‘I despised him’ – Danny Rose reveals former Spurs senior figure tried to replace him

Danny Rose has revealed that former Tottenham director Franco Baldini tried to sell him in 2013 and replace him with former Real Madrid left-back Fabio Coentrao.

Baldini, who had previously been a director of football for the England national team during the Fabio Capello reign, joined Spurs in September of 2013 and spent two years at White Hart Lane.

The Italian director worked with Andre Villas-Boas, Tim Sherwood and Mauricio Pochettino during his time at Spurs, eventually parting ways at the end of the Argentine’s first season in charge.

That was the time when Rose went from strength to strength, going from a youngster who was broadly written off as not being good enough to one of the best left-backs in the Premier League in a matter of just two years.

Danny Rose did not like Franco Baldini at Tottenham

The 33-year-old revealed that his dislike towards Baldini was one of the main things that spurred him on to deliver the kind of performances that he managed which established him as a key member of the Tottenham first-team squad for the seasons ahead.

The former Tottenham man told The Spurs Show: “Many people won’t know there was a Director there called Franco Baldini. He hated English, and I had a vendetta with him.

“When I came back from Sunderland the club was flirting with the idea of signing Fabio Coentrao from Real Madrid and he was instrumental in that, if there was a rise in my level of performance it’s because I despised him.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Rose comes across as the type of person who plays better when he has a point to prove and the fact that he despised Baldini was probably a good thing for his career.

The left-back did seem to struggle from around 2018 and that might be down to the fact that he did not have any doubters left to prove wrong, having succeeded at the highest level for both club and country.

Rose’s partnership with Kyle Walker on the opposite flanks of the defence under Mauricio Pochettino was the best full-back pairing Tottenham have enjoyed in the Premier League era.