Ange Postecoglou backs Tottenham’s Djed Spence for England call-up

Ange Postecoglou has backed Tottenham full-back Djed Spence to earn a maiden England call-up next month.

Spence has been a major positive for Spurs across a difficult winter period with 12 starts since the middle of December.

It took the full-back the best part of 30 months to earn a full debut at Tottenham, but the 24-year-old has finally started to flourish in N17 after mixed loan spells at Rennes, Leeds and Genoa since his 2022 move from Middlesbrough.

Postecoglou revealed he was purposely tough on the versatile defender at the start of this season and is delighted to see Spence come through that test with flying colours, which has resulted in his name being mentioned as a potential surprise inclusion in Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad in March.

“I’ve always kept an open mind about these things. There’s obviously a player there. There was never any doubt about that. Why it hadn’t worked out? You always try to figure out,” Postecoglou saidd ahead of Saturday’s trip to Ipswich.

“I didn’t make it easy for him, it’s not like I said to him, ‘Djed, you’re here, we love you, stay’.

“I purposefully made it difficult for him because I thought that was going to be the test. To see earlier in the season when he wasn’t playing or part of squads, how he was training, how he was reacting to things and he never got disengaged.

“He was always engaged and that made an impression on everyone. Me, the coaches, his team-mates and from then on, it’s just been all about him.

“All I did was say, ‘you’ve earned a shot at it, here it is’, and he’s been brilliant. You know there’s a player there and sometimes you just need certain things to click into gear. The penny drops at different times for different players.

“For some of them it drops at 18, for some it drops a bit later when they realise this is what I have to do to get the most out of my career and it’s a credit to him.

“He’s an outstanding player, I’m super pleased we’ve still got him in the building. It would have been super easy for him to be playing elsewhere.

“Again, I don’t like talking about national team representation but fair to say in terms of full-backs in recent times, his form is as good as anybody’s.

“Don’t forget, he’s not really a left-back, he’s a right-back. The ability of him to play on the left is very useful but in terms of full-backs and form in the league over the last two or three months, I think he’d be up there.”

Spurs assistant Matt Wells is understood to have been a big champion of Spence, who could start at right-back against Ipswich with Pedro Porro in line for a rare rest.

The form of the former England Under-21 international means Postecoglou has genuine competition at full-back, but the Australian feels more is to come from Spence.

Postecoglou added: “For him, the challenge now is, ‘don’t settle for that now. Push on’. There’s no reason why he can’t.

“He can be a top, top player. He’s already at a great level but don’t settle for that. My role and for all of us here is to keep pushing him on.”