Romero’s absence from Argentina throws Tottenham plan into doubt
By Aaron Coe
What is the Tottenham return plan?
Tottenham and Aston Villa both have been trying to work with the South American national teams to hatch a plan to get their players back as quickly as possible. Emiliano Martinez and Emiliano Buendia of Villa are both in the same boat as Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero with Argentina, while Davinson Sanchez faces similar hurdles with Colombia.
Essentially, the clubs are looking to have a couple of things happen here. The first is that the players would only play in the first two qualifiers and leave World Cup qualifying early. For the Argentinians that would be after facing archrival Brazil but before facing Bolivia at home. For Sanchez, that means facing Paraguay and then not facing Chile.
By leaving after just two matches instead of three, the players would knock at least four days off their potential absence. Both Colombia and Argentina play their third qualifier for this break on Thursday, meaning the players would likely lose at least one if not two extra matches.
Tottenham, Villa get creative with a return plan
So step one is to get the players released early, step two is a bit more creative. Whenever it is that the players leave, they are not going to fly back directly to the UK. If they fly directly to the UK they are stuck in the hotel quarantine which would kill their fitness. Instead, according to The Athletic, the players would be flying to Croatia, which is a country, NOT on the red list.
By staying in Croatia for 10 days, the players would have the freedom to actually train and hopefully not lose all their fitness. Further, if they enter the UK after having not been in a red list country in the previous 10 days, they are then free to join the team and participate as normal – assuming negative Covid tests of course.
This seems like a wonderful plan that helps the countries and helps the clubs both but there may be a snag.