Rose feeling Poch’s wrath
TOTTENHAM manager Mauricio Pochettino is understood to have read the riot act to Danny Rose yesterday in the face of the biggest challenge yet to his project at Spurs.
The Spurs left-back broke ranks to complain about the pay structure at the club in an interview that has caused turmoil on the eve of their first season at Wembley.
Rose, under contract until 2021, moaned about better wages at rival clubs, a problem exacerbated by the explosion of the transfer market this summer.
“I am reaching my peak and have probably only got one big contract left in me,” he said. “I know my worth and I will make sure I get what I am worth.” Spurs are unwilling to match what they see as the inflated salaries paid by their peers, instead selling the long-term project Pochettino is building as a chance to fulfil their football ambitions.
That philosophy has largely been successful, with key players all signed up on long-term deals and happy to buy into the philosophy.
Even when Eric Dier, for example, had an opportunity to double his money at Manchester United, he refused to rock the boat when Tottenham said no to a transfer.
Subsequently, the sale of Kyle Walker to Manchester City for £50million appears to have swayed opinion – particularly with Rose.
Walker’s agent is Mark Rankine, brother of Rose’s mother Angela. The former Sheffield United player will have told his nephew all about the England right-back’s own lucrative move.
Rose has had plenty of thinking time, having not played since damaging his knee ligaments in January.
After signing his contract four months earlier, though, he could not have been happier.
“I am settled here, I am slowly turning into a southerner,” he said at the time.
“At the minute, I wouldn’t wish for anything more than to play for Spurs for the rest of my career.”
In the latest interview, however, the Doncasterborn 27-year-old warned he wanted to end his career up north.
Rose’s assertions that Tottenham need to make key signings are accepted at the club and the biggest insult to Pochettino is not what has been said, but the fact that Rose said it in the first place.
The Spurs manager is not one to wash his dirty linen in public and following yesterday’s dressing-down he will make an assessment of Rose’s attitude going forward, with the England left-back still several weeks away from full fitness.
Rose will only be allowed to go on chairman Daniel Levy’s terms. More likely he will stay and fight to earn a place back in Pochettino’s good books.
But having also used the interview to accuse Spurs supporters of past abuse, claiming he would “never forget” the treatment he received early in his career, Rose may find the Wembley crowds much less forgiving.