Tottenham assistant boss Cristian Stellini believes that becoming more consistent in training is the next step for Djed Spence to catch Antonio Conte's eye.
The 22-year-old signed for Spurs from Middlesbrough last summer in a £12.5m deal that could eventually be worth £20m in add-ons. However, he has found himself with only 41 minutes of game time to his name across six appearances so far this season, without a single start to his name after Conte labelled him a "club signing" when he joined.
football.london understands Tottenham have now given the green light to Spence heading out on loan this month, although they are currently turning down loans with an option or obligation to buy the England U21 international. Brentford, Leicester, Crystal Palace, Southampton, Lyon and Bayer Leverkusen among others have all shown interest in the wing-back and Spurs are believed to have rejected a loan move with an obligation to buy from The Bees.
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On Friday Stellini was asked how Spence had been improving behind the scenes and what he still needs to work on to improve.
"Being consistent without playing so many times is not easy but being consistent in the training is really important for the type of player like Djed," said the Italian. "This is the area where he can improve a lot. He's improved since he is here and he had great improvement but he has to follow like everyone, like Bryan Gil, like Pape Sarr.
"They improve but the season is going on and if you don't have many chances to play, maybe you need to be consistent in the training."
He added: "There are also hierarchies in the team so we have to respect some hierarchies. It is not easy when you have a number of players, with more players in the rotation than you can use.
"In that moment, if you want to improve we have young players that go on loan but I repeat I am not the right person to speak about that. I speak in general about all the players, not just Djed Spence."
When it comes to Conte, the Spurs boss looked more like his old self amid the celebrations with fans after Monday's win at Fulham following a tough few months in which he has lost three close friends in Spurs fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone, then former Serie A player and manager Sinisa Mihajlovic and this month ex-Juventus team-mate Gianluca Vialli.
"For everyone it is the best moment [in celebrations]," said Stellini. "A type of manager like Antonio that lives with passion this job, it is important. It is an important moment, an important reaction but also it is important for the players to feel the support, to feel love, to feel everyone trusts in them. We are a team that works hard and this type of emotion can be a great point."
Stellini was asked whether the Tottenham players had been affected by the popular Ventrone's death.
"Honestly I have no quality and it is not my job to analyse. When you are close, you are friends, you are really close to a person like Gian Piero, I can easily understand it is a big impact but with the players I don't have the quality to answer this question," he said. "It is inside of everyone and not that we speak about this every day so really I don't know. For me, it was a big loss, for Antonio as well but we are close to him for a long time."
"Everything happen and when it can have a great impact like this, you need time to speak and you need to speak to try to give to others your emotion and a lot of emotion can create a big energy, but maybe we did immediately in that time. Then you don't have time [to speak] because life goes on very quickly but we need time.
"I repeat it is a thing that is very deep, I feel myself not in the right position to answer. Maybe it is the type of thing you live without knowing what is the best for you. It is very difficult and hard to explain.
"What I can say is that we feel a lot of love from the club. We realise that this club is a special club because they were so close with us to give us all the support and that was amazing."
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