Manchester United should not target Danny Rose
By Stephen Fox
Manchester Unted should not target Tottenham Hotspurs Danny Rose despite rumours linking the left-back to the club when they have other priorities to cover.
In more saga news in one of, if not the, most over the top transfer window in the history of football – Tottenham Hotspur left-back Danny Rose has revealed in an interview that he would consider leaving the club and is looking to play ‘’up North’’ before he ends his career.
This is major news and his departure from Tottenham would be a massive blow to the club, who finished runners-up in the league last season and have already lost their main right-back in Kyle Walker to Manchester City this summer while they are yet to make any transfers for the senior squad, as Rose before his injury was arguably the best left-back in the league.
Rose, despite being injured and having missed the last half of the season, has been linked with a move to Manchester United and the Premier League champions Chelsea. Rose admitted that he is looking for a higher wage to match his abilities and his worth to the team – where he would easily be a starter for any team in England- and is also looking to win trophies.
While most players are typically linked with United, whether they are actually looking to move clubs or not, a move for Rose would not be within United’s best interests. While Rose is the best performing left-back in the league, it is not exactly a position that United need to fill nor is it a position that they are lacking while they have other areas that they desperately need to improve in – predominately in attack where they still potentially run the risk of facing the exact same problems that they did last season in regards to finishing. This is an area where United need to improve upon, especially in regards to wingers and this has been evident with the club chasing Gareth Bale from Real Madrid and Ivan Perisic from Inter Milan.
More from Playing for 90
- Alexia Putellas reaches 400 games with Barcelona
- Everything you need to know ahead of the 250th ‘Super Clásico’
- Barcelona put five past Real Betis
- Manchester City suffer but come away with win over West Ham
- Baffling Liga MX ruling strips Puebla of a hard-earned victory
But the biggest reason why Manchester United should not be targeting Danny Rose is that right now, they still have Luke Shaw. The twenty-two year olds spell at United has certainly been mixed so far, where he has suffered from numerous injuries and fitness problems but there is no doubting the abilities of the young left-back.
Shaw did find himself out of favour under Jose Mourinho last season where he was coming back after receiving a horrific leg break in September 2015 and seemed to have been exiled from the team after a poor spell of form, which was understandable given that he was out for a year. But Shaw did try his best to work his way back into the team and when given a chance, he most certainly did impress before once again finding himself injured.
If Shaw can overcome these injury problems, he can still easily be one of the best left-backs in the league and he should be given another chance this season to prove that he can be the player that United expected him to be when they bought him in the summer of 2014 from Southampton.
Related Story: Ranking the top five premier league attacks
If United were to buy Rose this summer, even if they could given how notoriously difficult Daniel Levy is when it comes to attempting to buy players from Tottenham, they will have both Shaw & Rose looking to be key players in the team and if they are going to spend the rumoured £60 million price tag on Rose, he would have to be a starter for United. While there might have been rumours about Shaw leaving earlier in the summer, it would be a very naive move on United’s part to get rid of Shaw given that he is five years younger than Rose and has a much higher ceiling.
This season will be massive for Shaw as another stop-start season like last season for him could spell the end for him, but he did try his best to work his way into the team and put an end to his fitness problems to establish himself as an actual consistent starter for United, he most certainly has the ability to do so and would be a much better option than splashing out a huge amount of money on another player.
They do have sufficient options at left-back to fill any holes as well with Mateo Darmian and Daley Blind who are both capable of playing the role if needed be. They are obviously nowhere near as good as Rose, but it is not a position that Manchester United need to improve on this season.