Djed Spence: Liverpool's Ideal Full-Back Solution?
Liverpool’s summer has been framed by one question: who follows Mohamed Salah? But while the spotlight glares on the forward line, a quieter, more pragmatic conversation is taking place inside and around Anfield – about full-backs, depth, and a Tottenham defender whose name would once have drawn a shrug on Merseyside.
From afterthought to World Cup standout
Djed Spence was not supposed to be part of Liverpool’s transfer discourse. Not really. Six weeks ago, Lewis Steele of the Daily Mail admits he would have dismissed the idea out of hand.
“If you’d asked me this six weeks ago, I probably would have laughed you out of town because I didn’t really rate Djed Spence too highly at all,” he said on Anfield Index’s Media Matters.
Then came the World Cup in North America.
Spence has emerged as one of England’s standout performers at the tournament, and his semi-final display against Argentina has forced a reassessment. Steele went as far as to say he thought Spence was England’s best player on the night. That kind of performance tends to move a player from the periphery of a recruitment conversation to the centre of a whiteboard.
At Tottenham, the mood is different. Spurs are ready to sanction a sale. Inter Milan are currently viewed as favourites to sign the 25-year-old, but his World Cup form has inevitably pulled other clubs into the orbit of the discussion.
Among them, according to TEAMtalk’s Graeme Bailey on July 14, are Liverpool and Newcastle United.
Liverpool’s full-back equation
Strip away the noise and Liverpool’s situation is simple: they are short in both full-back positions.
On the left, Milos Kerkez needs genuine competition. Kostas Tsimikas is back from his loan spell at Roma and will be assessed in pre-season, with new head coach Andoni Iraola determined to run the rule over his options before the window closes on September 1. But Tsimikas’ long-term status is far from nailed down.
On the right, the picture is equally thin. The squad needs another option who can both cover and challenge.
This is where Spence suddenly fits the puzzle. His ability to operate on both flanks is not a luxury trait; it is exactly the sort of tactical flexibility that appeals to modern coaches and recruitment departments. For Iraola, whose system relies heavily on aggressive, front-foot full-backs, the profile makes football sense.
Steele sees it clearly.
“It does make a lot of sense. He can play on the right and the left, which is exactly what Liverpool need. I think they’re a left back short. I think they’re a right back short,” he said.
The logic is hard to argue with. One signing, two problems eased.
Sense over certainty
Yet this is where the story cools.
For all the tactical fit, Steele is adamant he has not heard anything concrete to suggest Liverpool are actually moving for Spence.
“I’ve not heard anything really to suggest that Liverpool are going to make a move for him,” he admitted, even as he acknowledged how neatly the player’s profile aligns with the club’s needs.
That tension runs through the whole situation. On paper, Spence to Liverpool looks smart: prime age, World Cup form, positional versatility, Premier League experience, and a club in Tottenham that is open to selling.
On the ground, there is no indication yet that Liverpool have stepped beyond monitoring and admiration.
“It would make an awful lot of sense if they were to step it up,” Steele added. “I haven’t had anything to suggest they will just yet.”
The price of flexibility
Money will decide how far this goes.
Spurs are understood to be looking for a fee in the region of £30–40 million, a figure inevitably inflated by Spence’s performances in an England shirt this summer. For Inter, that outlay would likely be on a first-choice full-back. For Liverpool, the equation is more nuanced.
Would they commit that level of investment to a player who, at least initially, might be asked to provide cover for Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong rather than walk straight into the XI? That is the sort of internal debate that tends to drag negotiations on or shut them down entirely.
Liverpool’s recruitment team has rarely been swayed by short-term hype. World Cup form will be noted, not worshipped. They will weigh Spence’s club record at Tottenham and Middlesbrough against the current high of his England performances and decide whether this is a peak or a platform.
A window of moving parts
All of this unfolds against a broader backdrop. The Salah succession plan remains the headline act. The chase for Bradley Barcola is already being framed as a saga that could define Liverpool’s summer, with Steele and other sources pointing to that deal as one to watch.
There is also clarity in at least one direction: Cody Gakpo will not be heading to Tottenham. Any notion of a swap or parallel negotiation between Spurs and Liverpool involving the Dutchman has been firmly parked.
So Spence sits in an intriguing middle ground: a player whose qualities and current form make undeniable sense for Liverpool’s evolving squad, but whose future is still more theory than live negotiation.
Inter Milan are waiting. Newcastle are hovering. Tottenham are listening.
Liverpool, for now, are thinking. How long they can afford to do that, with a versatile England full-back in this kind of form and a market moving quickly around him, may be the real decision of their summer.
