Well, we kinda thought this might be coming. Numerous reporters and transfer mongers, including Fabrizio Romano (sigh) are now reporting that Inter Milan and Tottenham Hotspur are in negotiations for the potential sale of Djed Spence. Romano is reporting that Spence is keen on a move to Italy, and other reports a potential sale of around €40m (£34.5m).
It feels weird to consider selling a World Cup bronze medalist who was, honestly, one of the most impressive players on that World Cup squad, but here we are. I was listening to the Game is About Glory podcast this morning and one of the hosts made the suggestion that Roberto De Zerbi might think that Spence, while an excellent defender, might be a little too dribbly a fullback for RDZ’s tactics, which rely on short, quick passing to progress the ball up the field.
That could very well be the case but selling Spence means Tottenham have a fullback corps of Destiny Udogie, Souza, Pedro Porro, and… various other players playing out of position, like Micky van de Ven and Archie Gray. Selling a fullback who can provide relief on both sides of the pitch feels weird, but then again, Spurs will only rarely play more than one match a week, and Djed is clearly looking for a starting role somewhere. I don’t know if he gets that here unless Udogie or Porro are injured or out of action for a significant amount of time.
There’s no deal in place yet and we know Inter are going to try and cheap out on the transfer fee. They actually do have some money, but not a ton of it and they have conflicting priorities this summer, so it’ll be interesting to see whether a deal can be made. But Spence seems to want this, and if we can get a decent price for him it’ll be sad but quite possibly the correct decision. We’ll see.
