Used shortly after a “nice guy” has scythed someone in half about a day after the ball has gone, it is by definition nonsense because if you have scythed someone in half about a day after the ball has gone, then you are indeed that kind of player. But I don’t recall ever hearing anyone saying “the thing is Clive/Brian, he is that kind of player”. I haven’t analysed every foul in Premier League history to tell if you those kinds of challenges are carried out by players all of us would consider to be “that kind of player” as opposed to the opposite – but the list of players with the most red cards suggests a pattern – Richard Dunne, Duncan Ferguson, Patrick Vieira with eight reds, Lee Cattermole and Roy Keane on seven, Vinnie Jones, Joey Barton and Alan Smith (obviously not that one) among those on six.
This article is about Cristian Romero – who I would have in tier A of “that kind of player” if I had any idea how to do one of those Instagram reels where you rank things (posh hotels you can’t afford, non weight-bearing exercises for middle-aged people, biscuits of the 80s etc). There is not a debate about the category in which he belongs. A player with a permanent look of mild confusion about the situation he finds himself in – am I really playing for Spurs?
Consistently inconsistent. And always just a moment away from just giving the whole game a Falling-Down-full-Michael-Douglas-ing. Six red cards in his Spurs career.
It feels like so many more. The one that sticks in my mind is in the last 16 of the Champions League exit to Milan in 2023. Hopefully you don’t remember the game, it was awful. 1-0 going into the second leg, it’s goalless in the 77th minute at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Romero’s already on a booking for lunging into Rafael Leão. And then for no apparent reason he flies into Théo Hernandez on the touchline. That sense that he was just a bit annoyed he wasn’t playing for someone better and so he needed a release.
And in this case Hernandez was that release. His four Premier League red cards feature all your favourites. Two yellows against Manchester City featuring a wild late tackle on Erling Haaland deep in the City half – really letting him know he was there.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
