Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven apologised to Thomas Frank after their snub of the Tottenham manager went viral.
Spurs were booed off after their defeat to Chelsea on Saturday at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
4
Spence and Van de Ven went viral for snubbing Spurs boss FrankCredit: TikTok
Spence and Van de Ven appeared to snub a handshake from Frank as he attempted to direct them towards the home supporters.
He could then be seen looking back at the pair as they headed down the tunnel instead of applauding the crowd.
Frank, however, played down the incident when talking to the media on Monday.
He said: “Micky and Djed came into my office yesterday unprompted to say sorry.
Perry Groves & Hugh Woozencroft urge Thomas Frank to DROP Djed Spence & Micky van de Ven for disrespectful behaviour
“It was not their intention to be disrespectful. They were just frustrated.”
Spurs are back in action against Copenhagen in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, they host Manchester United on Saturday in a third successive home match ahead of the international break.
Should Spence and Van de Ven be dropped?
talkSPORT’s Hugh Woozencroft, Micky Gray and Perry Groves are all in agreement that firm action against the players should be taken by Frank.
Groves believes Frank must put the incident to a close before those matches, but does not think it should be done in front of the rest of the Spurs squad.
He told GameDay Live: “I think that is a problem because if you’re Thomas Frank, the way that he looked round, it was a lack of respect. That’s what it was.
4
Frank played down the incident after the match but has been told to resolve it privately
“It wasn’t just a little look. It was a men that stare at goats stare. He was looking at his two players and said, ‘I can’t believe you’ve done that to me.
“So Thomas Frank, and I think he’s a very good manager, but he’s found himself in positions that he’s never been in before.
“With the expectation of his 60,000 at home crowd, his team being booed off, which he would never have had at Brentford, and he would have been in complete control of the players at Brentford.
“So now he’s dealing with bigger egos and for him to get control, he’s got to bring in Djed Spence and Micky van de Ven individually.
“Not in front of the rest of the players, individually, and say to them, ‘if I ask you to do something, you don’t question me. You just do it. If you want to question me, you question me afterwards.’
“Because, Micky [Gray], you played obviously under Peter Reid at Sunderland, nobody questioned him. I know it’s a different era, but you could have a row with him and you do it within the confined dressing room, but no one would question him publicly.
4
Spence has been slammed for his attitude towards Frank and the Spurs fansCredit: Getty
“That was Van de Ven and Djed Spence just disrespecting Thomas Frank.”
Woozencroft added that both players should be dropped for Spurs’ next two matches as a result of their actions.
He added: “Honestly, for me, if I was the manager, they wouldn’t be starting, they wouldn’t be playing midweek or at the weekend against Manchester United.
“Spurs fans will say they need them. You say they need them and maybe they do, but for me, you’ve got to set the tone as a manager at a football club.
“Those two players showed a level of ego that doesn’t match their talent when they did that to Thomas Frank.”
Their importance to the side leaves Frank with a dilemma, though, Gray admitted as he explained why neither player will be axed.
4
Both Van de Ven and Spence should be dropped by Frank, according to WoozencroftCredit: Getty
Gray said: “If they’ve got something of a bee in their bonnet about the way that the crowd reacted in the game, then do something about it yourself.
“But I think even if it’s a token gesture, you shouldn’t have to see your manager pointing to the two players to say, ‘go and say thanks to the crowd’.
“Even if you don’t want to do it, you walk so far up towards the supporters, you don’t even have to get close to them.
“In the back of your mind, you’re going, ‘right, I don’t really want to do this, but I’m going to do it. I’ll just clap my hands and say thanks very much.’
“Then you come off the pitch and then you can have a little word about what you’ve just done when you get into the dressing room. They didn’t do that. They ignored the manager and I don’t think we’ve heard the last of it, I have to say.
“I mean, I think they will play because he does need those two players, but he needs to have a stern word with them.”
Former Premier League manager and talkSPORT pundit Alan Pardew didn’t take such a hard line though.
On the incident, Pardew said on The Final Word: “Well, let’s just put it into context. It’s not something I would go and fire a player over or anything like that.
If they swore at a fan like the Southampton player [Nathan Wood] did, that’s a big fine for me, right? Because that’s unacceptable.
“To walk off and not signal the fans, you know, I’ve been in players’ faces about it and said, look, don’t let it happen again. Never fire anyone over that.
“I don’t expect there to be major repercussions over this, if I’m honest.
“I think that’ll get addressed and it will be water under the bridge. But in terms of Frank and the perception after a defeat and the form they have at home, it starts to add to people’s criteria of whinging, if that makes sense. It just adds another element to it, doesn’t it?
“And unfortunately, you don’t need that.”
Frank was appointed as Ange Postecoglou’s successor in the Spurs hot seat on a three-year deal in the summer.
His side currently sit fifth in the Premier League following their third defeat in ten matches so far this term.