Mauricio Pochettino, the Spurs manager, has made it clear he has not left Danny Rose out of the squad for the upcoming game against Partizan Belgrade due to any non-gaming reason.
According to Pochettino, form and fitness are the only things that he takes into account while making his selections and he did the same while picking the squad for the visit to Belgrade.
Rose is actually a black footballer who had to endure racial abuses when he was playing junior international football in Serbia some time back. He was even suspended during that game for reacting to those statements in an animated way.
The Spurs are the first club which is going to tour Serbia since that incident and it is believed that as a precautionary measure, they have decided not to take any black player there.
It’s not only Rose who has been kept out of that tour. Some other black men including Emmanuel Adebayor and Mousa Dembele have also not been named in the Spurs squad.
All these guys were in the line up of the Spurs in the league game versus Sunderland last weekend and they had done reasonably well. So, to sideline each and every one of them for Belgrade encounter is surely a questionable decision.
Before departing for Serbia, Pochettino insisted that he is just rotating his players and nothing else.
Speaking in the press conference, the 42-year old Argentinean said, “There were issues with Danny when he was there in Serbia last time around, but, I have not dropped him because of that. I don’t pick my players keeping non-gaming things in mind.”
The match between Partizan and Tottenham will take place this Thursday at the Partizan Stadium. It will kick off at 5 pm British Standard Time.