Thomas Frank - US v Them!

It’s twenty-nine minutes into Tottenham's game at Old Trafford.

Captain Cristian Romero has lunged into a challenge on Casemiro.

Straight red. A four-match ban to follow.

It looked like frustration boiling over.

But maybe the story didn't start on that pitch.

Could it have started four days earlier?

After Tottenham's defeat to Bournemouth, Romero had posted on social media.

The message was critical of the club's hierarchy.

Thomas Frank was asked about it. His response: "I wouldn't have done it."

Five words.

And with them, did Thomas Frank just step out of the circle?

The circle is the invisible boundary around every team.

Once you step outside it, it's very hard to get back in.

Leaders don't have to endorse everything their players do.

But you can seize the opportunity.

A captain publicly saying the squad feels unsupported?

That's a gift.

Raw material for siege mentality.

A chance to pull the group tighter, to name an external enemy, to stand shoulder to shoulder with your players against the world.

When a leader clearly defines "US," players move toward it.

They want to be part of it. They'll sacrifice for it. They'll fight for it.

But "US" only has power when "them" exists.

The "them" creates the boundary. It tells you where the group ends and the outside begins.

It gives the group something to push against, something to prove wrong, something to overcome together.

That's why the best leaders don't just build teams.

They create enemies.

Not through hatred. Through framing. Through narrative.

Through the story they tell about who's doubting us, who's underestimating us, who's standing in our way.

Referees. Media. The Board. The Opposition. The Pundits who wrote us off.

Anyone will do — as long as they're outside the circle.

Because once you've named the "them," the "US" becomes sacred.

And nobody wants to be a "them." Nobody wants to be outside.

Peak Mourinho understood this instinctively.

When a player was criticised, he didn't answer the question.

He used it.

He'd protect the player publicly, validate the emotion, then redirect the blame outward.

Suddenly it wasn't about the incident.

It was about loyalty.

US v. Them.

Every press conference, every question, every incident — raw material to shape.

Opportunities to pull the group tighter.

To remind them: it's US against the world.

Romero's post wasn't a crisis.

It was a gift.

A player publicly saying the squad feels unsupported?

That's an open goal.

"My captain spoke from the heart. Maybe some people didn't like hearing it.

But in this dressing room, we protect each other."

Now the story changes. Now it's about who's really in the fight.

Your team always knows the difference.

And they remember who stood with them when it mattered.