Christian Romero red card: Tottenham captain’s week ends in ‘perfect storm’

Tottenham boss Thomas Frank called it the «perfect storm».

Other assessments are available of Cristian Romero’s lunge at Manchester United midfielder Casemiro half an hour into their Premier League game at Old Trafford.

At the end of a week during which Romero has been at the centre of attention after he publicly condemned the Spurs hierarchy for their failure to invest in the squad, the Argentina defender once again left Frank to defend him.

The match, which was goalless when he was shown a straight red card for the foul on Casemiro, ended in a 2-0 defeat for Spurs.

«He apologised to his team-mates in the dressing room,» said Frank afterwards, having argued on Friday that too much attention had been paid to Romero’s social media outburst and defended the «passion» of his captain.

The facts were quite simple at Old Trafford.

Romero overhit the ball slightly, so was going to be marginally late as he went to play a pass. The ball flicked up off Casemiro’s left foot, which meant Romero struck his opponent’s right with full force on the shin, before he played the ball.

There was little time – but those are the fine margins that exist in the Premier League.

According to the Premier League Match Centre, Romero’s challenge met the threshold for serious foul play because it was «made with excessive force and endangered an opponent».

Former Premier League official Darren Cann agreed with the decision.

«Romero makes a forceful challenge on Casemiro which is, in law, undoubtedly a serious foul play tackle,» Cann told BBC Sport.

«It was a really excellent decision from referee Michael Oliver, who was brilliantly positioned.»

Not even Frank could argue Oliver was wrong to send Romero off.

«The red card is a red card,» he said. «But I have watched it back five times, he clearly tried to go for the ball.»

As Romero had already been sent off once this season, against Liverpool in December, he will now miss Tottenham’s next four Premier League games through suspension. He will not feature again domestically until the rematch with Arne Slot’s side on 15 March.

But there are more damning statistics than that.

Twice – in different games against Brentford – the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents panel concluded he got away with tackles he should have been sent off for.

Nonetheless, Romero has still become the first player to be red carded twice in the Premier League this season. He now has four in the league since he joined Tottenham in 2021, the most of any player during this period, and the joint-most for anyone from the club in the competition overall.

He has six Spurs red cards in total.

«I didn’t know that,» admitted Frank when informed of Romero’s unhappy record in response to a previous answer.

Unsurprisingly, Frank was asked about the wisdom of having Romero as his captain. In terms of leading by example, it was a very bad look.

«No, there is not,» said the Dane in response to whether there is any regret about Romero’s status.

«I think it is fair to say he doesn’t have any intention to get a red card after 28 minutes. He is sorry for the incident. He apologised to his team-mates in the dressing room. He is one of the most important players.»

Frank’s answer to whether he would consider taking the armband off Romero was predictable.

«No,» he said.

It was the same succinct manner he used later to a point that Romero was not helping a team that were already without 10 senior players at kick-off, and subsequently also lost full-back Destiny Udogie to injury.

«No, it doesn’t,» he said.

Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario also defended his team-mate on TNT Sports.

«He’s our captain and today he made a mistake,» he said. «But we know the player he is.

«He’s going to come back stronger, for sure, and he’ll help us throughout the rest of the season.»

But Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy was clear Romero «let his team-mates down», adding: «It is irresponsible, especially after a week where he’s been talking about recruitment and a lack of players.

«He’s the captain, the leader – he needs to do better.»

Murphy wasn’t the only pundit critical of Romero.

«You just know he’s got that switch,» Joe Hart, who played for Tottenham among others, told TNT Sports. «He doesn’t need to do that. He just smashes him.

«Is he a good leader? I don’t know. He must be from what we don’t see because Thomas Frank seems to stand by him no matter what.»

Former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves was similarly unimpressed.

«When he looks at it back he’ll think ‘why did I do that?’,» he said.

«He’s club captain. He needs to be leading by example – but that’s not the example he needs to be setting.»

Frank has made it clear Romero will still be captain when he returns for that Liverpool game, which will split two Champions League last-16 ties, when Juventus and Atletico Madrid are two of the four opponents they could meet.

In the meantime, he must hope for more level heads because Romero’s dismissal led to another defeat. And, with local rivals West Ham starting to pick up points, the spectre of relegation is far too close for comfort.