‘Almost breaks your leg’… Emerson Royal says £165k-a-week Spurs player is such a menace in training

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Tottenham Hotspur defender Emerson Royal has spoken about how Cristian Romero has mastered the art of powerful yet clean tackles.

Emerson was speaking about his Spurs teammate to Brazilian outlet Desimpedidos, with fellow Selecao ace Richarlison also taking part in the interview.

Romero has made a name for himself as one of the toughest tacklers in the Premier League, helping transform the Tottenham back line into a mean machine.

The 25-year-old was previously prone to the odd rush of blood to the head and used to be on the receiving end of many yellows and reds.

However, Romero has made a conscious effort to cut out the things that lead to cautions and dismissals, while retaining his fierce edge. The £165,000-a-week ace is yet to be booked this year.

Cristian Romero ”almost breaks your leg’ but ‘gets the ball and comes out clean’

Emerson has now revealed that the Argentina international is just as competitive on the training pitches, saying he doesn’t pull any proverbial punches at Hotspur Way either.

“He doesn’t hit everyone in training,” said Emerson. “Romero fixates on something and then he wants to get the guy, but it’s not just anyone he hits in training.

“He won’t hit you (nods to Richarlison). In the beginning, when he arrived, he would hit Richarlison, because they had a kind of rivalry, but then it became calm.

“I’ve seen few people hit like him in my life. He almost breaks your leg, but he gets the ball and comes out clean. He does it on purpose, but he knows how to hit.

“Like, there are people who hit but they commit a lot of fouls. You can see that he hit, that he hurt the guy, but you only see it later that he turned the guy’s ankle.”

Micky van de Ven has helped bring the best out of Cristian Romero at Spurs – opinion

Tottenham will no doubt be pleased to hear that Romero is just as fierce in training as he is in games. After all, that competitive edge needs to be honed ahead of competitive action.

This season, Romero finally has a worthy centre-back partner in Micky van de Ven, which bring the best out of each other and culminates in a strong defence.

On top of being a great player himself, the Dutchman’s qualities help make the players around him better. Romero is certainly a lot calmer than he was last season amid a rickety defence.