Antonio Conte has big plans for Tottenham defender Cristian Romero after the Argentinean's World Cup-winning displays in Qatar.
The 24-year-old was on the winning side in Sunday's World Cup final and put in an imperious display across the dramatic match which took twists and turns before being decided on penalties after 120 minutes of football as Argentina, Lionel Messi and Romero held aloft the trophy.
It marked the end of a tournament in which Romero has steadily improved with each passing game, starting with a wobble or two against Saudi Arabia in his first match back from injury but impressing more and more for Argentina in Qatar before stepping up with his best performance to date in the final at the Lusail Stadium.
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Romero has enjoyed a remarkable 18 months so early in his career. It began with him being named Serie A Defender of the Year while at Atalanta, then he won the Copa America with Argentina and earned himself a big money move to the Premier League and Spurs before his exploits at this World Cup.
The young defender will return to Spurs after a very brief rest to a head coach in Conte who has high hopes for Romero but ones which also come with high standards.
When the Italian spoke to football.london about the defender last season, he explained that he wanted more from him.
"Cristian Romero is a good player, and he has to be focused in every moment of the game," said Conte. "If he is focused in every moment of the game, with the ball, without the ball, he is really good player with a lot of space for improvement. He played a really good game, like the other team-mates.
"For sure we are talking about a player, a young player, with a lot of space for improvement. He has to have the desire, the will, to continue to improve, and to ask himself much more. Because he has the possibility to become a top defender, but it depends on him, and on the manager to help him, sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way but the most important thing is he has to improve."
When pressed on what he meant by those good ways and bad ways, Conte admitted that he has to shout at the Argentine at times and that his yellow card count had been too high at that point.
"Cristian is a player who has to be focused in every moment of the game. If he’s good, he’s good to be focused from the start, from the first second to the last second of the game. He is a really important player for us. I think he has a bit to improve in this situation, to be focused in every moment of the game," he said.
"Sometimes he takes a yellow card that he can avoid. I think that he has to improve in his aspect, to be focused from the start until the end. Sometimes you can’t explain this to him in a good manner. Sometimes you have to shout! (Laughs) But he’s a good guy and he understands very well that what I do is always best for the team and for the best for the player to improve himself, because I think he has great quality to become a top defender so when I think this it’s important to find the right way to improve the player."
Romero's aggression is part of his game. In one moment he looks almost too laid back and then in the next moment is launching into a booming challenge that takes ball and man. He likes to leave on his mark on his opponent and you can imagine him once being that youngster in the playground who would enjoy kicking ankles and shins as he played football.
Romero often treads a fine line between incredibly well-timed tackles and reckless lunges. He was sent off in Conte's first match as Spurs manager in November 2021, picking up two yellow cards against Vitesse Arnhem in the Europa Conference League clash and racked up 12 yellow cards in all competitions last season.
At one point during the campaign, Conte had to publicly state that Romero needed to calm down and avoid picking up two more Premier League yellow cards that would have seen him banned for two games in the competition. To his credit, Romero listened and did not receive another yellow card from that moment on but still managed to maintain his edge.
Conte told football.london in pre-season last summer that he wants Romero to have a "hot heart and a cold mind".
"I think that in every situation, it's important to have a hot heart and a cold mind. This is the most important thing if you want to be a winner," said the Italian.
"You have to be ready to fight in the right way, but you also have to pay great attention. At the same time, I like when my team go to help another player to create a special unity, but every time, we need to also have a mind that's very, very cold. This is very, very important if you want to take another step."
A few weeks later Romero made headlines after Spurs' draw at Chelsea after the referee Anthony Taylor missed the Argentine yanking the hair of Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella in the moments before Harry Kane's 96th minute equaliser. VAR referee Mike Dean did not deem it to be a violent act within the rules but afterwards admitted that he should have told Taylor to look at the incident himself on his pitchside monitor in order to make his own mind up.
Conte admitted after that game that Romero is a player he constantly speaks to as he tries to improve him.
"About Cristian, I speak a lot with him. For sure, he's a player who's really strong physically," said the Spurs boss. "He has no fear of anyone but for sure he has to be always really focused to understand the situation, to try to always be better, to improve the situations he needs to improve, but I speak a lot with him, I speak a lot with my players about being strong - but always in a good way."
The thing is Conte loves a warrior. He wants his players to be his embodiment on the pitch though, becoming tougher, aggressive and that little bit nastier and willing to do anything within the rules to get the result. He can see that change happening gradually but he wants to form a squad of constantly hungry winners with a nasty edge.
The Tottenham boss, who has worked with the likes of Giorgio Chiellini, wants his players to understand like the legendary Juventus defender did that winning is the only way and while some draws, like that last-gasp one at Stamford Bridge, might feel like a victory, they are not.
"This is a step that I continue to ask of my players. For sure, we did a little step forward but we need to continue to complete this step," he said. "Because to be nasty is very important. Very important. It means that you need to feel the blood of your opponent and try in a sporting way to kill your opponent.
"You have to understand, when you go to play a game, you can draw also, but at the same time you have to understand if the draw is a success for you or if the draw is [like] a loss. If you want to have ambition, I think you have to think only to get three points and the draw is half a loss for me.
"I'm trying to transfer my idea, this feeling. It's important. If you want to be competitive, to have ambition to fight for something important you have to improve in many aspects. Also your character has to be strong and you have to understand very well the difference between a win, a draw and a loss. It's totally different. The win makes you happy, the feeling is good, the confidence goes up. When you lose, for you should have the opposite situation."
That is why Romero is such a mouldable defender for Conte. The Argentine has all of the skills to become one of the best centre-backs in the game and he has the aggression and desire to take him there.
His biggest obstacle thus far has been the little injuries he's picked up during his time at Tottenham that have kept him out for months here and there. Those injuries have frustrated Spurs fans, giving them the sense that Romero gets fit for Argentina but not for his north London employers.
That's not the case though. football.london understands there have been numerous occasions at Spurs when he has declared himself available for selection immediately after an injury, but the club's medical and coaching staff have told him he was in no fit state to play.
"About Romero I can tell you that for him, if I ask the possibility to play with one leg, he wants to play with one leg,” Conte confirmed last month. "For this reason I tell the fans we have players really committed for the club and maybe Romero, he had an injury because he wanted to risk and we wanted to take the risk."
Romero struggled to regain his fine form from last season when he came back from an adductor muscle injury during this campaign and that will be the task for him when he returns from this World Cup triumph, to carry this form back into Premier League life.
The Argentine will be on a high, rightly so, and his head will be in the clouds, but there's a man in Antonio Conte just waiting to bring him back down to earth but only to make him world class as well as a world champion.
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