Fabrizio Romano reveals why Djed Spence is struggling for minutes at Spurs under Antonio Conte
Transfer insider Fabrizio Romano has weighed in on Djed Spence struggling to get playing time at Tottenham Hotspur under manager Antonio Conte.
Recently, Spence removed every photo on his Instagram account except the one of him turning out for his country at the youth level. He removed all references to Spurs from his profile and blacked out his profile picture.
This naturally raised concerns among Spurs over the issue, and if there was something wrong behind the scenes. There is still no official clarity on the situation but until that comes, there will be a feeling that it is related to his lack of playing time at Tottenham.
Spence’s playing-time situation is abnormal. It’s not consistent with a young player being handed minutes to prepare him for first-team football in the future.
The 22-year-old has 28 minutes of senior football spread across four games across competitions under Conte. Three of those appearances have been in the Premier League from the bench to run down the clock in the final moments of the game.
Speaking on Spence’s situation, Romano exclusively told CaughtOffside:
“My understanding is that Spence is not playing because Antonio Conte wants experienced players and Spence is considered a talent for the future. Tottenham were always frontrunners in the summer and they are convinced he’s going to be a great investment for the future of the club.
The Italian journalist also stated that there is nothing concrete regarding a potential loan departure in the January transfer window. Emerson Royal and Matt Doherty have been fit this season and if that continues, they will undoubtedly be ahead of the Englishman in the pecking order.
“In terms of a January loan, no decision has been made yet; we will see what happens when Conte meets the board and decides the next steps.”
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A loan will be the ideal situation if we don’t want to irk Spence by making him warm the benches every week and halt his development. He would have joined Spurs with great hope but the current situation would irritate any player.