Legends blast Rose over ‘ill-judged’ comments

LONDON: Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have taken Tottenham full-back Danny Rose to task after he complained about his low wages and insinuated he would be happy to leave the club.

Rose apologised for his comments on Friday, releasing a statement that was timed before Mauricio Pochettino’s press conference with the player offering contrition for what he deemed ‘ill-judged’ words.

But Sky Sports pundits Carragher and Neville were far from impressed by the Englishman accepting the interview to discuss his discontent with a national newspaper on the eve of the new season.

Neville told Sky after Arsenal’s 4-3 win over Leicester City: “It was disrespectful, just going and announcing that to a newspaper of any kind is ridiculous, it is just not professional.

“When you are trying to promote yourself to other clubs potentially, I cannot believe other clubs will be impressed with that.

“Danny Rose is a fantastic player but he has been mishandled, whoever has advised him to do that is ridiculous. Some will say it is honesty but there is a professional way you go about doing things.

“Tottenham have been fantastic for Danny Rose. In our first couple of years with England, he was fourth or fifth left back. Mauricio Pochettino and Tottenham have turned him into the world class player that he is.

“Rose can ask to leave the club, there is no problem with that, but the way you go about it is important, has to be in a respectful manner.”

Pochettino addressed the thorny issue regarding with care at his subsequent press conference, so much so that he flicked nervously between Spanish and English for the first time in months.

The Argentine said ‘of course’ Rose has a future at Tottenham and ‘of course’ he does not want to see his left back sold.

It is understood, however, that Rose was fined two weeks wages and forced to issue an apology which he has now adhered to through his representatives.

The left back signed a £65,000 (RM361,000) a week deal last September and feels he has ‘one last’ big contract in his career at 27-years-old — but Carragher mirrored the words used by Rose upon learning some signings made under Daniel Levy.

The former Liverpool defender — a one-club man — added: “We all know about the wage structure they have there, the manager has done a fantastic job to keep Spurs second in the last two years, it can’t last forever because players will get unhappy, but you never say that publicly.

“The worst thing he said was “I don’t want Tottenham to have to sign players we have to Google.” How disrespectful that is to some of the players in there.

“When he went there as a youngster from Leeds I bet Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov had to Google him.” Daily Mail