and the club owed the players one.
Romero, who has been at Tottenham since his initial loan move from Atalanta in August 2021, has become a real cult hero in north London and has not been afraid to speak out about his feelings.
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Last summer, Romero waited just an hour after Tottenham confirmed the appointment of Thomas Frank as head coach to send a message to Ange Postecoglou, praising the Aussie as a "great person" who "paved the way despite the many obstacles that always existed and always will exist".
Then following Spurs' 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth in January, Romero launched a furious rant and accused "people" at the club of only showing up when things are going well and "to tell a few lies."
He escalated his anger with the Tottenham board by making another swipe just one hour after the January transfer window closed on Monday. The Spurs captain branded it as "disgraceful" as Frank's side were left with just 11 senior players available for the second half of Sunday's 2-2 draw against Manchester City.
Spurs have lost nine players to injury, sold last season's top scorer Brennan Johnson to Crystal Palace and made just two first-team signings in the January window. Conor Gallagher was recruited in a £35million deal from Atletico Madrid, while teenage left-back Souza was brought in from Santos for £13m.
"Great effort from all my team-mates yesterday [against Manchester City], they were incredible," Romero said in an Instagram post. "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."
With the Tottenham players feeling the same as Romero after the Europa League final, the dressing room may well be singing from the same hymn sheet as the Argentine on his latest fume at the board.