How Cristian Romero immediately helped Micky van de Ven at Tottenham and Son captain insight

Micky van de Ven has revealed that Cristian Romero immediately had a key role to play in his adaptation to life at Tottenham. Linked with a move to north London in the summer after excelling in the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg, it wasn't until five days before Spurs started their 2023/24 Premier League campaign away at Brentford when he finally completed his big-money transfer to the Lilywhites.

Subsequently missing all of pre-season and those vital training sessions as Ange Postecoglou looked to implement his football philosophy on his Tottenham squad, the head coach didn't have any qualms at all about throwing the Dutchman in for his Premier League debut at the Gtech Community Stadium despite the player barely knowing his new teammates. Coping well on his Tottenham bow, Van de Ven has only gone from strength to strength since then to already become one of the best defenders in England's top flight.

Forming such a good defensive partnership with Romero since they were first paired alongside each other, Van de Ven has opened up on just how good a player the World Cup winner is and how he has helped him at the club.

«For me Romero is world class, as you say he won the World Championship,» said Van de Ven in an interview with Optus Sport. «But how you see him on the pitch he really is a leader, he wants to take the team and is always 100 per cent.

»Sometimes of course people say he is a bit too aggressive but he's a top-class player on the ball and without the ball defending. I can promise you this guy is not scared of anyone and he keeps going every game.

«From the start he helped me. The first game we started [vs Brentford] he went off with a head injury but afterwards he was there straight from day one. He helped me here, spoke