There are very few occasions where a Spurs player has completely won me round. Normally I’m a very patient guy that sees the best in players, I supported Lamela all the way through his struggles and still think there was “something” there with Timothée Atouba.
That wasn’t the case with a certain Danny Rose. By the end of his loan spell at Sunderland I just didn’t see the point of keeping him at the club. He seemed to be a liability at the back and prone to the kind of tackle that ends up with the referee brandishing a red card.
I wanted him gone and would have taken anything over £4m for him (if anyone was foolish enough to pay that). I honestly believed that there were any number of left backs in the league that could fulfil his role without the red card moments and the lapses in concentration at the back.
But something changed when Mauricio Pochettino came in, and now I think Danny Rose is up there with the best left backs in the country. He’s still aggressive (or should that be “committed”?) but he rarely gets caught out, is outstanding for us when he contributes to the attack and is rightly part of our first choice XI at the club.
How many other left backs dominate their side of the pitch in the way he does? Certainly very few in the Premier League. Leighton Baines used to but he’s not been quite the same since his injuries. Luke Shaw looks like he might have that kind of ability but I’d still place Rose ahead of him right now. If Danny Rose were to be available for sale we’d have no end of potential buyers for him and isn’t that just where we want to be? Let’s have more players coveted by other clubs (as long as they’re tied down to a long contract).
He speaks a lot of sense too. It’s no surprise that the club seem to be wheeling him out increasingly often for interviews. He’s turned into a great player for the club and also a great spokesperson.
Twitter: RT @SquawkaNews: Danny Rose on Mauricio Pochettino:
“He said if I entered his philosophy, he would make me into an England player.” https:… (@mmbiyu)
So, I’ve been turned around. There is no other left back at the club I’d prefer to see start a game and his isn’t a position I’d be looking to upgrade on at any point in the near future.
Now we just need to worry about whether we can fend off other clubs. A nice problem to have, right?
