Tottenham goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga tells ESPN about his family relationship with Mauricio Pochettino.
Danny Rose says it no longer feels like an honour to play at Wembley after Tottenham faced Southampton in front of 57,000 empty seats on Wednesday night.
Just 33,012 people turned out to watch Wednesday’s 3-1 victory at the 90,000-seater arena — the lowest attendance for a Premier League home match at the national stadium since Spurs began their residency there.
“It’s just not nice anymore,” Rose said. “I don’t feel it’s an honour to play at Wembley anymore. We’re all itching to get in the new stadium and hopefully it’s not too much longer.
“The atmosphere’s a bit flat. Obviously I sympathise with the fans, travelling a bit further to come to Wembley. It’s the lowest attendance since we’ve been at Wembley and that speaks volumes.
“We’re disappointed it’s taken longer than expected but we know everybody’s putting in the hours to make sure the [new] stadium’s as good as possible.”
Rose made his first start since Oct. 6 against Southampton, having overcome a groin injury. If manager Mauricio Pochettino now picks him and Ben Davies in alternate matches then the England man is in line to face Barcelona at the Nou Camp next Tuesday — a match Tottenham will probably have to win to stay in the Champions League.
“It’s been hard watching over the last month and a half to two months, and it was nice to win and put right the weekend’s result [against Arsenal],” Rose said.
“It’s down to the manager [if I play against Barcelona]. Next week is a massive, massive game — it’ll be the biggest of the season — and if the manager doesn’t think I’m right then I won’t play.
“It looked as if we were down and out [in the group] but we’ve come back. That’s a great testament to the manager and the players, to take it to the last game.
“The manager’s more confident than anyone that we can go there and get a result. So are we. We’re looking forward to next week. We’re going to make sure we take it right to the last minute and hopefully we can progress.”
Rose could also be selected for the midweek League Cup quarterfinal against Arsenal in two weeks’ time, when Spurs will return to the Emirates seeking to avenge their 4-2 defeat.
The fierce rivalry was evident during the weekend’s duel. Eric Dier’s first-half goal celebration — for which he was booked — sparked a mass brawl, and both clubs have been charged by the FA for failing to control their players, while a number of Arsenal’s players posted crowing photos on social media after the match.
“It (the selfies) is just one of those things that happens now in football,” said Rose with a laugh. “Me seeing that, the Arsenal players do that after the game, was obviously frustrating and I’m already looking forward to [playing them again].
“It’ll be the quarterfinal so we don’t need much more motivation than that. It’ll be the first chance to win a trophy if we get through.
“I know there were a lot of opinions about Eric’s celebration but that’s what derbies are about. Even though I was on the bench, it was still nice to be a part of that because when we’ve played at the Emirates before, the atmosphere’s not been like that. It’s special.
“As long as we conduct ourselves in a professional manner, I don’t see anything wrong with what happened last week.
“For me, if I was a neutral watching on TV, it’s something I would like to see — as long as nobody is throwing hands and assaulting each other. Being involved in the game, that’s what I want to see and that’s why I’m looking forward to playing them again.
“It’s obviously frustrating when you lose and you see selfies and pictures from the [opposition] changing room being uploaded but there’s our incentive. It just shows how far we’ve come in recent years that it looked like it meant a lot to them to get a win over us.”
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