Danny Rose spoke recently at length about many unknown facets of his career as a professional football and how he almost moved to Chelsea as well as the famous Champions League semi-final against Ajax.
On early days as a professional footballer and moving to Chelsea
Danny Rose said “I started at Leeds when I was 11. I came to Tottenham at 16. When I joined Leeds I was pretty raw,” he admitted. I didn’t know about one-touch passing. It took me a couple of years to get to grips with everything and by the time I was 14 I was one of the best. I could have gone to Chelsea when I was 15, I went to the training ground but I didn’t fancy it and I chose Tottenham the year after. It was pretty daunting, I was nervous, I needed it. You know what 15-year-olds do when they are around their mates all the time. I needed to get away and I am glad I did.”
Danny Rose said ” (Against Manchester City) We were like, ‘Whatever we do don’t concede early’ and after four minutes Raheem [Sterling] scored, I swear I thought we were going to get slapped 5-0 and I am never normally like that. But I was like, ‘s**t’. Then we scored and scored again, but I knew only City could come back. (Last few minutes) That was mad, I had come off, Raz had scored and they had members of staff running out from the tunnel, people from the restaurant running out on to the pitch, Pep [Guardiola] was sprinting down the touchline and luckily it got ruled out. Mad game.”
On the Champions League Semi-Final Against Ajax
Danny Rose said “Half-time, the manager was fine. He just said if we get the next goal we will do well,” explained the left-back. If you remember [Frenkie] De Jong he was on flames and we said we needed to control him and we did. They were sick but we knew they were not fit like we were. We knew after 60 minutes we were going to dominate. I was pretty confident in that game.”
On Emmanuel Adebayor and other Team Mates During his Career
Danny Rose said “He was fine, He is always dancing. There have been stories that he was a bad egg but he wasn’t like that, he loves life. He has too much money and he loves life! His gear is alright, but you know when someone has everything. He is a good guy. He is just rich. He has got a palace in Ghana. Mousa Dembele is the best ever. It’s ridiculous, I swear ridiculous. He is the best ever. It’s hard to explain but he is the best.”