Rose: Mourinho didn’t give me a chance at Spurs

We’ve been expecting to hear from Danny Rose since the transfer window closed. The Tottenham Hotspur left back, marginalized and sidelined by Jose Mourinho this winter, was loaned to Newcastle in a deal that could become permanent this summer.

He gave his first public interview about his experience under Mourinho today with the BBC, speaking with former Tottenham player Jermain Jenas on Radio 5 Live. While Rose doesn’t think that he necessarily got a fair shake under Mou, he refreshingly refused to throw anyone under the bus in his comments and was remarkably clear-eyed about his situation at Spurs and his future.

“I do feel I wasn’t given as much of a chance as everybody else in the backline. I did want to play for [Mourinho].

“I knew after a month [of Mourinho joining] I was never going to play. It was difficult going out to train knowing I wasn’t going to play. It’s not worked out, but full respect to him and what he’s doing at the club. He took over with the club 12 points adrift of Chelsea and now it’s four.

”I have to be honest, I thought I would continue playing.”

It became clear pretty soon after Mourinho took the reins at Tottenham that Danny Rose probably wasn’t going to be in his plans. He played a couple of times but didn’t impress in those showings. The writing was on the wall when Rose was left out of the team entirely the last few weeks of the transfer window, with Mourinho opting to play 20-year old utility defender Japhet Tanganga out of position at left back, despite Ben Davies being injured and Rose healthy.

Even so, Rose seems to admit that he’s not the player that he was before a major knee injury kept him out of the side for a significant part of the 2017 calendar year.

“I’d love to be the player I was three years ago when I was doing well,” he said. “I thought I would return to become that player after the injury, but I had a rude awakening.”

Newcastle appears to be a good fit for him — Steve Bruce is playing with a back three formation and wide defenders operating as wing-backs, something that should fit Rose’s skillset more than at Tottenham. He’ll have every opportunity to impress Bruce the rest of this season, with the hopes that Newcastle will decide to bid for him when the window opens in June. Rose says that he’s hoping to play his way back into Gareth Southgate’s plans for EURO 2020.

“I’ve been given a chance to play week in and week out. I want to play football again - with the Euros in the summer, I want to put myself in window.

”If I go to Newcastle and do well they may think that’s what’s expected of me. But if I don’t do well then they might think Tottenham were right to let me go. I have a lot riding on this, but I’m confident in my ability and I know I will do well.”