Player Watch: Djed Spence

[mil1lion]

Why is everyone so sure that Forster is up to it anymore? Didn't look to assured before and gotten even older now...

Not sure just much less sure of the others

 

[JamieSpursCommunityUser]

Tottenham releases Europa League squad list for 2024-25 campaign

Djed Spence omitted from squad in one of the more bizarre decisions.

cartilagefreecaptain.sbnation.com

Sorry not been keeping up with this. The article states "Brandon Austin and Alfie Whiteman are the only two eligible club-trained players, so that does reduce Spurs’ squad size down to 23."

So unless I'm missing something if we'd omitted one of the 4 keepers we couldn't have put Spence in anyway.

The only way to have a 25 man squad is to have your quote of MAX 4 over 21 club trained players (U21 go on the unlimited B list).

It's 4 Club trained + 4 Association trained + 17 Foreign Trained.

Any more than 4 Association trained and they get included in the Foreign trained list.

 

[spurs9]

Not imo, he looked like a fish out of water there in preseason.

At the start he was poor but he grew into it and looked good IMO

 

[spurs9]

It's only 2nd choice so only takes an injury or suspension to Vicario. Can you imagine one of these keeper in Istanbul? If Gunter messes up he could really struggle. Forster is far more experienced and won't be hurt at this stage of his career anyway.

No, but I cant imagine Forster in Istanbul either and it would at least give Gunter a learning experience.

 

[spurs9]

Tottenham releases Europa League squad list for 2024-25 campaign

Djed Spence omitted from squad in one of the more bizarre decisions.

cartilagefreecaptain.sbnation.com

Sorry not been keeping up with this. The article states "Brandon Austin and Alfie Whiteman are the only two eligible club-trained players, so that does reduce Spurs’ squad size down to 23."

So unless I'm missing something if we'd omitted one of the 4 keepers we couldn't have put Spence in anyway.

We couldn't have omitted Whiteman or Austin for Spence but could have for Forster or (in a batshit crazy world) Vic.

 

[dontcallme]

We couldn't have omitted Whiteman or Austin for Spence but could have for Forster or (in a batshit crazy world) Vic.

Sorry I meant one of the young keepers.

If it was a straight choice between a 4th choice keeper and Spence I'd understand the disagreement more. But taking Spence ahead of our 2nd choice keeper seems like a bad idea to me.

 

[RuskyM]

Seems a *bit* odd, but I guess we'll see.

 

[felmani26]

Why is everyone so sure that Forster is up to it anymore? Didn't look to assured before and gotten even older now...

Because he’s not up to it anymore and people are trying to justify having him included are deluding themselves in how he’d perform in Ange’s system massively.

Any of Forster, Austin and Whiteman between the sticks is going to give us a fucking problem whereas Spence at least looked much more competent pre season and more importantly displaying the attitude needed to succeed here which was the vibe given from many outlets.

The message it’s sent out to Spence has been shit I’m sorry and will likely be felt in the dressing room and equally if he’s not been deemed worthy of a place then why haven’t we acted accordingly in making adequate arrangements for fullback cover in the window?!

I’ll reiterate; 4 goalkeepers, 6 defenders.

If that doesn’t tell you we’ve made a right hash of competent squad management then I don’t know what will.

 

[eddiebailey]

Are people honestly saying they would prefer to see Austin in goal with Spence right back than Forster in goal and Gray right back? A poor keeper is way more costly and Gray is likely to be as good if not better than Spence at right back.

Your assumption that Forster is currently a better keeper than Austin is based on what exactly? I recall one stop from Austin in preseason that I wouldn’t have bet on Forster to make if you’d given me odds of 100 to 1.

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

Are people honestly saying they would prefer to see Austin in goal with Spence right back than Forster in goal and Gray right back? A poor keeper is way more costly and Gray is likely to be as good if not better than Spence at right back.

If we were involved in a Lord of the Rings type battle, and we needed someone to rally the Ents - I would want Forster. In all other situations, including any needing a goalkeeper - I would prefer Austin.

 

[bubble07]

Putting all assumptions as to why he’s been left out aside, I’m disappointed because I think he would have been really effective in European games where his pace and flair would have stretched defences and also been effective in transition tracking back as he showed several times in pre-season. It’s also likely to be a decision that may cost the club millions in his value dropping due to a lack of playing time as let’s be real, with this decision it leaves his long term future here in a lot of doubt. His value is going to plummet if he doesn’t get many minutes here this season and for what? So we keep Fraser Forster happy? I couldn’t give a fuck to be frank. He’s not good enough to be our back up keeper and he’s worth a packet of monster munch on the transfer market. Does seem a really dumb decision being completely honest.

I know it's zero justification but Forster does seem to be a few of their best mates so might impact dynamic if left out?

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

I know it's zero justification but Forster does seem to be a few of their best mates so might impact dynamic if left out?

For all intents and purposes - he was left out of the squad all of last season - maybe that is why we struggled...

 

[mil1lion]

Your assumption that Forster is currently a better keeper than Austin is based on what exactly? I recall one stop from Austin in preseason that I wouldn’t have bet on Forster to make if you’d given me odds of 100 to 1.

Based on never seeing Austin play in a senior competitive match. There's obviously a reason for that so the coaches are seeing them all the time. No idea why anyone thinks Austin is sufficient for Europe when they literally have nothing to base it off.

 

[eddiebailey]

Based on never seeing Austin play in a senior competitive match. There's obviously a reason for that so the coaches are seeing them all the time. No idea why anyone thinks Austin is sufficient for Europe when they literally have nothing to base it off.

No idea why anyone thinks he isn’t when they have nothing to base it off. The coaches see him every day and they’ve just agreed to him being awarded a new five year contract. Goalkeepers need to be patient. So long as Forster was second choice and available Austin was never going to get game time. When the only competition we were in was the PL and Vicario was fit Austin likewise was never going to get game time. But you don’t get to be third choice keeper at a PL team unless the coaches think they can count on you. In the past we have always had seasoned veterans for that role, which I suspect, hope even, is where Forster is now.

 

[Westmorlandspur]

Are people honestly saying they would prefer to see Austin in goal with Spence right back than Forster in goal and Gray right back? A poor keeper is way more costly and Gray is likely to be as good if not better than Spence at right back.

The problem with Austin is that we don’t know if he is poor, average or good. Cannot take a chance on him.
25 yrs old and just signed a 5 yr contract. All he does is train and play friendlies . Does he want to be a proper goalie or not. Him and Whiteman are a pair together .

 

[Westmorlandspur]

No idea why anyone thinks he isn’t when they have nothing to base it off. The coaches see him every day and they’ve just agreed to him being awarded a new five year contract. Goalkeepers need to be patient. So long as Forster was second choice and available Austin was never going to get game time. When the only competition we were in was the PL and Vicario was fit Austin likewise was never going to get game time. But you don’t get to be third choice keeper at a PL team unless the coaches think they can count on you. In the past we have always had seasoned veterans for that role, which I suspect, hope even, is where Forster is now.

Austin just putting his time in on money he wouldn’t get anywhere else . If he had ambition he would be pushing for a loan. We will buy another kpr in the summer to take Forsters place leaving Austin where he is now.

 

[Westmorlandspur]

No, but I cant imagine Forster in Istanbul either and it would at least give Gunter a learning experience.

We are assuming Austin will be in the bench but he may put Gunter on there in some of the later matches.

 

[mil1lion]

Just love the whole how do you know Austin isn't good enough yet the same can be asked how anyone knows he is good enough. It is unknown which is exactly why it's crazy to complain about Spence missing out instead of Forster. There's a big difference between a 2nd choice keeper who needs to be on standby and a 3rd choice who rarely ever needs to be counted on. The fact is we should have signed a better 2nd choice keeper but we didn't and Forster is clear 2nd choice.

Also finding it funny how people are convinced Spence should be in. He hasn't proven himself yet. He has to earn his way back into the managers plans. It's a tough one because Europe could be an opportunity to do it but he has to earn his way into that squad first. This will be a great test of his character though to see how he responds to it.

The club has obviously recognised this issue but it takes time to build players into club trained. We basically we need more first team ready club trained to replace Skipp and Kane so they go onto that list. The other issue is we are at our limit of association trained too so Spence is the 1 missing out. I think we will likely always hit the non homegrown limit so can't free space there.

 

[Mattspur]

I'm surprised Ange has left him out. He's played a part in 2 of our 3 matches this season, so he appears to be an integral part of the match day squad. With the limit on squad places, hard choices needed to be made, but there are other areas of the pitch where we have more than enough cover, such as Left Wing, and I would have thought Werner, as a loan player, would have been a better option to leave out.

 

[Albertbarich]

Why are we giving players that are apparently so bad they can’t be trusted to sit on the bench in a europa league group stage game new five year contracts?

The discourse sometimes is so tiring We’re clearly short in defensive cover, really short. We couldn’t cope last year with far less games and now we’re adding in this known gruelling competition with almost zero defensive cover.

We’re going to find out here , but I can’t imagine we will go through the year with no injuries. We play such high intensity football too.

So fine, let’s see what happens but I don’t wanna hear excuses about having bad luck with injuries or players being tired. The squad in defensive areas is short and that’s been a choice the club have made so any issues back there will be fully on them