If everyone agreed that the dust had settled after Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven appeared to “snub” Thomas Frank after Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 home loss to Chelsea a few weeks ago, apparently no one bothered
to tell Thomas Tuchel. As published in The Athletic, the England manager apparently took it upon himself to have a chat with Spence about the incident, despite both Tottenham and Frank considering the matter closed.
Spence and Van de Ven were caught by cameras walking past Frank after the disastrous performance and loss to Chelsea. Frank was apparently trying to get both players to acknowledge the home fans, who were in the process of vociferously booing their own players after what they perceived to be an exceptionally poor performance and in a London derby. Spence and Van de Ven both walked right past Frank and down the tunnel.
This naturally blew up in the English media. Frank minimized the incident, saying both players came to him unprompted after the match to apologize and clarifying that they were both frustrated with the result and their individual performances, and that there was no disrespect intended. Frank seemed happy to let everything go. All’s good, move on, right?
Apparently not if you’re Thomas Tuchel. In comments given to the media in a press conference (reported in The Athletic [£]) ahead of Sunday’s match between England and Albania, Tuchel said that he also spoke to Spence, whom he called up to the England squad, about what happened after the Chelsea game, and reminded him of his responsibilities as a national team player.
Tuchel, 52, has kept faith with Spence, and said on Saturday evening that he did not consider not calling him up for this month’s camp. But Tuchel revealed that he has spoken to Spence about the incident.
“I didn’t like it,” Tuchel said, ahead of Sunday afternoon’s final World Cup qualifier away in Albania. “Because the players know they are not only national players when they are ten days in camp. They are always national players, and the standard of behaviour is always important.”
— The Athletic
So, I really don’t know how I feel about this. On the one hand, I understand Tuchel’s position as manager of England — you are representing an entire nation, and in his mind the honor that goes with playing for England means players holding themselves to certain standards of behavior. Playing for England is not the same thing as playing for Tottenham Hotspur.
But that edge cuts both ways. The basic facts are that a) Djed Spence was NOT playing for England at the time of the incident, b) the situation was clearly blown out of proportion to what actually took place, and c) the incident had already been resolved to the satisfaction of Thomas Frank and Tottenham Hotspur. I get that Tuchel wants to hold his own national team players to a high standard, but I don’t see much point of rehashing an already settled discourse, nor do I see much of a point to publicly disclosing this conversation with Spence to the media when the situation was already resolved.
I haven’t bothered to go back and look for examples, but I don’t think I’d have to look very hard to find times where England players were involved in disciplinary actions with their club teams that did not filter into the England camp. Sure, you can argue that different England managers would have different ways of dealing with these situations and Tuchel clearly favors stringent codes of conduct, but why bring it up publicly? I can’t help but wonder if this is a long-tail effect of Spence having a reputation earlier in his career of being “surly,” something that hasn’t been an issue for a few seasons now. I also can’t help but wonder — if the same situation had happened to, say, John Stones or Elliot Anderson, would we have had the same outcome? Would Tuchel have talked about it in a press conference? For the manager of England to have a discussion with a young national team player about behavioral standards at his club team is, I suppose, fine. But to talk about it in front of the press comes across as vaguely threatening to Spence’s future England prospects in a way that makes me feel uncomfortable.
Thomas Tuchel doesn’t have to like what Spence allegedly did or the way it was handled by Spurs and Frank. But it WAS handled, and to the satisfaction of everyone except, apparently, Thomas Tuchel. If he wanted to insert himself into the situation that’s his right as England manager. If he wants to have the highest of standards for his England players, that’s also fine. It would’ve been better if he hadn’t talked about it publicly, though, and at bare minimum I certainly hope Tuchel stays consistent with how he handles future infractions by his players.
