Danny Rose has admitted that throughout his 12-year stay at Tottenham, he has never envisioned the club reaching a Champions League final.
Spurs reached the final of the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history courtesy of a thrilling comeback over Ajax in the semi-final and will face five-time winners Liverpool in Madrid on Saturday evening.
Should Spurs go on to win it, it would mark a remarkable end to their trophy drought which stretches back to a League Cup success over Chelsea in 2008 when Rose was still a youth team player.
And Rose who is expected to start in the final after re-establishing himself as Mauricio Pochettino’s first-choice left-back this season claimed that the club’s remarkable run to the final proves that anything can happen in football.
‘Since I’ve been at the club, being in a Champions League Final has never ever entered my thought process,’ he told the Evening Standard.
‘I wanted so much to win the League Cup, the FA Cup, the Premier League. We’ve got to one final in the League Cup and two FA Cup semis, we’ve huffed and puffed in the League and, ultimately, never come close.
‘To think that we’re 90 minutes away from maybe lifting the Champions League. I never thought that could happen at Tottenham. It shows you anything can happen in football.’
Despite the club’s lack of silverware in recent years, manager Mauricio Pochettino has frequently insisted that winning the Premier League or Champions League should be Spurs’ priority over domestic trophies.
Speaking last April, Pochettino said: ‘It would be fantastic to add that trophy [the FA Cup] to the club but what would put us to a different level would be to win the Premier League or Champions League. That is going to put you in a different level.’
Pochettino’s stance about the importance of winning domestic trophies has been criticised at times, but Rose believes the fact that Spurs are in the Champions League final is a vindication of his manager’s philosophy.
‘It wasn’t that I didn’t believe him [before], I just didn’t understand,’ Rose said. ‘It shows why he’s the manager and I’m the player!’
