CRISTIAN ROMERO has escaped a fine and kept hold of the Tottenham captaincy despite his “lies” dig at the hierarchy.
The Argentine took to social media to write an explosive post after Wednesday’s 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth.
Within it he claimed “other people” should be coming out to speak about the club’s struggles, “but they don’t… they only show up when things are going well, to tell a few lies”.
It has been widely viewed as a dig towards Spurs’ higher-ups, although the final line “to tell a few lies” was then removed from the post.
Frank and co-sporting director Johan Lange held a meeting with Romero on Thursday morning but the World Cup winner has been let off without punishment.
Spurs boss Frank confirmed: “He is our captain, he’s not been fined.”
Asked to explain why not, the Dane added: “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.”
Romero’s outburst came after an incident-packed evening in Bournemouth where Frank was pictured drinking from an Arsenal-branded coffee cup and defender Micky van de Ven argued with fans at full-time.
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In a post on Instagram, Romero wrote: “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. I am the first.
“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.”
Team-mate Pedro Porro replied to the post, saying: “Amen. Keep going brother. We have a lot of battles left.”
Richarlison replied with an applause emoji to Romero’s message, while the Brazilian, Xavi Simons, Dominic Solanke, Radu Dragusin all liked the post.
It is not the first time Romero has been outspoken about those above him at Spurs.
Last season he urged the club to spend like rivals Chelsea and Manchester City.
While he also reposted a tweet on X that criticised the club for not putting on a private jet for him after international duty following September’s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal, after he was at fault for the Gunners’ winner.
In addition, he was very open about wanting to go to Spain at some point in his career during an interview he arranged in April.
He also saved his thank you post to Postecoglou for the day Frank was appointed, telling the axed Aussie that he “paved the way despite the many obstacles that always existed and always will exist.”
Frank named Romero captain when taking over and convinced the centre-back to sign a new contract.
The ex-Brentford boss added: “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.
“And I think a lot of the things he’s done well on and off the pitch, I’m happy with.
“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.
“Johan and I had a good conversation with him this morning about everything, which we of course keep internally.”
To make matters worse, ahead of Saturday’s hosting of Aston Villa in the FA Cup, Frank has suffered a quadruple injury blow.
Mohammed Kudus is not expected back until April after damaging his quad and tendon against Sunderland, while Rodrigo Bentancur limped off with a serious-looking hamstring problem versus Bournemouth.
Lucas Bergvall also came off with a muscle problem in that game – while Frank gave a rare, if worrying, update on Dejan Kulusevski, who has not played since having kneecap surgery in May.
The Dane said: “The latest on Dejan Kulusevski is that we know it’s a complicated injury, if there’s one person that can accelerate that, it is Dejan, he’s a top pro and got a top mentality.
“The most important thing is to remove the pain in the knee.
“Got an injection to help that 10 days ago, we know in three to four weeks if it’s settled, and when it’s settled hopefully he’ll be on the grass and from there we’ll see what’s happening.”
