On the latest episode of the View from The Lane podcast for The Athletic, Jack Pitt-Brooke, James Maw and Charlie Eccleshare have been discussing the latest goings-on at Tottenham Hotspur, whilst reflecting on the recently-released episodes of the All or Nothing Spurs documentary.
One topic of discussion on the recent podcast, which was titled ‘Mourinho v Rose – All or Nothing reaction‘ was the conversation that takes place between Daniel Levy and Danny Rose in episode five of the All or Nothing Spurs documentary.
As Pitt-Brooke describes in the podcast, the episode shows the former England international sitting down with the Spurs chairman in the canteen, in order to discuss his future at the club and a potential loan move away. We know now that the left-back would complete a loan move to Newcastle United in the January transfer window, but it was certainly interesting to see how that transfer came about in the documentary.
Pitt-Brooke first describes what happens in the documentary, saying:
“What I found to be quite interesting was, even though the conversation between Rose and [Jose] Mourinho felt really real, I think there’s a subsequent conversation where Rose speaks to Daniel Levy in the canteen.
“Levy tells him that Bournemouth and Newcastle are in for him but that Bournemouth might not be able to match the salary he’s on and he’s waiting to hear back from Newcastle and Milan, who Rose was interested in going to, don’t seem to want him. That to me just didn’t feel quite so real.
“Maybe I’m wrong, but for me, it failed a smell test that they would be having that conversation in the player’s canteen.”
Maw then adds his thoughts on the documentary clip, saying:
“I’d be really surprised if Daniel Levy ate his breakfast in the players’ canteen as a matter of course and was then happy for a player to come up and sit with him, uninvited, and then start talking about a transfer away from the club.
“Having an open-door policy is one thing – and if Levy genuinely has that, then I think that’s really good, and it’s good that the players can feel that they can go and talk to him – but if he’s sat in the players’ canteen every day, does that not feel like it’s almost a little bit too close?
“The way that Danny Rose refers to him as ‘Daniel’, when you’d normally expect a footballer to talk about the chairman as ‘the chairman’… This could be me overanalysing it and being a bit negative, but that did make me think if that is genuinely the way that dynamic works, it doesn’t sit comfortably entirely with me.”
TIF Thoughts…
As Maw suggests, it does feel quite surprising that Levy was happy to sit with Danny Rose in the canteen and discuss his potential exit, as perhaps a private meeting would have been more appropriate.
Do you think the meeting between Levy and Rose was set up?
Yes
No
It does seem as if it may have been set up by the cameras and when the cameras aren’t there, the Spurs chairman wouldn’t have been as happy to sit down with a player to discuss his desire to leave the club, especially when in front of the majority of his teammates.