It looks almost certain that Tottenham Hotspur will sell Danny Rose this summer, with the England left-back being heavily linked with a £40m move to Manchester United.

Rose moaned to the press earlier in the season about the London club’s signing policy, the relatively poor wages the Spurs players get compared to other top four sides and he hinted he wanted to move back north (he was born in Doncaster). Those quotes would’ve irked Spurs supremo Daniel Levy and it seems to have also had a negative impact on the defender’s relationship with boss Mauricio Pochettino.

The fallout, plus niggling injuries, has seen Danny make just sixteen appearances for Tottenham this term. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that his time is up and that the London club can survive without him in the squad.

While Ben Davies has done well in replacing Rose as the side’s regular left-sided full-back, speculation continues to grow that the North London club will bring in another top class replacement in to provide stiff competition for next season.

There have been two players that have been continually linked with a move to the newly redeveloped White Hart Lane.

You have Man Utd’s Luke Shaw, another England international and a player Pochettino knows well from their days together at Southampton. Maybe Shaw could be used as a makeweight in the United deal for Rose.

The twenty-two year old has really struggled under Jose Mourinho at Man United. The Red Devils hardly picks the full-back and when he does he usually then slates the player for his performance, it seems to verge on bullying at times.

The Portuguese coach clearly believes that Luke still has fitness issues and that the youngster struggles to show the proper initiative when on the football field.

“He [Shaw] had a good performance but it was his body with my brain,”

“He was in front of me and I was making every decision for him.”  

For Pochettino, he has to think about whether he can rebuild Shaw’s confidence and getting him back to his best. That might take some time and spurs will be hoping that they’ll be challenging for the Premier League title and in the Champions League next term, is that the right environment to rehab a player’s morale?

Mourinho’s issues with Shaw date back further that just with Jose. Roy Hodgson, Louis van Gaal and even Poch himself have stated that he needed to make improvements in his game. Now they’ve not been quite as vociferous as Mourinho but it still shows that mentally Luke Shaw seems to have a bit of difficulty in eradicating existing problems that have been clearly pointed out to him.

I truly believe that a very good player inhabits Shaw’s body, I’m just thinking that he might benefit from a move to a side that has less expectation on what comes next.

That leads me to another left-back that has been linked with a move to Spurs, Celtic’s Kieran Tierney.

The Scottish international has also been watched by Man United scouts, maybe that move for Rose isn’t set in stone after all.

I believe that Tierney would be a much better option for the Lilywhites. He’s young, still only twenty years of age, yet he has plenty of winning experience north of the border and has shone for the Hoops in Champions League ties.

Tierney is a confident full-back who is learning all the time and improving too. He can bomb forward but he’s also very good at getting back into position and making tackles.

In December, the young Scot was named in UEFA’s breakthrough team of the year alongside the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Marcos Asensio and Spurs duo Davinson Sanchez and Harry Winks.

Now some in England still see Scotland as a footballing backwater but Pochettino won’t hold that opinion. It was the Argentine who took Victor Wanyama to Southampton before signing him again for Tottenham.  Virgil van Dijk is one of the best centre backs in the Premier League and is the world’s most expensive defenders, yet he came to prominence while playing for Celtic.

Another Scottish left back Andrew Robertson has had a fairytale debut season at Liverpool, helping the Anfield club to the Champions League final later this month. Just a few years ago Andy was plying his trade at Queen’s Park and Dundee United.

For me, Kieran Tierney is just as good, if not better than Robertson. They both have great desire and seem to be determined enough to meet every challenge head on and conquer it. Tierney, I believe, is a better defender than his Scotland teammate and can also be used as a right-back or in a back three if needed. That shows you that he’s also a smart player, who can adapt to any challenges a game might throw up.

The problem Tottenham might have in a pursuit of Tierney’s signature is that the player loves playing for his beloved Celtic, He’s a lifelong Hoops supporter and he’s stated that he is in no hurry to leave Parkhead. Evidence of that is the six year contract he penned in October 2017.

That being said, maybe going to the new stadium, working under Pochettino, playing alongside the likes of Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen could persuade him to hit the UK’s capital.

Surely it’s worth Levy picking up the phoning and making a significant bid to test the waters?

Posted on May 10th, 2018 by scott
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