Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte’s decision to not include Djed Spence in the matchday squad has been ridiculed by journalist Alasdair Gold.
The Spurs reporter has been speaking on the latest episode of the Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham podcast where he discussed the Boxing Day draw against Brentford.
Spurs once again showed their defensive frailties against the Bees as they conceded twice before being able to hit back through Harry Kane’s header.
One player who did not make the matchday squad was the young right wing-back, Spence, who had recently suffered from illness making him miss the final friendly game against Nice.
However, Gold has hit out over the decision for Conte to then include Spence in the travelling side which consists of a few extra players in case there are any late dropouts through illness or injury:
(3:55) “So to have him there, in that respect, kind of makes me think he was okay to play. Yeah, it was a shame because obviously, he did miss the third friend against Nice, but in the previous two, he’d been very good and shown a lot of kind of bright qualities that we really want to see him doing in the first team. But yeah, not to be involved at all was obviously another trigger for unhappy fans.”
TIF Thoughts on Gold’s comments…
It does feel as if Spence’s chances under Conte may have now come to an end ahead of the January transfer market with the 22-year-old playing just 26 minutes across all competitions this season (via Transfermarkt).
Has Conte badly handled Djed Spence?
Yes
No
There have been reports already claiming the Lilywhites will look to loan out the wing-back in January due to his lack of game time under the Italian manager.
But with the likes of Matt Doherty and Emerson Royal failing to impress this season, we cannot understand why Spence has not been given a single start this season.
Conte said when Spence signed that he was a club signing, however, we think the way the Italian has handled the youngster has been pretty poor.