‘A Star in the Making’ – Tottenham’s Danny Rose

It would be an understatement to say that there is a plethora of young British talent at White Hart Lane. For a number of years Tottenham have splashed out fees which seem large or excessive for a youngster in order to secure the signing of one of England’s top talents. This coupled with a youth academy that’s brought through the likes of Sol Campbell and Ledley King has led to Tottenham having a lot of English players in their side over the years, although a number of talents are failing to make it past Spurs’ reserve side and these players never reach the level of success that was expected of them as youngsters. There’s always hope for the latest load of youngsters though and Tottenham have some real talents on their hands like John Bostock, Kyle Naughton and Adel Taarabt (not English I know but still quite the talent). Another name that’s expected to go on for great things is Danny Rose.

Rose, born in Doncaster in June 1990, is a left winger – although he’s been played in a variety of positions in his young career to date – he joined Tottenham from Leeds in the summer of 2007 for a fee of around £1 million, a signing which is bound to draw certain comparisons to one Aaron Lennon – another winger signed from Leeds who came through the Leeds academy. Rose is a completely different breed of winger to Lennon though; whilst Lennon races down the wing with the ball in front of him before whipping in a cross Rose’s approach is a lot more focused on close control dribbling where he has the ball completely in his power and will make his way to the ideal crossing position before sending the ball into the area. You could say it’s due to a weakness that Rose uses this method; for a winger he is not particularly fast, but the close control Rose displays has been enough to get him past a number of opponents to date.

Rose became a regular for the Tottenham Under 18’s right after signing for the club and soon after started to play regularly for England’s Under 17’s. After impressing for both those youth sides and Tottenham’s reserves Rose was named on the bench for Tottenham’s Premiership clash with Sunderland in January 2008 although he wasn’t brought on. A bad injury then halted Rose’s progress and prematurely ended his season but he fought his way back and, after impressing for the Tottenham reserves once again and becoming a starter for the England Under 19’s, Rose was loaned out to Watford for the last few months of last season. Rose made seven league appearances for Watford, impressing and proving himself capable at Championship level despite his young age. This led to a call-up to the England Under 21’s and Rose would then be called up to the Under 21’s European Championship in the summer of 2009 where he would look very impressive as England’s Under 21’s reached the final. A loan spell at Peterborough followed this season where he made 6 league appearances before returning to Spurs as Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson left the club. Rose has since made his competitive debut for Spurs, coming on as a substitute in the League Cup clash with Doncaster earlier this season.

Praise has been thrown Rose’s way by managers he’s worked with, Stuart Pearce had a lot of faith in the winger as he took him to the Under 21’s tournament and experimented with the player’s position whilst Brendan Rodgers, who managed Watford at the time of Rose’s loan there, described him as a “highly talented, committed player” who shows “good energy and real intelligence with the ball”. The left wing is a position that Tottenham have not filled properly with Luka Modric, who usually plays there, being more of a central player by trade. Whilst there is no doubt that Rose will not become a fixture in the Tottenham side within the next few years he does have the talent to break into a top level side if given the right training and a few loans first to help him find himself as a player.

Tottenham have a habit of throwing money around and, despite often focusing on bringing in youth players for high prices, not often looking into their reserve squad to find players to play for the first team but the fact that Rose has already made his debut, trained with the first team and been given a senior squad number suggests that he is valued highly at White Hart Lane and could find himself in Tottenham’s plans after a bit more development. If not you can be sure there will be lots of teams interested in giving him a chance elsewhere.