Djed Spence has turned his Tottenham career on its head in the best possible fashion and now a new long-term contract with the club ensures his battle with one team-mate will really kick up a notch.
It was announced on Monday that the full-back, who turned 25 this month, has been handed a new long-term deal with the north London outfit, his second new contract in the past 12 months after a remarkable turnaround in his prospects at Spurs. For Spence was all set to leave Tottenham last summer with Genoa holding an option to sign him permanently after his loan spell there.
In the end the Serie A side, despite wanting to do a deal at a lower price, never moved to seal the deal and Ange Postecoglou and his coaches were impressed with what they saw from Spence as he returned to pre-season training after his spell in Italy. It took a couple of months to get into the Tottenham team, with injuries to others helping his cause, but the former Middlesbrough defender grabbed his chance when it came.
He would eventually play 35 times, scoring twice and laying on three assists amid plenty of eye-catching defensive performances. His first Premier League start came in December with an assist against Southampton and he did not look back. Spence's ability to play both on the left and right increased his opportunities to play.
So too did the injury problems for Destiny Udogie. The 22-year-old Italian would play the same amount of Premier League games as Spence - 25 - and one more overall with 36 in all competitions. Postecoglou managed Udogie carefully in the final months of the season to ensure he was fit for the key continental games on the way to the Europa League triumph in Bilbao. Udogie was less productive than Spence though in the final third with just a single assist across the season.
It's fair to say that Spence has impressed more as a left-back than he has on the right in the past year, even though he is naturally right-footed. He is comfortable coming inside and linking up with play, which lent itself well to Postecoglou's idea inverted full-backs.
The only downside is it can mean a lack of width at times and Saturday's Premier League opener against Burnley featured a left-side for Tottenham in Spence and Brennan Johnson that was always naturally going to look inward rather than outward when it came to flank play.
Udogie provides more natural width and an overlap if you do have a left winger who comes inside more often than not.
The problem for the young Italian is not only his final third work but also his availability. He has missed much of pre-season with a knee injury and while Thomas Frank said he is closing in on a return, Udogie has lost 39 games for club and country to injury over the past two seasons since walking through the door at Tottenham.
That, as well as Pedro Porro's playmaking ability and durability at right-back, mean that the main battle this season in the defence is set to come between Spence and Udogie on that left-hand side of the defence.
"My target for the season is to definitely win a trophy, play as many games as I can and just win," said Spence on Monday.
Although Brentford never ended up making a bid for Spence when he was at Middlesbrough, they and Frank did consider signing him before Spurs pushed through a deal in 2022.
Now the Dane has taken a key interest in Spence this summer and helping to continue his development and he praised his performance against Bukayo Saka in the pre-season victory against Arsenal. Spence also did well on the whole in the UEFA Super Cup penalty shootout defeat to PSG, despite their attacking riches.
"The new manager, he's been good with me," said Spence. "He speaks with me a lot and gives me confidence, I think that is very important for a player."
The key for Spence right now is to make himself one of Frank's undroppables for the big games. There will be enough matches to go around this season with Tottenham back in the Champions League on top of the three domestic competitions they must tackle and hope to go far in.
During the club's tour to Asia, Frank told football.london that he was not looking to sign another full-back this summer.
"Yeah, I think so [we have enough full-backs] because right now we have Ben [Davies] and Spence. I thought [Djed] was very good against Arsenal and did very well against Saka, and I think Ben is a very important player," said the head coach.
Spence currently has the role on the left in his hands and will provide the biggest competition Udogie has faced since arriving at the club. Davies cannot be discounted either for certain games because his ability to step inside into a centre-back role fits well into Frank's system which is often a back three in possession with one full-back pushing on.
It's the kind of battle for a spot that Frank wants all over the pitch. The better the battle the more competitive Tottenham will be during what everyone hopes is a big season at the club.