Djed Spence facing his true test with January loan move

The young full-back is facing another career crossroads ahead of a proposed move to Genoa

Sometimes young footballers need a wake-up call regardless of how talented they are. Even the best sometimes have a wobble in their careers as the realisation over just how difficult it is to get to the top becomes clear.

Djed Spence is currently going through such a point in his young career, sent to train with Spurs' U21s as the club looks for any deal to get him out of the club, loan or permanent. The 23-year-old has now had a string of managers who have had him available yet decided to look to others despite his undoubted ability.

That list of coaches contains Tottenham's Ange Postecoglou and before him Antonio Conte, then Rennes coach Bruno Genesio as well as experienced English managers Chris Wilder and Neil Warnock and now Leeds boss Daniel Farke.

Djed Spence is facing another career crossroads

"Listen, in the summer we came here in order to create and to bring new values and to create a new culture within the club and when we speak about a player if he's on here on a permanent or a loan deal, we have expectations and these expectations are in several topics important," said Farke after cutting Spence's loan short halfway through the season.

"Obviously it's important, the potential and the quality of the player but also it's professionalism, it's discipline, it's workload on and off the pitch and also the soft skills, so also if he's positive and committed, good for the group and engaged with these topics, paint then more or less a picture, and we decided okay, this is the player we want in our group and want to represent Leeds United, our demands are very, very high and we don't differ between loan players, permanent players so we are pretty picky in this topic.

Daniel Farke took the decision to send Spence back to Spurs

"We came to the conclusion that we will end the loan for Djed and he will return back to Tottenham. We are grateful for his time here. He's a player of great potential and also a cool guy with a really good heart so we really wish him all the best, but yes, sometimes you need to take a decision then you have to do this."

One manager who got the best out of Spence was Steve Cooper, who harnessed the young wing-back's talent, absorbed other aspects and pushed him to become one of the best young players in the Championship as Nottingham Forest won promotion to the Premier League through the play-offs.

Yet you can trace the start of Spence's stagnation to the social media post he posted later that evening after the play-off final win against Huddersfield at Wembley Stadium.