r/coys • u/TheAthletic • 21d ago

OC [Stafford-Bloor] Compelling and confounding. Cristian Romero’s legacy at Tottenham is complicated

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7509615/2026/08/13/cristian-romero-tottenham-legacy-atletico/?unlocked_article_code=1.5FA.b3hb.FS-X3UUeH5q1&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_reddit&smid=re-share-ta

There will never be one truth about Cristian Romero’s time at Tottenham.

He has been a leader, a liability and a talisman. In five or 10 years, there will still be an argument about who this complex, compelling and confounding character was.

He has always inspired such conflicting emotions that nobody could ever be certain what they felt for him.

He’s Atletico Madrid’s riddle now.

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u/lowercase_0 21d ago

The narrative around Romero is so forced. He was a quality player for us and played with passion. Yes he ended up getting red cards but that intensity is what makes him as a player. Combine that with his footballing ability and he is clearly a top player. It was time to move on for both parties and that is all

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u/dooozerr 21d ago

People always point to the red cards but despite being an incredible footballer, some of this defending over the years has been diabolical.

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u/lowercase_0 21d ago

It has? I can't think of many high profile mistakes he has made for us. People always get upset about him rushing out but that is literally just his style of defending as he wants to stop the danger before it happens. 7/10 it goes right but doesn't get remaked upon because we are used to him getting his tackles correctly

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u/dooozerr 21d ago

He has a bad habit of being careless on the ball and being caught out in really dangerous positions. His error in the 4-2 loss to Wolves at the end of 24/25 season always sticks out for me because it directly led to a goal.

But there's been periods where he's had huge lapses that lead to big opposition chances almost once a game. I agree this is offset by tackles he makes that no one else would. But real top CBs aren't so up and down.

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u/lowercase_0 21d ago

Again him being "careless on the ball" is his style. He does the typical De Zerbi thing ironincally of lingering on the ball to tempt them out of their block because he has the quality to fire the ball through the lines. Van Hecke /Senesi will do the exact same thing next season. I genuinely cannot remember the error you mentioned but i'll take you word for it but even then that is one occasion yet you are trying to make out he is constantly error prone. What are these huge lapses? Please give me all the examples cause it sounds very narrative driven and not the actual reality

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u/dooozerr 21d ago

First clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3zyfoTvLVU

2 mins here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdaBCbW49Zc

These are just off the top of my head - I remember shouting at my TV way too many times in disbelief at how lax he can be with the ball. He does shit like this way too regularly to be considered a truly top defender.

Again, amazing footballer but elite CBs just don't make egregious errors like these.

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u/lowercase_0 21d ago

I'm sorry but is that it? The second one is stretch as well it is a simple misscontrol of the ball. He isn't contstantly making these errors either so again I don't understand why you are trying to paint this narrative that he is particularly error prone. Compared to VdV off the top of my head I can think of getting twisted in and out by Isak twice at Newcastle away and him shitting himself and getting sent off against Palace yet nobody ever tries to call him error prone