‘To be honest’… £20m Tottenham player admits he barely even spoke to Antonio Conte at Spurs

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Djed Spence hasn’t had the best of times as a Tottenham player.

The right-back arrived at Spurs last summer for £20m, but he was immediately made to feel unwelcome at the club as Antonio Conte branded him a club signing and left him to rot on the bench.

Spence has since been sent out on loan no fewer than three times, and it looks as though his Spurs career could be over.

Speaking to The Athletic, Spence has now lifted the lid on what his life at Tottenham has been like, and he’s discussed Antonio Conte’s time at the club.

Interestingly, Spence has admitted that he genuinely didn’t have much of a relationship with Conte during his time at the club.

Djed Spence barely spoke to Antonio Conte

The right-back spoke about his former manager.

“I didn’t really have a relationship with him, to be honest. He’s a coach that has his way. I don’t think he has much of a relationship with his players. It’s come into training and train — and that’s pretty much it.”

Poor

This just goes to show one of the main issues Conte had at Spurs.

No matter what job you’re in, if you don’t feel like you have a good relationship with your boss, you’re not going to feel welcome and you’re going to struggle.

Conte knew that Spence was a young man coming into a huge club and it would’ve been a daunting task, he’s exactly the type of player who needed an arm around the shoulder and a bit of reassurance, but, instead, he barely even garnered a relationship with him.

There’s a lot to be said about what Antonio Conte got wrong at Tottenham, but his man-management is certainly one area of his tenure at Spurs that was handled poorly.

Spence was almost set up to fail by Conte at Spurs in a lot of ways.