Report: Manchester United still interested in Danny Rose

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that there’s no chance that Danny Rose will be wearing a Tottenham hotspur jersey at the start of next season’s Premier League campaign, but almost every Spurs fan knows that Rose is one of the players on the team most likely to depart.

The club that has been most closely linked to Rose is Manchester United, who were reportedly very interested in taking him off our hands in the past, and especially after the whole S-n interview kerfluffle. But United seemed to back off their interest this season, what with Rose’s injury and the fact that he hasn’t been very good.

However, the Guardian dropped an article yesterday that states that not only is United still interested in Rose, they’re actually going to target him this summer when the transfer window opens back up.

Jose Mourinho apparently wants to upgrade his fullbacks in this year’s offseason (to be fair, so do Spurs) and has identified Rose as a player who could potentially compete with the now-31 year old Ashley young and replace one of Luke Shaw, Daley Blind, and/or Matteo Darmian.

I’m only slightly confused by this. We know that when Rose is at his best, which he was last season before his injury, he’s among the best left backs in the league. If this were November of 2016, it wouldn’t be unusual to see amounts of £40m-50m thrown around for a Rose purchase, and that’s also what the Guardian thinks Spurs would demand for him

But Rose hasn’t been great since his return. Even when he’s gotten matches (which hasn’t been very often) he hasn’t set anyone’s hair on fire with his pace or ability, and it wouldn’t be unfair to question whether he’s lost whatever it was that he had when he was at his best. You have to think that, between Rose and Ben Davies, Rose is the more likely player to depart, but I can’t see a scenario where he goes to United for anything close to the £53m that we got from Man City for Kyle Walker last summer unless Daniel Levy takes Ed Woodward to the woodshed.

The Guardian isn’t a tabloid, but it isn’t always rock-solid on its transfer rumors either, so the usual caveats apply here: no firm sources, no quotes, quasi-batcountry speculation based on past rumors and his history of dissatisfaction. Even so, I think you’d have to say that this is a plausible transfer rumor. And sad as it is, based on his current form right now I can’t find a compelling reason not to sell Rose and invest his transfer fee in another left back that would challenge Davies for a starting role.