Much has been made of Cristian Romero's supposed indiscpline and lack of leadership as the new captain of Tottenham Hotspur, succeeding Son Heung-min, and while 99 percent of that is complete mainstream media drivel by an increasingly annoying Premier League punditry base, Romero hasn't exactly assuaged the 1 percent with some silly suspensions this season. But in his absence, fellow star center back Micky van de Ven has done little to convince about his own leadership merits, thus increasing Romero's value.
In a recent column for The Times, Tony Cascarino wrote a thought provoking piece about Van de Ven, calling him out for struggling at a time when Tottenham are fighting relegation and need their other fiery central defender to step up. Cascarino took Van de Ven's struggles to their logical conclusion and surmised that VDV's inability to be a leader won't bode well for his desire to pursue a dream move to an even bigger club.
Everything penned in that piece is accurate. Van de Ven is a supremely gifted footballer and one of the fastest center backs on this planet, capable of scoring goals that most defenders could only dream of, including his Puskas worthy solo run at the beginning of the season.
Micky van de Ven is not a leader yet
But Van de Ven has also been as disastrous as any Tottenham player in the biggest games this season, with his work in the absence of Romero only confirmed that he remains a step below the Argentinian World Cup and Copa America hero - the reigning Europa League MVP.
Van de Ven wants to move to Real Madrid. The tea leaves are too obvious not to read, and Van de Ven isn't exactly going out of his way to deny the transfer rumors that float through the English papers. But when you watch how he treats the fans or recall how he openly snubbed Thomas Frank and then you see the ego problems in Madrid that persist, it's hard to think of Van de Ven as the kind of stable center back the elite clubs will want.
The Dutchman needs to mature, and while nobody wants to admit that their star player isn't stepping it up and even fewer want to criticize a young player in this way, Van de Ven has soured Tottenham fans. His disrespect towards the Spurs faithful in the stadium is emblematic of a cultural problem within the players in the squad, such as goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, and as the losses pile up, more questions will be asked of these so-called leaders.
Now the good news for Spurs is that Van de Ven's immaturity will likely keep him at the club for longer. Real Madrid, Liverpool, Barcelona, and all the others will have other, better options like Nico Schlotterbeck, which gives Van de Ven more time to season and stew on what it means to be a leader who takes charge.