Yorkshire’s Rose is Tottenham’s flower

The left back berth at White Hart Lane has historically problematic. The past three years have been no different. It’s easy to get all misty eyed about the enigmatic Benoit Assou Ekotto, and his left sided partnership with Gareth Bale during our last truly halcyon period. Yet it seems since the latter moved on (firstly upfront, then to the Bernabeu) and the former revealed himself to be a bit repugnant, now problem has reared its challenging head again.

Whilst Bale’s departure may be the root of many problems in Tottenham’s first team, it isn’t at the heart of our full back problem. I accuse no one of making this mistake because I too am guilty of it; but maybe by mistaking the Welshman’s ability to bring the best out of his team-mates for Ekotto being competent resulted in the Cameroonian being massively overrated amongst the Spurs faithful, His injury at the beginning of AVB’s tenure meant that he missed the last matches of Gareth Bale; the left winger. When he returned Bale had been transformed into the marauding, free licence number ten that went on to command an eighty million pound price tag.

Partnering a number of different left-sided midfielders meant that many of Benoit’s inefficiencies and his turbulent relationship with Villas-Boas resulted him being farmed out to Queens Park Rangers on loan where, despite winning promotion via the play-offs he rarely performed in the league. The downward spiral of Ekotto’s career is mirrored by the emergence of Daniel Lee Rose.

Yes I said emergence and anyone who takes issue with that needs a reality check. On the 13th of November 2010 Spurs and Ekotto played out a 4-2 victory at White Hart Lane against Blackburn (Bale scoring a brace). The very same day Danny Rose made his championship debut for Bristol City against his former club Leeds, receiving dogs abuse from the Elland Road crowd. Fast forward almost four years and Rose now occupies the position that Ekotto once called his own.

[linequote]I am bewildered as to why some of our fans take to Twitter and even the Lane to openly barrack Rose[/linequote]

The two could not be more polar opposites in their approach to the game and general persona. One is an aloof conceited man who openly admitted to not caring about football at all, the other an exemplary professional.

While I admit that Rose’s rise has not been meteoric, I refuse to accept that we haven’t seen a steady progression and a definite advance in his performances. This is why I am bewildered as to why some of our fans take to Twitter and even the Lane to openly barrack him. We all crave a home-grown talent akin to Ledley King, yet we refuse to afford younger players time to adapt and fulfill their potential to be consistent and competent performers. I accept that my last statement may seem fairly ambiguous, but the sentiment remains, despite the fact that Rose was brought in from Leeds United and by my own admission is nowhere near the ability of Ledley.

Despite his formative years being spent at Leeds, it was at Spurs where he has spent the most influential part of his development and his arrival is in no way unlike that of Nabil Bentaleb’s (he originally arrived in Birmingham making it to London via St Andrews) a player that we rightly parade as an example of our brilliant youth teams. Harry Kane, Ryan Mason, and Andros Townsend are heralded in the same way, so why should we not take some pride in Danny?

To my mind there have always been three types of left-backs at Spurs;

The fan-favourite, see Ekotto and Zeige, and the more traditional Cyril Knowles, a rarity in modern day football never mind Tottenham.

Unfortunately the next group seems much more synonymous: Gilberto, Justin Edinburgh, Erik Edman and Lee Young Pyo. This was a painful list to type.

The two aforementioned classifications result in the third and final type of full back, the criminally overrated and often the one often labelled as the scapegoat. While these players will never set the league alight with their play, they are dependable and given a decent enough team to operate in, will strive with equal parts effort and willingness to reach the levels demanded off them, left backs like Luke Young and Mauricio Tarrico are all victims of this ideology.

[linequote]Harry Kane, Ryan Mason, and Andros Townsend are heralded in the same way, so why should we not take some pride in Danny?[/linequote]

Regrettably this is the collection of Tottenham left-backs that Danny Rose will forever be assigned too, let’s face it if his goal against Arsenal doesn’t propel him to cult hero status nothing will, and despite a few inane beliefs amongst equally moronic supporters, he is certainly not Timothee Atouba bad.

I fear that like Luke Young, the real culmination of Rose’s playing days may be seen away from the Lane. Sunderland, one of Danny’s many temporary deployments, awarded him with their young player of the year two seasons ago, and I wonder whether we would hold him in a higher esteem if we had brought him after that?

Granted, it’s ‘only Sunderland’ but it wasn’t too long ago we where wetting ourselves with excitement at the transfer of Pascal Chimbonda. Martin Jol spent an entire summer publicly courting him on the back of a stellar season at Wigan, recognised by a place in the PFA Team of the Year. While he went on to be frustratingly underwhelming, he was definitely granted more grace than Rose ever has been.

The jury may remain out on Rose, and I don’t expect my ramblings to change the conscience of some fans, yet I believe that given a full, injury free season (it’s easy to forget that despite already making 50 odd appearances in lilywhite his career has been blighted by injury problems.) We will see the left-back that the past three managers, Villas-Boas, Sherwood, and now Pochettino have.

[linequote]Sunderland, one of Danny’s many temporary deployments, awarded him with their young player of the year[/linequote]

We have undoubtedly seen an improvement in Rose’s outings this season. Some attribute that to the arrival of Ben Davies, meaning that he can no longer become complacent and rest assured that next week he will be starting. However, a lot could be said for a coach that is actually willing to work with, and bring on players, defenders even more so.

Luke Shaw, Callum Chambers, and Dejan Lovren reaped the rewards of specialised defensive coaching at Southampton. This particular trio have just been sold for a combined sixty-six million pounds, after only eighteen months under the stewardship of Pochettino. I am eager to see what he can do with not only Rose, but the other talented defensive units of Kyle Walker, Jan Vertonghen, and Eric Dier.

Pochettino’s 4-2-3-1 system ultimately depends on player-relationships. So whichever left-back is selected has the luxury of calling upon the abilities of his three adjacent team mates; Jan Vertonghen beside him at left centre-half, one of three talented preliminary midfielders in either Etienne Capoue, Nabil Bentaleb, or Mousa Dembele, and whoever is situated on the left wing from Erik Lamela, Nacer Chadli, or Christian Eriksen. Equally so any goal we concede or chance we give away is the result of a team failing, so to single out any one player is nonsense.

Let’s give him or whoever starts at left-back against Manchester City a chance and our support.