Most people usually traverse the weekend without any air-related meltdowns, but on Sunday Cristian Romero contrived to have two.
In the afternoon he lost his aerial battle with Gabriel by standing rooted to the spot as the Arsenal defender leapt to head home the winner in the north London derby.
Then, after the match, he seemingly lashing out at Spurs’ chieftains for not flying him back from international duty by luxury aircraft.
Welcome to the swaddled and mollycoddled lives of Premier League footballers.
After his undoing, Romero reposted a tweet from an Argentine journalist that claimed Tottenham ‘gave an advantage’ to Arsenal because they ‘were the only Premier League club’ that did not lay on travel arrangements for their stars to get back to England.
Cristian Romero appeared to criticise Tottenham’s travel arrangements on Sunday
Clubs often put on private jets for their stars. Left to right, Fabinho, Fred, Ederson, Raphinha, Alisson and Gabriel Jesus are pictured in 2021
He hastily deleted the repost but it was too late. The screenshots had been clicked into existence.
And perhaps he had a point. Some clubs do provide private travel to get their long-haul players back faster. Arsenal’s Brazilians were back in training by Thursday. Spurs, meanwhile, were happy for Romero to travel back on the flights arranged by Argentina, ready for training on Friday. A day of preparation missed, you could reasonably argue.
Tottenham will supply travel for international players if they think it is necessary. On this occasion they did not. But does Romero have much precedent to be vexed?
Well, he does. Premier League clubs have previously spent lavish sums in order to get their players back earlier and snatch a marginal gain.
In November 2016 Liverpool, Manchester City, and Paris Saint-Germain split the cost of a £120,000 private jet to fly back stars from their Brazilian escapades – though Chelsea, offered the opportunity, did not get in on the act to help Willian.
Players such as Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino of Liverpool and Manchester City’s Fernandinho were on that flight and got a day of extra preparation in. City even forked out cash for a separate private flight for Sergio Aguero, Nicolas Otamendi and Pablo Zabaleta of Argentina.
Willian, meanwhile, twiddled his thumbs in the airport waiting for a scheduled flight from Brazil.
Fotunately for Willian, Chelsea learned their lesson the next year. He was included in the gang of soaring Sambas in September 2017.
Philippe Coutinho accompanied Brazil team-mates Fernandinho, Gabriel Jesus, Willian, Ederson and Roberto Firmino back to England in 2017
Neymar shared a picture on his jet back from Brazil alongside (left-to-right) Thiago Silva, Dani Alves, Filipe Luiz, Marquinhos and Jemerson
Nobody has invited the fans behind the scenes quite as much as Neymar. Clubs on the continent also organise travel arrangements for their stars, and one time he shared snaps of himself with Thiago Silva, Dani Alves, Filipe Luiz, Marquinhos and Jemerson. Not only that, he also uploaded footage of himself singing thousands of feet in the air. Lucky us.
In 2021, there were multiple high-profile instances of clubs banding together to haul back their precious cargo from the other side of the world.
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City, Liverpool, and Manchester United clubbed together in October that year to whizz back an elite quota of nine stars from Brazil and Uruguay for a six-figure fee.
Tottenham also made arrangements, flying back their quartet of Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero, Colombia’s Davinson Sanchez and Brazilian Emerson Royal by private jet ahead of a clash with Newcastle.
Turnarounds can be tight. That time around, Liverpool were left with a 35-hour gap between Brazil kicking off a qualifier and the Reds having a match against Watford. You can see why clubs fork out so much to ensure their players get back rapidly.
Then, in November 2021, things got even more cosy. Not only did stars from rival Premier League clubs fly back together, but they were in such genial spirits that they posted about their love-in on the web.
Liverpool’s Alisson posted a smiling snap with team-mate Fabinho, Man City’s Ederson and Gabriel Jesus, Manchester United midfielder Fred and Leeds winger Raphinha, with the Reds keeper who was holding a small glass of red wine captioning the photo on Instagram: ‘Let’s go home.’
The private jet can be a place of mourning as well as roistering. Liverpool granted a crestfallen Sadio Mane a private jet back from Senegal duty in 2017 after his country’s early exit from the Africa Cup of Nations, having missed the crucial penalty against Gabon in the quarter-finals.
Sadio Mane was devastated in 2020 when his private plane could not fly over Tunisia, so he missed a party in Senegal celebrating his African Footballer of the Year award
Footballers should get used to public transport for their post-career days – Sergio Aguero ended up on a plane with boisterous Brazil fans on his way to the 2022 World Cup
In 2020 Mane had more plane woes after winning African Footballer of the Year. He had been due to fly privately to Dakar, Senegal’s capital, to celebrate, but missed his own party after the crew failed to get permission to fly over Tunisia.
With a crowd of supporters waiting to greet him ahead of a parade and ceremony with the country’s president, Mane decided to return to Liverpool and focus on preparing for a match against Tottenham. The height of duty.
Others have been known to admirably shun the treatment. Last season Heung Min-son shunned the prospect of a private jet to travel to South Korea duty – admittedly in Wales – by train.
He and Ben Davies rocked up at Cardiff Central Station in casual clothes after taking a commuter train and hugged before going their separate ways, as per The Sun.
And unless they’re wealthy enough to afford a private jet, public transport is the common road to which footballers return after they retire.
Sergio Aguero learned that in 2022 when, flying to the World Cup to support Argentina as a fan for the first time after retiring, he got caught up on a flight with a glut of dancing, singing Brazil fans, sharing the video with his followers.
One can only hope for Romero that he did not have to suffer a bus home with Gunners fans.