Djed Spence has been one of Tottenham’s very best performers in recent months.
Indeed, Spence has earned tons of plaudits for his performances for Tottenham as of late, and, unfortunately, he missed out on an England call-up this week.
Speaking on Rio Ferdinand’s Podcast, Joleon Lescott and Ferdinand have been discussing Spence after he was announced as the next guest on the podcast.
Lescott knows Spence well from his time coaching with the England U21 team.
Lescott is a coach alongside Lee Carsley, and he’s spent a lot of time with Spence.
According to the pundit, Djed Spence is a very misunderstood player as his public persona would suggest that he doesn’t care all that much about football.
However, Lescott says that Spence is a true football lover, as is his family.
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Djed Spence is misunderstood
Lescott spoke about Spence and some of the misconceptions around him.
Spence has been said to have attitude problems in the past, and that has created this air of caution around him as a player.
However, according to Lescott, Spence does love football and he’s a player who a lot of people misjudge.
“So anyone who’s watching, Djed Spence is coming up,” Ferdinand said.
“Very misunderstood,” Lescott said.
Misunderstood, yeah? Why? Why? Why is he misunderstood?” Ferdinand asked.
“Because his persona is that he doesn’t love the game. Djed loves the game. He loves it. His family loves the game. Do you know what I mean?” Lescott said.
What people close to Djed Spence say about his personality
Lescott says that Spence is misunderstood as a person, and people close to Spence have also said similar.
Indeed, according to Jay Harris, people close to Spence believe he is often misinterpreted as a person.
“I’ve spoken to people who know him quite well, and they’ve said that Spence is a bit introverted, and he can be quite aloof. And so there are times where people probably have misinterpreted that as him not caring or him having a bad attitude. But I think what we’re seeing before us now is a 24 year old who was a young boy,” Harris said.
“He’s a young man now. Apparently during his time in Italy with Genoa, that was quite a powerful experience for him because Leeds didn’t work out for a number of different issues, but mainly because he had quite a bad knee injury, which ruled him out, I think, for two and a half months, three months in total. So he’s gone from barely getting a game in the championship to he played at the San Siro twice with Genoa.
“He played against Juventus away for Genoa. And so he’s returning to Spurs and he’s thinking, wow, if I want to kick on with my career at the highest level, I seriously need to knuckle down. He did that.”
Neil Warnock had issues with Spence at Middlesbrough before his £20m move to Tottenham, and while it has been a bumpy road for Spence, he now appears to be on the right track.
Being aloof and introverted does rub people up the wrong way sometimes, especially in a pressure cooker environment like a football dressing room, but, ultimately, Spence is just a young man who wants to play his football and thrive at the highest level.
Luckily, Ange Postecoglou seems to have got to grips with Spence as a person and as a player, and Spurs and Spence himself are benefitting from that.
