The former Tottenham Hotspur chairman thinks Danny Rose should have been sold in the summer.
Lord Alan Sugar has told the BBC he cannot understand why Tottenham Hotspur did not sell Danny Rose in the summer.
Rose, who recently returned from a long-term injury lay-off, sparked controversy during his absence for criticising the way in which the club was being run.
In an interview with the Sun newspaper, Rose suggested he and his teammates were under-paid, and said Tottenham needed to start signing established players “not ones you had to Google”.
The England left-back has since apologised and told the BBC recently that his relationship with manager Mauricio Pochettino is “fine”.
But Sugar, who was chairman of Spurs between 1991 and 2001, said his old side should have sent out a message through Rose’s sale.
“If we go back to the great Sir Alex Ferguson [the former Manchester United manager] – I think you might agree with me here – if he had a player like Danny Rose make a statement like he did in the media he would have been dead meat, gone,” Sugar told the BBC’s Premier League Show.
“And that’s what I can’t understand about the Tottenham hierarchy, really. Even though he’s a good player, even though you might need him when he comes back from injury. Putting that to one side, sometimes your pride and your dignity needs to send out a message to the others.”
Rose is said to have had interest from Manchester United, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain during the summer transfer window.
But having already sold right-back Kyle Walker to City, Spurs were understandably reluctant to lose him as well.
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