Son Heung-min and Cristian Romero were involved in a joking dugout incident during Tottenham Hotspur’s latest victory on Monday night.
Spurs correspondent Alasdair Gold picked up on the incident in the home dugout on Monday and revealed the details behind it on the Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham podcast.
Will Spurs get top four this season?
Yes
No
The two players were both taken off in the emphatic 5-0 victory over Frank Lampard’s Everton on Monday, with a huge game against Manchester United coming up at the weekend.
Romero was withdrawn early in the second half with the Argentine already on a yellow card, and he was waiting for the South Korean when he was taken off after 67 minutes.
Gold revealed the defender was waiting for the 29-year-old to return to the substitutes’ seats to give him some tough love after finding the back of the net in the first half.
He said: “There was a lovely little moment after [Son] came off. I saw some commotion on the bench when he came off, but I couldn’t see exactly what it [was] – until I saw a little video today.
“So he goes and gives a high-five to all the players and staff, as players always do when they come off. Cristian Romero decided ‘nope, that’s not what you’re doing’, and he kind of grabbed his hand, held on to it, then kind of yanked him over, so Son fell across all the players’ laps in that row – I think it was Gollini, Emerson and Romero.
“It was like one of those moments when two brothers are fighting. He kind of pulled Son down, started whacking him on the back in like a playful style, started pulling his hair. It was the weirdest but yet funniest thing. And Son, you could see he is laughing his head off while it’s all happening.”
TIF Thoughts on Gold’s comments…
It will encourage fans to hear small details like this which suggest the Argentine defender has become a popular figure among the Spurs players despite being there for less than a year.
On the pitch, he has certainly impressed since returning from his long-term hamstring injury and has been a prominent feature in Antonio Conte’s XI since returning.
And it will also be encouraging to see the players in good spirits ahead of what could be a huge final 12 games of the Premier League campaign with Champions League qualification to play for.
In other news: ‘He looked gutted’ – Alasdair Gold issues worrying touchline claim at Spurs