Pundit can’t believe Djed Spence could quit Tottenham in January after new development
Noel Whelan has insisted there would be “eyebrows raised” if Djed Spence were to exit Tottenham on loan in January despite a lack of game time early on this season.
The former Leeds striker, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, claimed the 22-year-old won’t have expected to be first-choice in a “team full of international stars”.
Spence has only played one minute of football for Tottenham this season after joining from Middlesbrough in a deal worth up to a reported £20million.
As per football.london (21 September), Antonio Conte does believe the England Under-21 international is ready to be a first-team regular yet.
Spence has found his route to the first-team blocked by senior internationals like Ivan Perisic, Matt Doherty, and Emerson Royal.
Whelan advised the former Nottingham Forest loanee to “bide his time and work harder” in order to make his breakthrough.
He told Football Insider’s Ewan Kingsbury: “I think there would be a lot of eyebrows raised if he were to go out on loan now.
“The fans might question why they’ve spent that amount of money on a player just to loan him out.
“Perisic and Doherty are both very experienced, and Royal really seems to have stepped up his game.
“There’s competition for places at Spurs, which is brilliant – and I’m sure Conte is loving all that rivalry too.
“Does Spence need to bide his time and maybe work harder? Probably, yeah. You can’t change a winning side too much.
“This is competition he knew he was going to have. He was coming into a team full of international stars.
“He won’t have thought he could walk straight into that side, absolutely not.”
In other news, Tottenham expert issues “massive” Clement Lenglet claim amid new injury reveal.