Gary Neville has responded to Cristian Romero (Image: Getty)
Gary Neville has hit back at Cristian Romero’s comments, reminding the defender that he was part of a Tottenham Hotspur side that narrowly avoided relegation last season after conceding 65 goals. Neville’s response comes after the Argentine branded the Manchester United legend ‘stupid’ for recently describing Romero and Lisandro Martinez as the ‘best worst centre‑halves in the world’ ahead of England’s semi‑final against the World Cup holders.
Neville had predicted England would score twice against Argentina, telling The Overlap: “I don’t see how we won’t score at least two goals. Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martinez seem to give away a goal between them in every match. I call them the best-worst centre-back pairing in the world because at times they are absolutely extraordinary, and the next instant they go from the sublime to the ridiculous.”
Evidently, Romero had caught wind of those remarks, and following Argentina’s 2-1 fightback against the Three Lions, he responded. “The only thing that I hope for is that when I retire, I am not that stupid. Hopefully I won’t criticise a player or anyone because at the end of the day, we are doing our best for our national team,” he told DSports.
“Sometimes it goes right for us, sometimes badly, but we are just happy to be in a World Cup final again. I think we are making history, for us it is something really huge, and we feel the significance of this shirt like no-one else.”
Neville has since defended his original remarks, insisting that Lionel Messi has bailed out his fellow players at the World Cup. “Yeah, I said they give goals away and they’ve conceded six, by the way, in the knockout games, in four matches,” the pundit said on Sky Sports. “If they didn’t have Lionel Messi up front..
“Those two should go and hug him every single minute of every single day because he’s had to pull them out of the mire. They conceded two against Egypt and two against Cape Verde, one against Switzerland and one against England so they’ve conceded six goals in the knockout phase. I did go on to say that they are incredible – and those were my exact words – and their force of nature of how they try and win their games, they go from the sublime to the ridiculous.
“Romero played in a team [Tottenham] last year that nearly went down and got relegated in the Premier League, conceding 65 goals, so I think I know what I’m talking about when I watch a player. He’s very talented, as is Lisandro Martinez, but they do make mistakes, lots of them, and they have conceded goals.”
Neville continued: “But they are a force of nature, they have incredible personalities, they go and win every header in the attacking box and sometimes in the defensive box and I just see such a contradiction in games. He’s relatively young, Romero, he’s not an experienced defender yet. He’s won a World Cup and he’s got incredible achievements. But without Lionel Messi last night and without Lionel Messi in these last two tournaments..”
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Romero has been strongly linked with a departure from Tottenham this summer, despite having put pen to paper on a fresh contract just twelve months ago, when he was also handed the captain’s armband.
England still have one remaining fixture at the World Cup – a third-place play-off against France, who were beaten 2-0 by Spain in their semi-final. That match gets under way on Saturday at 10pm. Argentina, meanwhile, will bid to defend their World Cup title when they take on Spain in Sunday’s final at 8pm.