Remember how Djed Spence had his season-long loan at Leeds United terminated halfway through, ostensibly because he did not meet the expectations set for him by the Leeds coaching staff? Well, his pathway to football does not include playing for Tottenham Hotspur’s first team this spring. According to Alasdair Gold, Spence has been banished to training with Tottenham’s U21 team until a new club can be found, either permanently or on loan.
Understand Djed Spence has and will be training with Spurs’ U21s until he gets a move this month after his Leeds loan was brought to a premature end. https://t.co/FYI8JPF8UF
— Alasdair Gold (@AlasdairGold) January 8, 2024
Ouch. If you’re taking a charitable reading of this newsy tidbit, it’s that he can’t go out on loan if he gets any first team minutes with Spurs (like what happened with Dane Scarlett) so keeping him out of the first team side will maximize his chances of securing a second loan this month.
But that doesn’t explain keeping him out of first team training altogether, and that’s the really damning bit. Big Ange brings talented youngsters into first team training all the time if he thinks they deserve the chance to do so, even if he has no intention of actually playing them in matches. We also know that Postecoglou was thoroughly unimpressed with Spence this past summer, which is why he was sent out on loan to begin with. It’s hard not to look at him being sent to train with the U21s as a pretty damning indictment of his future prospects at this football club.
For Djed’s sake, I hope he’s able to secure a move away sometime before the end of the month, because he sure isn’t going to have a very fun spring if he doesn’t.