I’ve been having a bit of a chuckle recently at the vitriol levelled at Levy and co. regarding the sale of Danny Rose. What, you haven’t heard? Yes, it was in all the papers. Man City and Chelski and a host of wealthy predators are after him. 14 mill. Come on, keep up. It was all there, along with news of our proposed purchases of Depay (did that happen, incidentally?), Kruse (or that?) Konoplyanka, Wimmer and some Spanish/Dutch/Italian striker with an amazing YouTube showreel.
Ok, so I’ve sledge-hammered my point about the press and their slow-news-days imaginings, but the uproar over the Rose fairy tale was very real. Twitter was alive with fans having a go, as were Facebook and the Spurs forums: Can’t let him go; best left back bar none; one of our own…sort of; most improved player in the side; Danny! He’s our Danny Rose!
What, I thought, you mean the Danny Rose who was apparently at fault for every goal we conceded last season? The Danny Rose who couldn’t tackle, cross or defend? The Danny Rose everyone moaned and groaned and swore at? The one whose place in the side was threatened by the arrival of a shiny new Welsh fella - and weren’t we all delighted Poch had spotted the glaring weakness? That one? That Danny?
The truth is that while some players are irredeemably pathetic (I cite in evidence, inter alia, Chiriches, Paulinho and Soldado) the boy Rose was never that bad. Yes he made mistakes, his positional sense being in particular need of attention, but he was always quick, tough and skilful, liked a tackle, got forward and worked his socks off. You could see he had it in him. Trouble was he was at fault for a couple of goals against the Woolwich (more than negating his debut screamer) and tended to make the kind of glaring mistakes that bespoke general hopelessness rather than blips.
Fact is, he’s been consistently excellent this season, often our best player, particularly when we’ve been at our worst and, if Poch has done nothing else, he’s made a player of the boy. I’d place him alongside the sainted Harry and Hugo as player of the season, albeit there hasn’t been much competition.
All this nonsense takes me back a few seasons. Most sane supporters had seen enough of a shy, jug-eared boy called Bale to believe we had a player on our hands. But he had his detractors too, not least some Neanderthals behind me who made him the target for their abuse. ‘You’re shit, B’ow. Fucking slow and you got no skill.’ Admittedly, he had a few stinkers at left back, and he was something of a jinx early on, but once he got fit and ‘Arry moved him further up, it didn’t take long for him to shine. I go further back: Darren Anderton arrived with a fanfare and was useless for half a season. Likewise Alfie Conn, Martin Chivers, Alan Mullery and a host of other zeroes-to-heroes. I’m not saying Danny has it in him to emulate Bale, incidentally, but he’s certainly proved himself worthy of the shirt.
Most of us can spot talent and are prepared to give it time to blossom, but I think we all know when it’s not going to happen. I suspect Poch was stretching credulity when he said Soldado needed more time, and the extended trials given to so many of the Not-So-Magnificent Seven - and one or two others - should now be considered terminated. Poch is supposedly looking for players with PL experience, and I don’t think any of us would argue with that.
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