Danny Rose was once the undisputed firm Tottenham favorite when Mauricio Pochettino held sway at the club, establishing himself as a key player for club and country, but was thrown under the bus and completely frozen out under Jose Mourinho time as the boss.
Rose had played some of his best football under the current PSG boss, Pochettino, and Andros Townsend, who played with Rose at Spurs, joked on Wednesday’s talkSPORT Breakfast that his old pal enjoyed a ‘special’ bromance with Pochettino – which even saw the pair enjoy long walks together.
Quizzed on who has been the biggest teacher’s pet he’s played with in his career, Townsend responded:
“Danny Rose and Pochettino – he was literally the son of Pochettino!
“I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that. They would go on romantic walks around the training ground. He was always in his office. They had a special bond.
“They were in the office a lot and there were a few occasions were they went on a walk around the training ground having a deep one-to-one conversation.”
Rose holds the distinction of being Tottenham’slongest-serving player, having produced some of his best football under the Argentine during his five-year spell in north London, which came to an abrupt end in November 2019.
Sadly for the 30-year-old, his relationship with Pochettino’s successor, Mourinho, was at the other end of the scale.
Only two months after his arrival at Spurs, Mourinho lost no time in shipping the left-back out on loan to Newcastle, and subsequently excluded him from the Premier League and Europa League squads for the 2020/21 campaign. This season Rose has not made a single senior appearance and was even made to turn out for Tottenham’s Under-23 team.
Things came to a head when Mourinho and Rose were shown having a heated exchange in the Tottenham Amazon Prime Video documentary, All or Nothing, when the player complained about his lack of playing time.
Rose, despite having won 29 senior England caps, looks almost certain to leave Spurs when his contract expires this summer.
The writing on the wall was clearly evident when last October Mourinho admitted Rose was not part of his plans and attributed the blame to the player’s agent for not finding him a new club.
“Danny is not part of our squad. Danny wanted very, very, very much to leave in the January window last season,” Mourinho said. “Why? Because he wanted to play and play and play.
“He went to Newcastle and in that moment I had immediately the feeling that a player with his mentality, his desire of being always first choice, always because he didn’t hide that he was thinking of the national team and the Euros, I always thought that our future would be Ben Davies and, at that time Ryan Sessegnon.
“Then later we got the opportunity to get [Sergio] Reguilon and that was also good for Ryan because it gave him the possibility to leave and to play and to have this experience in Germany [on loan at Hoffenheim], also for a kid to grow up it was great for us.
“So in this moment we had Ben Davies, Ryan Sessegnon and Reguilon. It’s as simple as that. Danny didn’t become part of our plans.
“Then the market, the market, the players make the market, the agents make the player’s market. If he didn’t find any solution that he was happy to move, it’s something you have to ask him.”