CONOR GALLAGHER was tipped as a future Tottenham captain the day he signed for the club.
And boss Thomas Frank could really do with his leadership right now.
Cristian Romero’s latest red card means the skipper is banned for the next four games — which could be the most important of Frank’s flailing reign.
The North Londoners look to be sleepwalking into a relegation fight thanks to a pitiful record of TWO wins from 16.
Frank’s former Brentford star Bryan Mbeumo and a late shinned effort from Bruno Fernandes consigned Spurs to their latest defeat, against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday.
But it was sparked by Romero’s second red card of the season — his fourth in the Premier League and SIXTH overall for Tottenham — inside 29 minutes.
He is now the Prem player with the most dismissals in all competitions since his debut in August 2021 — a statistic so wild it had to be repeated and explained to a disbelieving Frank post-match.
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And with West Ham making alarming recent progress under Spurs’ former flop Nuno Espirito Santo, fans are nervously looking over their shoulders as they are just six points above 18th-placed Hammers.
Last term they were warned when a pathetic haul of 39 points under Ange Postecoglou was not punished because of how bad the bottom three were.
But the club do not seem to have learned from it, with more poor results this season amid yet another injury crisis — and next to no January signings to help fill the gaps.
And now Romero, ironically in the week he took aim at the board again for their lack of investment, is out for tomorrow’s visit of Newcastle, Sunday’s home North London derby with Arsenal and March’s clashes against Fulham and Crystal Palace.
Micky van de Ven will take the armband in the Argentine’s absence.
But Spurs could do with Gallagher — their one established signing last month — stepping into the leadership vacuum and helping dig the club out of this mess.
The England international (left), signed from Atletico Madrid for £35million, knows what it is like to step up, having taken the armband at Chelsea when Reece James was injured.
And that was all the while the Blues were preparing to sell him to capitalise on wonky Profit and Sustainability Rules, underlining his professionalism.
Frank hailed Gallagher’s “character” when he signed on January 14 and this week spoke of how the 26-year-old can “carry the team on his back, more or less”.
The Dane is concerned by the lack of leaders in his dressing room, essentially naming Romero skipper in the summer because of the lack of decent candidates.
Frank does not doubt Romero’s passion and determination to make Spurs better, pushing back when SunSport asked him if he regretted making him captain.
But the 27-year-old is a liability, both on the pitch with his ill-discipline and off it with his explosive Instagram posts — even though the fans sang, ‘Romero’s right, the board is s****!’ at Old Trafford.
Frank could do with new-boy Gallagher being at his inspirational best too.
Not only could it end up saving his gaffer’s job and the team from a drop-zone scrap, it could also turn out to be an audition to take the armband long-term.
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