Copyright Yardbarker
Steve Bruce defends Tottenham stars Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven for their actions at full-time against Chelsea Tottenham Hotspur were beaten fair and square by Chelsea, with the performance on Saturday completely changing the mood among the fanbase. The Spurs fans expressed their dissatisfaction by booing loudly at the final whistle. Tottenham’s home form continues to go from bad to worse each time they play on their own turf, and the weekend’s defeat to London rivals Chelsea only deepened those concerns. Thomas Frank’s side looked clueless in attack, sluggish in midfield and shaky at the back, and had it not been for Guglielmo Vicario in goal, they would have been staring at an embarrassing scoreline. Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven stole the headlines when they blanked Thomas Frank, refusing his handshake and leaving him alone on the turf when he encouraged the players to do a lap of appreciation around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Afterwards, Frank tried to downplay the incident’s significance. Steve Bruce gives his verdict on the Djed Spence-Micky van de Ven snubbing Thomas Frank incident Spence and Van de Ven ignoring Frank has received a barrage of criticism from sections of the fans and media. Former Manchester City full-back Micah Richards has urged Thomas Frank to drop the duo from the FC Copenhagen game to send out a strong statement, while talkSPORT pundit Tony Cascarino commented the incident “does not look good”. Now, Steve Bruce has given his thoughts on the situation. The ex-Hull City and Newcastle United boss has defended Spence and Van de Ven by putting himself in their shoes, conceding that he would not want to be applauding the supporters after “playing rubbish”. “Putting my playing head on here, I want the hell out of here. I don’t wanna be applauding people when I’ve just played absolutely rubbish,” Steve Bruce said on talkSPORT. Ahead of the FC Copenhagen game, Frank addressed the full-time scenes involving the Tottenham defenders. He cleared the air and defended his players by stating that “they care” for the football club, and for him the chapter is now closed. Spence-Van de Ven snub chapter closed It was great to see Frank closing the Spence-Van de Ven snub chapter and trying to direct all the energy towards the upcoming games against FC Copenhagen and Manchester United. He was pleased that his players came to him and prevented an escalation of the issue. It is understandable that Spence and Van de Ven’s emotions were more of a show of frustration of what had developed and negative environment at home over previous weeks. Also, Bruce’s comments on this situation felt like a breath of fresh air. When several pundits have been hammering the Spurs stars for their reaction after the Chelsea game, the 64-year-old, having been a great defender during his playing days, supported their decision to not applaud the fans after putting in poor displays.
