When Neil Warnock loaned Djed Spence out last summer, he said the wing-back would either end up in the Premier League or non-league. It transpired the man who has managed more games in English football than anyone else wasn’t quite right. Spence is also bound for the Champions League.
Tottenham’s newest recruit has had a remarkable rise. Deemed Middlesbrough’s second-finest option in his position last summer – Isaiah Jones, who Warnock preferred, is at least a good player in his own right – he blazed a trail as much the best in the Championship, helping Nottingham Forest to promotion, doubling up as the scourge of Arsenal and Leicester in buccaneering displays in the FA Cup, and has now been signed by the high priest of wing-backs, Antonio Conte.
