Djed Spence will unfortunately have a watching brief on Thursday evening when Tottenham get their 2024/25 Europa League campaign underway. The early favourites to win the competition in Bilbao next May, Ange Postecoglou's side start their league phase fixtures with a home clash against Qarabag.
For Spence, he will play no part in any of Tottenham's eight European games after missing out on the 25-man squad for the first stage of the Europa League. The Lilywhites were always going to be in a position where a couple of players missed the cut due to the difference between UEFA and Premier League regulations when it comes to squad registration, with Spence and Sergio Reguilon the unlucky two to be omitted.
Whereas it was no surprise at all to see the latter miss out with a transfer away from Tottenham Hotspur Stadium always looking likely this summer, the call to leave out Spence did not sit well with plenty of fans. After all, he had forced his way back into Postecoglou's thinking during pre-season and offered Spurs the chance to give first-choice right-back Pedro Porro a much-needed breather.
Archie Gray does give Spurs cover in that position but the Europa League appeared to be the ideal competition to get Spence's Tottenham career finally up and running with very little Premier League minutes coming his way. The 24-year-old demonstrated to everyone last Wednesday evening that he can play a big role for Tottenham in the months ahead after his vital cameo in the Carabao Cup at Coventry City.
Not selected from the off with the plan to give both Spence and Destiny Udogie 45 minutes of football each, the ex-Nottingham Forest loanee was introduced at the beginning of the second half and really made his mark on the game.
Contributing defensively and also offering Spurs a big threat in those attacking areas with his runs forward, the versatile player helped spare Tottenham's blushes in the 88th minute with an equaliser following a strong run into the box to finish off Dejan Kulusevski's pass. If it wasn't for Spence's timely intervention, Postecoglou would have seen his Spurs team crash out of the Carabao Cup at the first time of asking for the second year on the trot.
There were to be no minutes for Spence in Saturday's 3-1 win over Brentford and the same will go for this week's Europa League tie at home to Qarabag. Due to only getting minutes here and there for Tottenham every so often, we have still to see the Spence and Brennan Johnson partnership that worked so well during their time together at Nottingham Forest in the 2021/22 season.
Both players had pivotal roles to play in Forest's promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs, with Steve Cooper's men having a formidable right flank as Spence and Johnson ran riot. Johnson did play in a number of attacking roles for Cooper over the course of the season but his bond and partnership with the right-back was clear to see when they did line up together down the right.
Speaking to the Garibaldi Red podcast in February 2022, David Johnson, Brennan's father, discussed the duo's link-up play and revealed the secret to their success was just by keeping it simple.
"Djed plays to his strengths and Brennan plays around Djed," said the former Ipswich and Nottingham Forest striker. "Djed will take on the full back within 30 seconds and run from one end to the other. He's always on the front foot.
"Defensively he's up there with the best in the division. That's how he can get away with it. He's got so much potential. He plays to his strengths, which helps the team and Brennan.
"They don't link up massively. I think they've had one assist to each other, but I wouldn't want to be a left-sided player in the Championship playing against those two.
"Djed is very, very quiet. Brennan is similar. They're not loud or lairy. The manager says they sit there and don't talk to each other, but they are close."
Spence's time away on loan last season has played a part in Tottenham fans not seeing Postecoglou fully unleashing this partnership, with Porro's fine form at right-back also a major reason for the two former Forest players not getting a run together down the right. It's hard to see where those opportunities are going to come from in the months ahead, especially due to Spence's Europa League absence and his tendency to play from the left in his game time, and there may unfortunately be very few chances to rekindle that partnership.
Looking to be on the way out of Tottenham but managing to play his way back into Postecoglou's thinking, plenty of Spurs fans would love to see more of Spence in action after his excellent display at Coventry last Wednesday. Such a key player in his time at Nottingham Forest along with Tottenham teammate Johnson, the right-back will be hoping he can do likewise now that he is finally making progress in north London.
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