Cristian Romero is under fresh scrutiny after Toby Alderweireld questioned whether the Tottenham Hotspur captain has been giving his team the calm leadership a centre back must provide. Romero has missed the past few games with a right MCL injury, and Tottenham have still been getting results without him.

Alderweireld, who played for Spurs in the 2010s alongside Jan Vertonghen under Mauricio Pochettino, did not hide his view in a recent interview with Tom Allnut of The Times. He called Romero an unbelievable player in moments, but said red cards do not help the team and argued that when the side needs its captain, he must be steering the ship rather than adding to the trouble.

That criticism lands at a time when Romero is already a divisive figure in north London. The article describes him as one of the best centre backs in the Premier League, yet many Spurs fans would reportedly accept it if he left for a bigger club in Spain in the summer transfer window. The same piece says he flirted with a move in 2025, leaving his future a regular subject of debate even before this injury layoff.

The timing matters because Tottenham have been in a relegation battle and are now just one point away from safety after two of their last games. In that kind of fight, the margin for error at the back is thin, and the expectation around a captain is even thinner. Alderweireld said centre backs should be flawless, secure and not crazy, adding that a captain has to be a calm person and a trustful leader, not a risk to himself.

Romero’s absence has not derailed the results, but it has sharpened the conversation around what Tottenham miss most when he is out. The team can survive a short spell without him; the harder question is whether Spurs can trust a captain whose best qualities and biggest flaws have often seemed to arrive in the same match.