Turning 27 today, Danny Rose is widely revered as the best left-back in the Premier League – to the extent that he claimed the No.3 slot in last term’s PFA Team of the Season, for the second year in a row, despite not making a single appearance from February onward due to injury.
Consequently, he’s now England’s first choice in that position when fit and rated by many as one of the best left-backs in Europe.
But just four years ago, aged 23, that wasn’t the case at all. In fact, having followed a sensational debut in the north London derby that saw his volley from long distance embarrass Manuel Almunia with just 16 Premier League appearances in three seasons for Spurs, Rose was very much on the fringes of the first-team squad, seemingly fitting the criteria of relatively young, English and expendable that, once upon a time, Daniel Levy would feel incredibly tempted to cash in on.
That was in part due to injuries and in part due to a number of loan spells away, some more successful than others. But even after what can be considered Rose’s first true full season in the Spurs first team – 2013/14, when he managed the same number of Premier League appearances as Kyle Naughton, 22 – he was hardly considered a future two-time PFA Player of the Year member or potential part of England’s strongest starting XI. Far from it; Rose didn’t actually make his Three Lions debut until March 2016.
The dramatic transformation in Rose’s stock during the intermittent period is a lesson to us all, about how young players and particularly young English players are built up and knocked down far too soon in the Premier League. In truth, there’s nothing miraculous, spectacular or unique about Rose’s rise, although Mauricio Pochettino’s utilisation of offensive full-backs and their increased popularity in general has certainly helped. He’s simply come into his peak years at the age most footballers should, between 25 and 27.
Yet, the Premier League is overflowing with examples of young English players not being allowed that time to develop. Raheem Sterling has been written off as a £50million flop at the age of 22, Calum Chambers has become Arsenal’s forgotten man at the same age, Luke Shaw’s lost in the wilderness at 21 and at the start of last season, Ronald Koeman warned a 23-year-old Ross Barkley that he’d no longer be treated as a young player, before dropping him from the starting XI due to a bout of poor form.
It’s certainly true that the aforementioned names were fast-tracked to the top end of the Premier League much quicker than Rose and of course, that players who are already producing at a young age – such as Dele Alli and Harry Kane – have a bigger chance of reaching the very top of the game at some stage in their careers.
But to judge all players on the same time-line of development and deciding so young whether they will or won’t make the grade is hugely detrimental in its superficiality; there can be no ‘one-size-fits-all’ in a sport with so many different types of athletes from so many different backgrounds who have taken so many different journeys.
It’s required a decade at White Hart Lane for Rose to reach the full extremities of his powers after being one of the stars of the youth team at Leeds; Dele Alli stepped into the first team with immaculate ease after arriving from League One outfit MK Dons. Both, however, will be crucial to Tottenham’s efforts next season.
In fact, there’s an argument thatRose’s path to the first-team was a much safer one than Alli’s, who has been playing in excess of 35 games a season since he was 17 years of age. The demands on Rose have steadily increased as he’s naturally developed the physicality to cope, whereas Alli’s been thrown into the deep end – albeit, he’s done far more than simply stay afloat.
At Athletic Bilbao, one of the best producers of young players in Europe considering the slender size of their self-imposed catchment area, even the most promising young players are sent out on loan to feeder clubs first – meaning they usually don’t feature at senior level for Bilbao until they’re 21 or 22. By that time, in the Premier League, most young players will already have been painted as an overrated prospect who will never reach the potential suggested or a world-beater in the making.
Perhaps Rose benefited from slipping under the radar during that point in his career, meaning he wasn’t under quite the same pressure as some of his contemporaries. Likewise, there is no doubt Pochettino’s appointment was a watershed moment for the England international; whereas Harry Redknapp and Andre Villas-Boas never seemed wholly convinced, Pochettino’s embraced Rose completely, using a philosophy that further amplifies his individual strengths.
Yet, you have to wonder how many young players are out there in the same position as Rose three years ago, written off, or at the very least unfancied, before reaching anywhere near their peak years, just waiting for the right manager and the right opportunities to coincide with their natural development.
It’s time we all stopped expecting all young players to be the finished article at 22 or 23 and condemning to careers of mediocrity those who aren’t. Rose, a two-time PFA Team of the Year member who wasn’t even a guaranteed starter at Tottenham three years ago, provides the prime example as to why.