The Tottenham captain had his say just minutes after the winter transfer window closed and it sparked a reaction from team-mates
The reaction from Tottenham captain Cristian Romero's team-mates showed a unified belief after the closing of the transfer window.
The Argentine is never shy about coming forward with his opinions on social media on decisions taken by the club, having posted about 'obstacles' and 'lies' in the past when speaking about those within Tottenham. football.london has previously reported that the 27-year-old has gone from a quiet member of the squad to a powerful figure within the north London outfit with huge sway.
Romero also has a sense of timing when he drops his Instagram grenades into the room. While most of his team-mates had immediately said their public goodbyes to Ange Postecoglou last summer, the centre-back waited until less than an hour after Thomas Frank was installed as his successor to post about the Australian and how he had "paved the way despite the many obstacles that always existed and always will exist".
On Monday, while the Tottenham players had mostly posted their social media offerings the previous day in the immediate aftermath of the 2-2 draw with Manchester City, Romero, who came off ill at half-time, waited until around half an hour after the transfer window closed before having his say.
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"Great effort from all my teammates 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," he wrote.
"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."
There have been some attempts among fans and the media to explain that the word 'disgraceful', which was accompanied by a palm to the face emoji, might have been lost in translation somewhat from the Spanish-speaking Romero or his social media team as the post was published in English.
However, had that been the case then with the huge reaction from the fanbase - the post had had more than 115,000 likes at the time this article was published - there would have been a move to correct any mistake. Yet approaching 20 hours after the post was published, it remains exactly as it was first put out. Again, it's worth noting that Romero has history of speaking his mind and timing it to maximum effect.
For his part, the World Cup and two-time Copa America winner does appear to have a genuine desire to push the club on to become more ambitious. He would not have signed a new long-term deal last summer if he was desperate to move on.
He watched his team-mates struggle at this same point last season with a lack of fit and available bodies - himself one of the injured players - and now he is watching exactly the same scenario play out, with him and Wilson Odobert have to play while ill on Sunday and for Romero also in midweek in Frankfurt, and the club show no reaction to it in the transfer market, simply replacing last season's top scorer with a midfielder and signing a 19-year-old left-back.
Frank had admitted the club needed more options in the attacking areas with their 11 injured players, many of them long term. He told football.london that those injuries had ensured the squad was reaching the end of the transfer window weaker than when it started it, and he said that loan moves would be a perfectly acceptable option to help in the short term.
The Dane had said at the start of the season of his brand of football: "I'm a big believer, I always say this one liner, if you don't take risk, you also take risk. So I think it's important that we take risks."
Spurs did not heed that mantra. They stuck to their pre-injury crisis plans to sign players in the coming summer when there is more quality available and now the coming weeks and months are going to be difficult for Frank, Romero and the paper-thin squad with more injuries likely as the players overplay.
The one mercy is that for a little while the games are one a week, but be warned that Tottenham appear to do freak training ground injuries like no other. Fate will find a way as it did with Mohammed Kudus' three-month lay-off just days after Brennan Johnson was told he was surplus to requirements and sold.
So Romero's post proves he cares and he's unhappy and it also proves that so do his team-mates old and new. Among those to like his post on Instagram were his vice-captain James Maddison, star striker Dominic Solanke, Xavi Simons, Pedro Porro, Djed Spence, Pape Matar Sarr, the now injured Kevin Danso, the now on loan Dane Scarlett and the club's only senior winter signing Conor Gallagher.
All of them endorsed his message in its current state. The captain and players have spoken. They wanted help and they did not get it. A tough second half to the season awaits and as Romero said they will have to "keep showing up and taking responsibility to turn this around".