Cristian Romero escapes fine and will not be stripped of Spurs captaincy after social media outburst

Martin Macdonald

• 9 Jan 2026 06:01 CST
• 6 min read

Nieuws

Tottenham manager Thomas Frank has confirmed that Cristian Romero will not be fined and will not be stripped of the club captaincy despite an explosive rant on social media that apparently took aim at the Spurs board.

Following a 3-2 loss against Bournemouth on Wednesday, in which the Cherries scored the winner in the last minute, the Argentina defender took to Instagram to vent his frustrations.

He posted:

"Apologies to all fans of you who follow us everywhere, who are always there and will continue to be. We are responsible, there's no doubt about that. But we will keep facing up to it and trying to turn the situation around, for ourselves and for the club.

“At times like this, it should be other people coming out to speak, but they don't - as has been happening for several years now. They only show up when things are going well, to tell a few lies.

“We'll stay here, working, sticking together and giving our all to turn things around. Especially at times like this, keeping quiet, working harder and moving forward all together, is part of football.

“All together, it will be easier."

Romero’s words were endorsed by team-mates Richarlison and Pedro Porro, both of whom replied to the post, which has since been edited to remove “to tell a few lies”.

Romero has been critical of Tottenham in the past for not spending money to compete with the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal, while he has been open about a desire to one day play in La Liga.

No repercussions for Romero

After an in-house meeting between Frank, Romero and co-sporting director Johan Lange, it appears the situation has been forgotten.

"He is our captain, he’s not been fined," Frank confirmed.

"That’s an internal thing, but we haven’t done that. I think there’s a lot of ways to deal with different situations. We’ve chosen to have a good conversation with him, understand where he stands, handle it internally and that’s everything I have to say.

"I said it when I named him the captain that even though he’s an experienced player, he’s tried a lot, he’s still a young leader. I’m actually very happy with his performance last night, I think he was a true captain in many ways throughout the game. Speaking up at half-time when we were 2-1 down, keep believing, keep doing the right things.

"But also when you’re a young leader sometimes you make a mistake, of course it’s good to keep it internally."

Spurs are currently 14th in the Premier League table and have won just one out of their last six matches in the top-flight.

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