Leeds United play host to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League at Elland Road on Saturday in their last match before the international break.
Their clash with Spurs means that there will be a reunion for Daniel Farke and some of the players with former Leeds loanee Djed Spence, who has emerged as a regular starter at full-back for Thomas Frank.
The England international spent the first half of the 2023/24 campaign on loan at Elland Road from the Premier League side, but it did not quite work out for him in West Yorkshire.
Why it did not work out for Djed Spence at Leeds
After playing just seven matches in the Championship, Leeds opted to send him back to Spurs in the January transfer window and Farke suggested that his professionalism played a part in that decision.
When asked about why Spence’s loan was cut short, Farke said: “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.
“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.”
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Whilst Spence’s professionalism may have been one of the reasons behind why the loan did not work out, the form of Archie Gray at right-back and Junior Firpo at left-back also played a major role because it meant that the loanee could not break into the XI.
Now, there is a player in the current Leeds squad who is in a similar situation and is in danger of becoming Farke’s next Spence at Elland Road.
The Leeds player who is in danger of becoming the next Djed Spence
The Championship champions agreed a deal worth up to £10m to sign James Justin from Leicester City in the summer transfer window to add quality to their full-back department.
Up to £10m on a 27-year-old back-up full-back may not have been the best allocation of funds, given that the Whites did not sign any right-wingers or number tens to bolster their attack in the window.
Speaking on talkSPORT, presenter Jeff Stelling said: “James Justin has been a very good player, good enough to win England caps, but he’s struggled for form in the last couple of seasons, I think it’s fair to say.”
He added: “I think they need to bring a Jack Grealish type figure in, someone who you know, the fans can really get excited about.
“And however well Justin does, the fans are not going to get excited about signing a full-back.”
The comment from Stelling about the defender’s struggles was interesting. Justin made two errors that led to goals as Leicester were relegated from the Premier League last season, per Sofascore, which shows that Leeds were not signing a player who was in great form or full of confidence.
Bournemouth
0
N/A
Wolves
12
0
Fulham
0
N/A
Newcastle
10
0
As you can see in the table above, the English full-back has only played 22 minutes of football since being signed for an initial fee of £8m from the Foxes.
Gabriel Gudmundsson and Jayden Bogle appear to have the full-back positions locked down, as Gray and Firpo did when Spence was at the club, and Justin is in real danger of struggling for minutes throughout the campaign unless injuries present him with an opportunity.
This is why the former Leicester man may follow the same path that Spence and Isaac Schmidt, who left to join Werder Bremen on loan this summer, followed as back-up full-back options under Farke.
Justin will be hoping that he can get a chance to impress and nail down a place in the starting XI by producing quality performances, to avoid getting to January and having to make a decision about his game time, as Spence and Leeds had to do in 2024.