'Everything has been dealt with internally' - Thomas Frank refuses to confirm if captain Cristian Romero has been fined for 'disgraceful' social media rant

Romero took to Instagram to take aim at the club's hierarchy in the wake of their 2-2 draw with Manchester City, and the closing of the transfer window. Spurs have 13 players currently injured, including the likes of James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, and Richarlison, and Romero himself went down with illness at half-time of the comeback against Pep Guardiola's side. Twenty-four hours later, with the transfer window shut, Romero took to Instagram to take aim at the club's decision-makers, having seen just Conor Gallagher and Brazilian left-back Souza arrive in the window.

He wrote: "Great effort from all my teammates yesterday, they were incredible. I wanted to be available to help them even though I wasn’t feeling well, especially since we only had 11 players available — unbelievable but true and disgraceful.

"We’ll keep showing up and taking responsibility to turn this around, working hard and staying together.

"All that’s left is to thank all of you for being there and for always supporting us, the fans, @spursofficial."

Frank was asked repeatedly about his captain's comments at his pre-Manchester United press conference on Thursday. He repeated the words "everything has been dealt with internally" consistently. 

Per Sky Sports, he said: "It's the beauty of written text is you can read a lot into it. And nobody really knows [what he meant], except Cuti [Romero] or the guys who have spoken to him. Everything is dealt with internally.

"It shows that Cuti is extremely passionate. He wants to win, do everything he can with his teammates to achieve great things. You need to ask him next time you speak to him.

"If you want to know what he meant, you have to ask him. That's the right way to take that question.

"Cuti is a very passionate character and player, who will want to leave everything on the pitch. He's very ambitious and wants to win every single time. Sometimes when you are like that, it can become an outburst. It is something we have of course dealt with, and dealt with internally.

"There's a lot of ways of doing things. Cuti has been very good for us this season and in the past seasons. That's very important to be aware of.

"I wouldn't have done it. That's my message."

This latest outburst is not an isolated incident, but rather the second time in a month that Romero has publicly criticised the club’s operations. In January, following a chaotic 3-2 defeat to Bournemouth, Romero posted a similarly veiled attack, hitting out at "other people" - understood to be the club's hierarchy - claiming that they "tell a few lies" when they speak. Although the specific reference to lying was later edited out, the damage was done.

Frank, though, believes fans simply read too much into social media, adding: "Social media, I can't get rid of it. It's what some people call the future, or whatever it is.

"One thing I do know: we all definitely put too much attention to social media. All of us. It seems like everything is written on social media is the truth.

"Everything we take: that's the truth. That's a challenge in general, overall. That's the way it is. We deal with it."

He also defended Spurs' signings, saying: "I think we signed Conor Gallagher, which is a quality player for the starting XI. Of course no one is promised any position, but we signed a quality player and a young player for the future [in Souza].

"If you compare it to other Premier League clubs, that's very good. Where we are, it's ok. We tried to do more, but it was not possible for whatever reason.

"It is very, very important that we take good decisions in the calm - both for the long and short term.

"Of course we looked at loan options, we looked at longer-term options. It was not the case we wanted to sign five players."

Spurs play United this weekend. It will be telling to see if Romero retains both the armband and his starting status during Saturday's early kick-off.