Mask-clad, marauding down the left, Djed Spence was an unlikely hero to emerge from England’s World Cup summer. Rarely has there been so late a scramble for plane tickets as when Thomas Tuchel announced his 26-man squad in May, Spence’s family quickly following him to the United States. Jordan Henderson aside, his was the least predictable name on the list.
In the absence of sufficient forward-thinking down the middle and the lack of the edge in the wide areas, debates over Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Adam Wharton will rage on. After the briefest of glitches in the set-to with DR Congo, it is telling that nobody is any longer hankering for Myles Lewis-Skelly or Lewis Hall. On the other side, there is little Spence could do that would ever wholly justify Trent Alexander-Arnold’s surprise exclusion.
“Djed Spence went from Spurs exile to England World Cup hero; Rangers youngster reflects on summer and vows Ibrox impact.”
Tuchel’s thinking, so impenetrable to a nation learning to trust him, was this. In the very early days at youth level in Peckham, south London, Spence started life as a winger. A right-back by trade, he has been forced onto the opposite flank more often than not at Spurs this season, through an injury crisis that wiped out Ben Davies, Destiny Udogie and an unfamiliar left-back in Souza, who played just four times. The fluidity of the Tottenham Hotspur full-back is such that it makes him the ideal candidate for Norway, a quarter-final by the end of which you would be hard-pushed to explain who was playing where.
In the summer of 2025, before Thomas Frank’s project quickly disintegrated, Spence was even used in a front three. That flexibility is a double-edged sword, the typical criticism being that he is too right-footed to play on the left. Against Mexico it allowed him to slot into a back five when it was backs-to-the-wall time.
Certainly there is an argument that if Spence has been a late developer, he has been as much a victim of circumstance as anything else. Released by Fulham just shy of his 18th birthday, an alternative path might have kept him at Middlesbrough for another year, had the relationship with Neil Warnock not broken down. He was sent on loan to Nottingham Forest, almost immediately finding himself under another change of manager. On the bridge over the Trent outside the City Ground, a graffiti tag still reads: “Djed Spence, we miss you.” That should give a feeling of where Steve Cooper took him to.
In Antonio Conte, he found no such ally. Days after joining Tottenham, his manager used a press conference to dismiss him as a “club signing” rather than a player he wanted. In reply, Spence said the revelation “shattered his confidence”. Conte awarded him a total of 43 minutes. Over his next full season at Spurs after loans at Rennes, Leeds and Genoa, h…
While Spence’s star has risen, another young talent north of the border has been reflecting on his own summer. A Rangers youngster, who represented Scotland at the World Cup, has spoken of his whirlwind experiences, why he pushed for a transfer, and has made a vow to make an impact at Ibrox.