Neto, Elanga, Akliouche and the next five candidates for Djed Spence's penitentiary at Tottenham

8 hours ago 4

Even Djed Spence's Tottenham team-mates cannot escape his "penitentiary", so what hope do his opponents have?

The 25-year-old has enjoyed a strong start to the season under new head coach Thomas Frank after turning his Spurs career around under Ange Postecoglou last year when it seemed like his Premier League dreams might take longer to get going than he expected after struggles in his first couple of years at the north London club.

Spence roared back though and worked his way into the Tottenham starting line-up, mostly providing another option on the left rather than his natural right-back role, and his form not only earned him his England debut last month but on Thursday night he made his first start for Thomas Tuchel.

England kept a clean sheet as they swept aside Wales with three goals in the opening 19 minutes and that allowed Spence to add a very familiar name to the list of wingers he has in his "penitentiary".

The full-back had started to hint on social media about dispensing with the wingers he came up against in pre-season with an image of Arsenal's Bukayo Saka after Spurs' 1-0 win in Hong Kong. Spence used a photo of the England winger on the floor in front of him with the caption "On to the next one".

That of course may just have meant Tottenham's next friendly in South Korea against Newcastle, but the captions began to get clearer. After the 2-0 win at Manchester City, Spence was up against Oscar Bobb and Rico Lewis down his flank and he posted after the game at the Etihad Stadium "Bring me your favourite winger" along with a devil's face emoji.

A few weeks later and another future England colleague got the treatment with Jarrod Bowen pictured, along with the first reference to Spence's winger prison after the 3-0 victory at West Ham with the caption "Who doesn't love a derby win. Penitentiary expanded".

Even his Spurs team-mates did not escape being locked up on social media. In Tottenham's 3-0 win against Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup, the visitors had 19-year-old Tottenham winger Damola Ajayi on loan and playing on the right. Spence later posted an image of the teenager behind bars with the words "I'm sorry Lil bro. Welcome to the penitentiary". To his credit, Ajayi responded to it well with a gif of Neil Warnock, a rather pivotal character from Spence's past.

It was no holds barred for Spence now and that mean Brennan Johnson got the treatment after Thursday night's England win against Wales.

Spence has begun tucking the penitentiary images at the end of his Instagram collages and there it was with the Spurs winger's head on a leashed dog with the full-back holding the chain, using the Grand Theft Auto V meme.

"Very happy to get my first England start with a great win, but forget about all that emotional stuff for a second.. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE THE INEVITABLE. LETS TAKE A WALK TO THE PENITENTIARY BROTHER," posted Spence in the captain alongside.

So who is next to be potentially locked up in the Tottenham defender's infamous penitentiary?

Next up after the international break is Aston Villa, who will arrive at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on October 19. If Spence plays at left-back then he will likely be up against 24-year-old Ivory Coast attacker Evann Guessand.

The Corsica-born forward was signed for £30million in the summer from Nice and is yet to get off the mark with a goal or assist for Villa and has mostly been playing off the right for Unai Emery's side. Spence will be hoping to prevent him from getting his landmark first goal for the visitors.

Spence is likely to rotate with Destiny Udogie, and even Pedro Porro on the right, with games coming every three days but for the purposes of this article we're selecting Spence as the left-back for every match and running the England international into the group.

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That means he would likely come up against a much-linked Spurs target in the summer window, Maghnes Akliouche, as the north London club travel to Monaco in the Champions League on October 22. The 23-year-old France international has two goals and one assist to his name in six Ligue 1 games so far and will present plenty of trickery and ability down the right-flank for Monaco.

Up next is a trip to Everton on October 26 and potentially another Tottenham transfer target from the past 12 months in the shape of Tyler Dibling. The 19-year-old has played on the right in the past couple of games for Everton, although David Moyes had been using Iliman Ndiaye a fair amount in the role and the Senegal international has three goals and an assist from his seven Premier League games so far so could get the nod against the Lilywhites.

October 29 brings the Carabao Cup fourth round trip to Newcastle, where Sweden international Anthony Elanga has mostly been the right winger of choice but has failed to provide a goal or assist yet in the Premier League since his move from Nottingham Forest.

To complete the run of the next five matches is a home derby on November 1 against Chelsea when Spence, if he is at left-back, will likely have to deal with Neto and his array of talents. November brings plenty more challenges with games against Manchester United, Arsenal and PSG among the bunch.

That means Spence will have plenty of opportunities to add more names to his penitentiary and Thomas Frank will be hoping he does, because the more wingers who get locked up behind those social media bars, it can only mean good things for Tottenham.

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