Tottenham has only one match to wait before receiving massive boost

Tottenham will receive a massive boost after the international break, with Cristian Romero set to return after his long injury layoff. 

Tottenham’s highest profile and biggest money summer signing injured his hamstring on international duty on Nov. 16 against Brazil. He is making excellent progress at Hotspur Way and is scheduled to make his long-awaited, all-anticipated return on the other side of the international break.

Antonio Conte recently confirmed the news, saying:

"“Cristian Romero, I am pleased because I am seeing now he is almost 100 per cent fit and he is very very close to coming back and for sure after the international break he is available to play and help us.We are talking about another important player for us. He missed two months, despite this I see in a positive way, I have seen the improvement of players like Ben Davies, Davinson Sanchez, Japhet Tanganga and I think we exploited this period without Cristian and saw the improvement of these three central defenders.“I want to see the positive way about the injury of Cristian but now he is ready and after the international break he will play again and this is good news for us.”"

It’s touted to be a big news week, but regardless of which players Spurs acquire in the next nine days (Adama Traore should be one of them), it’s unlikely any signing will trump the importance of Romero’s return.

Davinson Sanchez has stepped up admirably in the Argentine’s absence, the Colombian even scoring the decisive goal at the death against Wolves on New Year’s Day. But a backline with a palpable lack of depth can only exceed expectations for so long without such a pivotal presence.

When Eric Dier went down recently, the club’s lack of depth came to the fore. Japhet Tanganga has severely underperformed in a month he’ll want to delete from his memory bank. Even Sanchez, who has enjoyed his most consistent run in Tottenham’s first team since the early days of Mauricio Pochettino, is starting to show some cracks without the club’s top two marshals to shepherd him.

Romero wasn’t selected by Argentina for international duty, music to Conte’s ears. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Conte travel to Buenos Aires, knock on Lionel Scaloni’s door and challenge him to a mano a mano, bareknuckle brawl to the death if Romero ever gets injured on international duty again. Surely Conte would win that bout for the ages.

Tottenham play Brighton in the FA Cup on Feb. 5, which is followed by a home date with Southampton on Feb. 9. Expect Romero to return for one of those matches, probably the Premier League encounter.

There’s no overplaying Romero’s importance to Tottenham’s chances of cementing a top four spot. With the Argentine, Dier, Davies and possibly, though improbably, a new centre back in the team, Tottenham will have a decisive leg up on West Ham and Arsenal in the run-in.