Ange Postecoglou has issued his verdict after Tottenham defender Cristian Romero previously retweeted a viral post slamming the club’s travel plans for returning international players.
Romero appeared to criticise his club’s previous travel arrangements after the international break when his official X account interacted with a post that stated Spurs players hadn’t been flown back on private jets after the recent international break.
The 26-year-old initially reposted – and then deleted- a message from an Argentine journalist that claimed Spurs ‘gave an advantage’ to rivals Arsenal in the weekend’s 1-0 north London derby defeat.
The game was the first for both teams after the international break of the season and ended with Mikel Arteta‘s side clinching victory as Brazilian defender Gabriel rose above Romero to score from a corner.
Romero initially interacted with the viral tweet that stated: ‘the only Premier League club that made their players come back from their national teams without their own logistics (organised by the club)’, meaning their ‘players arrived with less rest than the others’.
Ange Postecoglou has issued his verdict after Tottenham defender Cristian Romero previously interacted with a tweet slamming the club
Romero played in Tottenham’s weekend north London derby defeat against rivals Arsenal
Now, Spurs boss Postecoglou has claimed he was only made aware of his player’s online activity after the match that saw Romero play 90 minutes alongside centre-back partner Micky van de Ven.
‘It was mentioned to me [after the game] but it wasn’t mentioned to me before the game,’ said the Spurs boss.
‘All the players were back by Thursday for a Sunday game. Prior to the game there was nothing mentioned.’
Travel responsibilities for international games lie with the national federations and Spurs were happy for Romero to return on the flights proposed by Argentina after they lost a World Cup qualifier in Colombia on Tuesday.
Romero had been away on international duty with Argentina and the national team were responsible for organising his return to England
Postecoglou had previously designated Thursday as a day off and players were not expected for training until Friday.
Some clubs do provide private travel for their players to get them back quicker and Arsenal’s Brazilians were at the training ground on Thursday.
Tottenham have previously provided private travel in certain circumstances, but opted not to do so on this occasion, much to Romero’s initial disdain.
Meanwhile, Spurs are back in action on Wednesday evening when they travel to face Coventry in the third-round of the Carabao Cup just days after Postecoglou claimed he will end the club’s trophy drought this season.
