Jurgen Klopp recently joked that Gary Neville has an opinion on everything.
I wonder what the Liverpool boss thinks of Danny Rose?
You can’t go a day without the 29-year-old making the headlines at the moment. With his outspoken and honest nature, he used to tackle topics such as racism in football and mental health. Now he’d tackle a ghost.
MORE: Danny Rose Just Keeps On Whining And The More He Does, The More Toxic He Becomes
Rose has somehow found a way to upset most people during lockdown with his verbal diarrhoea, which he has every week to a deadline in The Sun. He’s lost the goodwill of Spurs fans, if he hadn’t a long way prior to this, with his infamous 2017 interview, and now he’s quickly turned Newcastle fans against him by courting a transfer to Leicester City on The Lockdown Tactics podcast, despite being earmarked for a permanent move up North.
He’s accused the Premier League of treating players like “lab rats” [Lockdown Podcast].
He’s even told the nation to “f*** their morale” on an Instagram live interview [via The Mirror].
So I find myself asking: am I about to defend the indefensible?
I’m not saying that I agree with what Rose has said. In fact, I’m not addressing the content at all, but instead arguing that the thought of reading another of his public outbursts makes me want to jam my fingers into my eyes far less than the prospect of listening to another club-filtered PR exercise, or the 1,000th Scholes-Gerrard-Lampard debate.
We cry for footballers to have personalities and voices of their own and then chastise those who speak about anything that is at all untypical.
We yearn for the return of characters in the game and yet celebrate Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s self-aggrandizing as an example of such, while disregarding Rose’s – sometimes – thought-provoking insight as tabloid fodder.
The response to Rose from fans is only going to discourage other players from speaking openly. And they might actually have something to say that you feel is worth listening to, even if Rose doesn’t.
What has he got to say that is worth listening to ?
Danny. Speak your mind/heart son. No mek dem try sensor you. No fear dem. You owe them nothing. Save some for the book though danny mate.
He’s never bothered me with his opinions.. I would rather a rose or roy keane character, outspoken and honest over the likes of eriksen who many would say ‘acts professional’ by saying nothing and hiding with a box over his head… In that champions league final rose was our only player who truely looked up for it. Plays with his heart on his sleeve…. Watching the likes of ndombele jog and waddle after the ball made me miss rose.
Danny obviously skipped the media training sessions all clubs seem to put players through.