Danny Rose bids emotional farewell to Tottenham after 14 years

Defender will leave Spurs this summer after making 214 appearances for the club

Danny Rose will leave Tottenham this summer after 14 years (Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty I)

Danny Rose paid an emotional tribute to Tottenham Hotspur and their supporters as his fourteen-year spell at the club comes to an end, thanking Spurs for making him “a better person, a better professional, a better human”.

Rose joined Spurs from boyhood club Leeds in 2007 and went on to make 214 appearances for the club, famously scoring a spectacular volley against rivals Arsenal on his Premier League debut.

Rose, who won 26 caps for England, was twice included in the PFA’s Team of the Year at Tottenham and played an influential role as the club reached the Champions League final under Mauricio Pochettino in 2019.

The 30-year-old fell out with Jose Mourinho and was not registered for 2020/21 season, instead seeing out the last year of his contract on the sidelines in somewhat acrimonious circumstances.

However, the full-back, who has sent this season helping the Under-23s, offered a whole-hearted message of thanks in a final interview with the club. “It’s been difficult but the club, even though I wasn’t part of the first team, they’ve still given me brilliant facilities to continue to train here and they’ve put me in an environment with the Under-23s where there are still first-class training sessions. I’m obviously disappointed that I’ve come to the end of a chapter but I’m excited to see what happens in the future with myself,” he said.

“If you go back to 2007, the club was possibly a top six, top eight club, then we broke into the top four, we were always in and around it and then until recently, Tottenham were in the top four. It’s been brilliant being a part of that process, the transition. It’s probably something where only now at the end of my Tottenham career, I can sit back and take it all in, but the strides that the club have made… 14 years might sound long but if you think about how we were a top eight club, then top six, then top four, it’s been a great project.

“I’m over the moon that I made that choice to come here in 2007. I wish we could have won something together but the club are not far away from that and obviously I wish everybody at the club the best of luck going forward. On the whole, the club and the chairman have been brilliant towards me. For 14 years I’ve pretty much driven the same route in to training every day – it’s all I’ve known really, it’s going to be strange if and when I join a new team because I’m going to be taking a different route to training but I’m grateful to the club for bringing me in in 2007 as a 17-year-old and I feel very privileged to have experienced some of Tottenham’s great days.

“The fans, they’ve been top class. I think I gave them a reason or two not to be behind me over the years but they’ve been brilliant. Even now I get stopped in the street and they thank me for everything so I just want to say thank you for the love and support that they’ve given me over the 14 years. I’m hoping I will get a chance to say goodbye to everybody. I’m going to miss all the fans, miss everybody who has been involved at Spurs and I look forward to coming back one day. They’ll be a part of my heart for a long time and I’m going to miss them.”