Tottenham to fine Cristian Romero & Giovani Lo Celso over Argentina fiasco
By Tom Gott
Tottenham are expected to hand out fines to Argentina duo Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso after they went against club orders to represent their country during the international break.
Premier League clubs had unanimously agreed not to release their stars for matches in red-list countries like Brazil, where the duo became the stars of a chaotic show which saw Sunday's match suspended.
Brazilian health officials stormed the pitch in an attempt to detain Romero and Lo Celso, as well as Aston Villa duo Emiliano Martinez and Emiliano Buendia, amid concerns over their quarantine status.
According to football.london, those in charge at Spurs were angry enough about the pair's decision to accept their international call-ups in the first place, but now that they are at the heart of a global incident, tensions have risen further.
Because of their decision to disobey club orders, Romero and Lo Celso are expected to be handed hefty fines, and the same goes for centre-back Davinson Sanchez, who has also been in South America with Colombia.
Spurs' frustration towards the trio is understandable as they must undergo a ten-day quarantine period upon their return to England which will definitely force them to miss one Premier League game and puts their involvement in more games at risk.
Should the trio all head back from South America immediately, they would miss Saturday's meeting with Crystal Palace and the Europa Conference League tie with Rennes on Thursday.
However, if they wait until the end of the international break to jet back to England, the three players would all miss the London derby against Chelsea on 19 September.
To make matters worse, the two Argentine's have barely even done anything during this international break. Romero was suspended for the first game and then played just eight minutes against Brazil, while Lo Celso only played an hour against Venezuela.
Sanchez has, at least, played a significant role for Colombia, but things haven't gone particularly well for the centre-back. His country failed to beat Bolivia, and he was then nutmegged in the build-up to Paraguay's goal in another 1-1 draw.