Djed Spence at Tottenham: A Crucial Decision Amid Rebuild

Roberto de Zerbi has spent the summer tearing into Tottenham’s squad with a predator’s instinct. Now he wants one of the club’s most uncertain figures to buy into the rebuild.

Djed Spence, 25, is being courted by Inter Milan and Everton, yet his new manager is pushing hard for him to stay in north London.

“I would like you to stay if you want to stay. If you don't want to stay, if you want to leave, then you have to leave,” De Zerbi said, laying out his stance with the same blunt edge that has defined his first months in charge.

Spence signed a long-term deal only last year and started 23 of his 30 Premier League games as Spurs clung to survival, finishing 17th for the second season running. Now he finds himself staring at a very different landscape.

Tottenham have already spent a club-record £237m in this window. The right side of defence, Spence’s territory, is ruled by a World Cup winner.

Pedro Porro, De Zerbi insists, is the “best in the world” in that role. That is the level Spence is up against.

Rebuild with a ruthless edge

The Italian has not tiptoed into this job. He arrived in April, looked at a squad flirting with disaster, and went straight to work on the dressing room.

“At the beginning of my time in April I had, I don't know, one million individual meetings. And the players told me if they are here or not,” he explained.

The message that followed was unforgiving. Help keep the club up, and he would help them move on. Fail, and they would “stay underwater” with him.

They survived. The clear-out has followed.

Captain Cristian Romero is among those now likely to go. The defender drew criticism when he flew back to Argentina while injured before the final game of the season, only to return in time to play. De Zerbi pushed back on the backlash, calling Romero’s conduct under him “unbelievable”, but he also accepted that it is “his will” to leave.

Italian goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario is expected to depart as well after losing his place to Antonin Kinsky. Another symbol of how quickly status can shift under this manager.

Money on the table, pressure on the pitch

The scale of Tottenham’s reset is stark. Earlier this month they broke their transfer record on consecutive days.

• First came Mateus Fernandes from West Ham for £85m.
• Then Sandro Tonali arrived from Newcastle for £100m, a statement signing in the heart of midfield.
• Jan Paul van Hecke has joined from Brighton in a £52m deal, while Marcos Senesi, Andrew Robertson and Martin Dubravka have arrived on free transfers to add experience and steel.

It is not a gentle evolution. It is a jolt.

And De Zerbi is not done.

Speaking in Sydney, he estimated that “60%” of the project is complete and promised another “bomba” in attack. Tottenham are in advanced talks over Manchester City’s Brazilian forward Savinho and are chasing at least one more unnamed attacking target.

Asked if he wanted a winger or a striker, his answer was simple: “Attackers. We have to increase the number of goals.”

He dismissed the idea of fallback options. “I don't love working with plan A, plan B, plan C. It is plan A, full stop, because all players are not the same.”

That uncompromising approach runs through everything: the transfer market, the dressing room, even his own self-portrait. De Zerbi described himself as a “shark” this summer while hunting signings.

Spence at the crossroads

Amid all this churn, Spence’s situation captures the tension of Tottenham’s new era.

On one side, a manager who sees him as “an important part” of his plans, even with Porro entrenched at right-back and competition rising across the back line. On the other, genuine interest from major clubs on the continent and in the Premier League, and the promise of a clearer starting role elsewhere.

The choice is stark, and De Zerbi has no interest in softening it. Stay and fight in a squad being built to escape the relegation scrap for good, or walk away now while the market is hot.

Tottenham’s summer has already been explosive. The next decision Spence makes will say plenty about how far, and how fast, this new project is really prepared to go.