The arrival of Roberto De Zerbi as a replacement for Igor Tudor seems a positive, if risky, move on the face of it, but that will only be recognised as such if the Italian stops the North Londoners from dropping down into the Championship.
Damaging season for Tottenham... again
Frankly, it's been a horrible couple of seasons for Spurs, notwithstanding their Europa League win last season under Ange Postecoglou, which guaranteed them a place in this season's Champions League.
Under Tudor, they restored some pride with a Round of 16 second-leg win over Atletico Madrid, but the damage had been done in the first leg in the Spanish capital, when the Lilywhites found themselves four goals down in the opening 22 minutes.
A personal disaster for reserve goalkeeper, Antonin Kinsky, who was subbed off after only 18 minutes, it was a collective abomination of a performance, from which no Spurs player can escape.
Captain Cristian Romero was as culpable as any other, though his contention will surely be that by Tudor playing him on the right side of a back three, the experiment was never going to work.
Atleti circling after release clause revelation
That's as maybe, but Romero's under-par showing in that game certainly hasn't put Diego Simeone off from pursuing his countryman.
It's understood that Atletico want to sign the 27-year-old in time for next season, and Romero's father has certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons by letting it be known that his son has a release clause of between £50m and £70m in his Tottenham contract.
Whether the influence of De Zerbi will put an entirely different complexion on the contract situations of Romero and others remains to be seen, though the public release of such contract information would suggest that the player has already made up his mind to move on to pastures new.
Romero and his representatives surely had to have known in advance that his father was going to speak about such matters, and it raises the question as to whether still having him as captain of the team for their most important matches of the 2025/26 campaign would be a wise move from De Zerbi.
Not the first time Romero has rocked the boat
It's not the first time this season that the Argentinian has appeared to have rocked the boat either.
After a 2-2 draw against Manchester City, he took a pop at the club's owners on social media when he wrote, "I wanted to be available to help them even though I wasn’t feeling well, especially as we had only 11 players available - unbelievable but true and disgraceful."
If, as seems more than likely, Romero is angling for a move away, would prospective purchasers, Atleti, be getting value for money?
Over the last two seasons, the defender has only been available to feature in 57 competitive matches, and although that sounds a lot, it's just the 13th-best appearance record in the greater squad during that time.
To give some context, Pedro Porro has made 91 appearances, and Pape Matar Sarr has made 88.
He does at least redeem himself with his passing stats. Despite Porro playing 34 more times than him, Romero's 3,128 total passes are not a million miles away from the Spaniard's 3,994 in that same time.
Superb numbers
His 2,779 completed passes are only 228 fewer than Porro's 3,007, but Romero's 88.8% accuracy, only bettered by Micky van de Ven (90.5%) and Yves Bissouma (89.2%), is much better than Porro's 75.4%.
His 221 clearances have only been topped by Porro and Kevin Danso, with the latter and Van de Ven the two Spurs players to have made more headed clearances than Romero's 117 since the start of last season.
His 116 tackles are the sixth most in the squad since the start of 2024/25, with a 62.1% success rate, also one of the best in the squad.
505 one-on-one duels attempted is the seventh-best output in this regard, though Romero's 64% success puts him top of the tree.
His 234 aerial duels attempted are only surpassed by Dominic Solanke's 260, but the striker has won just 99 of his, whilst the defender came out on top on 156 occasions.
15 yellow cards and two reds for Romero is the worst disciplinary record at Tottenham over the last two seasons.
However, Simeone was never known as a shrinking violet during his playing days, so one can assume he sees a kindred spirit in the Tottenham captain.
Seven goals and four assists are incidental, but certainly not a bad return from a centre-back, and in a team like Atleti that relies heavily on set pieces, this part of Romero's game could also be just what Los Rojiblancos are looking for.
Ultimately, money talks, but whether he's worth the fee being bandied around at present is really a moot point at this stage.
