Andy Rose, the Motherwell midfielder, has arrived in Scotland having been reborn in the USA. The 27-year-old left Bristol City as a teenager, having been captain of the youth team, to accept a soccer scholarship at UCLA and spent pre-season training alongside the great and the good of city neighbours LA Galaxy, including David Beckham.
After gaining a degree in sociology, Rose entered the Major League Soccer draft system and was signed by Seattle Sounders — spending three-and-a-half fruitful seasons with the franchise and coming up against boyhood idols such as Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo.
Having been reared in an environment where the media have access to training sessions and are admitted into the dressing room after games, Rose is also a confident and engaging character who does not regard reporters as adversaries. Indeed, the 27-year-old is eloquent, thoughtful and relaxed during interviews.
He is also ambitious. Having made his Motherwell debut in last weekend’s 5-1 victory over Queen’s Park at Hampden, he is keen to return to the national stadium to experience the atmosphere when the crowd is larger than the 1,590 diehards who attended the Betfred Cup’s opening fixture.
His side can effectively guarantee qualification for the knockout phase of the competition by winning at home to Morton today. That would be another necessary step on the road to the final and Rose believes he can help the Fir Park side return to the national stadium to compete for silverware.
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“To be inside such a great ground and play on such a great pitch last weekend was a fantastic experience,” he said. “The stadium was pretty empty, though, so it would be nice to return there and experience Hampden with a real atmosphere. But we’re delighted to have got off to a winning start last week, especially scoring five goals.
“Our guys are excited to have matches that count so soon in the campaign and we want to keep that momentum going. A cup run is massively important to the club and we are all taking it seriously.”
Louis Moult, who has been Motherwell’s leading scorer in each of his two seasons at Fir Park, has been linked with moves to Aberdeen and Rangers this summer, but Steven Robinson, the Motherwell manager, is optimistic that the 25-year-old will still be his player when the transfer window closes.
“I’m not resigned to losing Louis,” said Robinson. “We have had no other bids or contact since the initial stuff a couple of weeks ago.
“I understand how players can get their head turned but Ben Heneghan, Chris Cadden and Moulty have not been fazed by any of the interest in them. Louis is a big part of Motherwell but if someone comes in with money we can’t turn down then we will accept that. But he’s not knocking on my door demanding to leave.”