Djed Spence is having a breakthrough season with Tottenham Hotspur this season. Since he broke into the first team this year during Spurs’ injury crisis he has established himself as not only a Premier League-caliber player, but also one of Tottenham’s best players by performance metrics.
It wasn’t always easy. Spence was acquired in 2022 during Antonio Conte’s tenure, and the irascible Italian essentially dismissed Spence’s signing, calling his acquisition “an investment of the club” and that Spence was “a club signing.” Djed made just six appearances for Spurs in the fall of 2022-23 for a total of 47 minutes before being sent out on loan to Rennes that January. Spence spent the following season, the first under Ange Postecoglou, out on loan at Leeds and Genoa before returning and impressing in offseason this summer.
In comments made on Rio Ferdinand’s podcast and printed in the Standard, Spence has said Conte’s comments “shattered his confidence,” stating that despite being brought in as a promising young player fresh off winning promotion with Nottingham Forest, he was made to feel marginalized and unwanted.
“It wasn’t a nice feeling. Especially as I was coming to the club on a high, I was confident, I was buzzing, had just won promotion. Then it was like running into a brick wall. It shattered my confidence a bit, obviously I’m young. It’s not nice to hear.
“I knew it was rubbish at the time. It wasn’t a nice feeling. I was even going into the club like [puffs out cheeks] and, ‘What am I doing?’ I feel like whatever I did, that man [Conte] wasn’t happy about anything. Even if you did the right things, you were like, ‘Did I do the right thing?’ Cos he’s not really a complimenting guy.
“It gets to a point where you don’t really need validation from a coach. You just go, ‘Oh’.
“I probably had one conversation with him.”
Hindsight is always 20/20, and I confess at the time that while I was not overly thrilled with Conte’s comments about Spence, Djed had something of a reputation as an immature player who could be a little difficult to deal with. That said, it was absolutely a dick move by Conte to publicly bin off a new signing and make him feel unwanted. In the pantheon of Spurs Managers Being Jerks Moments during the tenure of my fandom, Conte’s comments about Spence ranks up there alongside Tim Sherwood, who when asked about Erik Lamela’s English, responded with a dismissive “Que?”.
That said, Spence also doesn’t think he necessarily got a fair shake under Big Ange at first either.
“When a new manager comes in you think, ‘Alright, everyone’s going to get a fair chance, he’s going to have a look at everyone’. With me, I don’t think that was really the case. But that’s part of the game of the game of football. Football’s not fair. [Postecoglou] just said basically I need to go out and play and that’s when I ended up going to Leeds.
“Sometimes you might not get a chance that you feel like you deserve. I’ve always known I was good enough. People say, ‘It’s good to see he’s got a second chance and he’s doing well’. I never really got the first chance. This is my first chance and I’m taking it. I’m just happy I worked hard, I stayed consistent and I was ready.”
Now, there’s a big difference between Postecoglou telling him “You need to go and play football somewhere on loan this year” and Conte basically saying “I don’t want or need this guy.” Postecoglou may not have been convinced about Spence’s fit in his team — a perfectly reasonable assumption based on his recent history at the club — but Ange at least gave Spence an opportunity to establish himself and his confidence on loan, which paid off significantly.
Importantly, Djed says that part of the reason it took him this long to get a foothold at Spurs was due to his own actions, saying that he was a little intimidated by the situation and didn’t “express [himself]” enough.
“I think I’ve been a victim of being too humble. Thinking things are just going to happen by not doing nothing and not saying nothing. But sometimes you have to express yourself.
“In my first year at Tottenham, I feel I gave a bit too much respect to the players and the surroundings, because it’s Tottenham. I came from Forest, I’m going to the Premier League, a top-six club, and I thought, ‘Phew, this is big’. I feel I gave them too much respect in regards I didn’t really be myself.
“When I went there, I saw players who were big names like Harry Kane and Sonny [Heung-min Son], and I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. But that was probably my biggest mistake, doing that and not expressing myself how I should have. I’d say this season [that’s changed]. I’ve got no time to waste now. I’ve got to go get it, it’s time.”
This is the first time we’ve really heard Spence’s side of the story, and I’m glad that he spoke up about his own feelings. That doesn’t necessarily negate the earlier reports of him being, at times, a little surly at past clubs and on loan, but does add some very important context to the whole situation. And, more importantly, add significant evidence that Conte was just a raging a-hole. Good riddance.
