Tottenham Hotspur have a busy spell after the international break comes to an end, with games in three competitions all coming up in the next few weeks.
Spurs will look to make amends for their mixed start to the Premier League season in the most high-stakes fixture they’ll have this season, the North London derby.
Tottenham then enter the League Cup at the third-round stage after the Arsenal game, as they head to Championship side Coventry City.
Then comes the Europa League, with matches against Qarabag at home and a trip to Ferencvaros before the October international break.
Earlier this week, Spurs announced their Europa League group stage squad, and there was a glaring omission, with Djed Spence failing to make the cut.
As per football.london, the Europa League regulations meant Ange Postecoglou had to omit two senior players.
Sergio Reguilon was one, and Spence – rather than Fraser Forster, who was heavily touted to miss out – was the other.
Alasdair Gold has now issued a damning verdict on Postecoglou’s decision to omit Spence from Spurs’ Europa League squad.
Alasdair Gold says Djed Spence omission from Tottenham Europa League squad is ‘big red flag’
On Saturday, Gold hosted his latest Q&A session on football.london, and a fan asked him about what the Tottenham boss thinks of Spence.
The journalist responded by saying the full-back has been “really unfortunate” and questioned the “very risky” decision to leave him out.
Indeed, Gold even went as far as to describe the lack of an outfield club-trained player in the first-team as a “big red flag”.
Gold wrote: “Spence has done really well this summer and impressed everyone inside the club, including Postecoglou.
“I think he’s just been really unfortunate in that the squad choice would suggest the Spurs boss does not trust his back-up goalkeeper options enough to leave out the experienced Fraser Forster. That means Spence was the odd man out.
“It’s a very risky decision because it leaves the defensive cover very light for the group stages. Romero is suspended for the first game against Qarabag and an injury or two more and there’s going to be some problems. Spence was able to cover both right and left-back spots.
“How the 24-year-old will react is going to be interesting. He’s come on in two of the first three Premier League games and will likely play in the Carabao Cup, so he should still get game time. It’s just a massive shame because he would have played a lot in Europe.
“Overall it’s a big red flag against the squad management Spurs have overlooked in recent years with not a single outfield club-trained player in the first team now. They have made moves to change that but it’s been a problem they should have sorted a long time ago.”
Spence may well be questioning his Tottenham future now
It wasn’t that long ago that Spence was being talked about as a potential departure from Spurs, but he has worked so hard to get back in contention.
The outcome of this is that he remains at the club and is in line for more minutes, but leaving him out of the Europa League squad will have been a bitter pill to swallow.
The Europa League will be a great opportunity for some of the fringe players to get starts and give Postecoglou food for thought, but that won’t be happening now.
It wouldn’t be surprising if this decision would’ve prompted Spence to start thinking about finding another club in the January transfer window.