Tottenham players told reaction to Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence snub speaks volumes

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Tottenham's players have been accused of 'lacking leadership' after Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence apologised over their reaction to losing to Chelsea . Spurs were booed off the pitch by their own fans after being beaten 1-0 by their London rivals in the Premier League on Saturday evening.

Supporters were left further angered after footage of captain Van de Ven and Spence seemingly ignoring Thomas Frank 's instructions to face the crowd was shared widely online. The Tottenham manager said on Monday afternoon that the two defenders had since said sorry after they were seen dejectedly heading down the tunnel, rather than staying with their teammates to acknowledge fans after the final whistle.

However, former Manchester United and Wrexham goalkeeper Ben Foster has slammed the entire Spurs squad over the incident. The ex- England shot-stopper accused the team of "having no real leaders" after claiming they all failed to hold the pair to account for their actions.

"It's a massive problem and it's a pure lack of respect," Foster said on his Fozcast podcast. "It's a lack of respect to the manager, to the team and to the fans.

"The fans see that and they think, 'You little p*****, we have worked all week for this. Were looking forward to this massive derby and this is how you perform, for one, but then you walk off the pitch.' It shows that there's no real leaders in that team.

"If you've got a real leader in that team, a big captain, he goes over and he goes, 'Woah, no chance.' You don't even need the manager to be able to do that. Even if the fans have booed you throughout the game, you put your shoulders back and go, 'Thanks everybody, we'll do better next week.'"

Despite the questions the incident raises over team morale, Frank insists a line has been drawn under the matter after receiving an apology from Van de Ven and Spence.

"Micky and Djed came into my office yesterday unprompted and just said they wanted to say sorry for the situation," he told reporters ahead of Tottenham's Champions League match against Copenhagen on Tuesday.

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"They didn't want it to look bad or disrespectful, or any kind of perception you can get in this beautiful media wor‎ld. That was not their intention to me, the team or the club. They were just frustrated by the performance, loss and the booing during the game."

Frank added: "If they didn't come in then I'd have had to ask them about the situation of them walking in, what they were feeling and why they were doing it, because we all have a perception – and we do that strongly.

"[It could be] because their mum wasn't well, or they didn't like the head coach, or they were irritated with the performance because they lost, or whatever. We're very good at that and yet none of us know.

"Of course I'm happy [they came in] because I knew the question would come today. That means they care and I think that's very good, that they care about the team, the club and in this case, me.

"We had a good talk about a lot of things and like with everything, we keep it internally. Like I said to the players, it would be very very very unusual if I ever throw a player under the bus. We're all human and I'll always protect them."

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