Erik Lamela denies press speculation about his dog, trip to Rome in deleted tweets

Poor Erik Lamela. Tottenham Hotspur’s Argentine winger has been in the English press lately for all the wrong reasons. First, the acknowledgement that his hip injury wasn’t healing and that he was returning to Rome to work on his recovery with his old physio at Roma. Then there was an accident related to his brother which resulted in him returning briefly to Argentina.

Then news came out this week that he was struggling with the death of his dog, Simba. Finally, the inevitable rumors, which we think are ridiculous, that all of these things were contributing to him wanting to leave Tottenham Hotspur for a shock return to Roma.

Apparently all this speculation is getting to Erik as well, and he took to Twitter to dismiss these rumors. His initial tweets, in Spanish, were deleted but not before ESPN Tottenham beat reporter Dan Kilpatrick managed to get a screen shot and a rough translation.

Dan’s summary is pretty close, but here’s my translation based on my two years of collegiate Spanish and a semester abroad in Costa Rica in 1997 (which obviously makes me an expert):

Clarification for people who care about me: I am in Rome healing from an injury and not for problems not related to football.

The death of my dog was months ago, and my brother’s accident wasn’t automobile related. I’m not going to answer anything [related to recent articles] but I'm annoyed that they make up this kind of thing.

Thanks to all those who encourage me day by day! I hope to return soon to the pitch.

The media is savage (Dan Kilpatrick excluded), and while it’s unsurprising that Lamela would be the subject of media speculation, it kind of sucks that it’s happening to him in what’s obviously a very, VERY difficult time in his life. Based on these tweets, I really doubt there’s anything to the Greg Stobart story that linked him with a return to Roma.

Moreover, I can think of few Tottenham players in recent years who have had as much crap happen to them in their personal life and have had to put up with as much media-related crap than Lamela. Emmanuel Adebayor may have him beat, but it’s close. I hope Erik comes back better, stronger, and ready to take Tottenham to a Premier League title.