Genoa chief makes Djed Spence transfer admission with ex-Leeds United man's future in the balance

Former Leeds United loanee Djed Spence has seven games to earn a permanent deal at Genoa, club sporting director Marco Ottolini insists. Spence joined the Italian outfit in January after seeing his loan with Leeds terminated prematurely amid reports of unprofessionalism and poor time-keeping.

He made just seven appearances for United, with his time on loan from Spurs being severely marred by injury. Spence has found slightly more traction in Serie A under Albertino Gilardino, making five starts and nine appearances in total since landing on the Mediterranean coast.

He has shown glimpses of his talent in those performances across a number of positions, but the club are yet to make a decision on the possibility of making his loan permanent.

“I speak with Djed every week," Ottolini said in an interview with Caught Offside. "We have created a good environment for him. We are trying to make him feel warm and welcome here, and this will then translate into his performances on the pitch. We want to give him the right conditions to perform.

“We still have seven games to go and we want to see what he can do. Personally, I like Djed and how he is doing, and how he is training. Of course, he can do more, and he knows this, but we are in contact with Spurs and will evaluate a deal over the next few months giving us time to understand both our positions and Djed’s perspective on potentially staying here."

On the initial signing of Spence, he added: “Through our discussions with Tottenham over Radu [Dragusin], the possibility of taking Djed on loan emerged. We knew he had struggled a bit at Leeds.

"I don’t want to say the move was a risk for us, but let’s just say it was clear his profile was not at its best and maybe he was suffering from a mentality problem. We thought maybe Genoa could provide a different environment to get the best out of him so we decided to complete the loan.”