We’re in the home stretch now before the start of the new Premier League season, and now that we’ve gotten a good look at a few players on the fringes of Tottenham Hotspur’s squad, new manager Thomas Frank is now at a point where he can make a decision on what to do with them.
At the bottom of a long piece on the state of Tottenham’s squad after their recent tour to Asia, Alasdair Gold of Football.London drops a pretty interesting nugget of info: according to Gold, Luka Vuskovic and five other young Spurs players have been made available for loan this season, suggesting that while they’re not currently in Frank’s plans for the season, they’re still considered to have a bright future.
football.london understands that Luka Vuskovic, Jamie Donley, Will Lankshear, George Abbott, Yang Min-hyeok and Tyrese Hall have all been made available for loan alongside Alfie Devine and Dane Scarlett.
Loan moves for some of those players are imminent, with deals set to be completed, while others are due to discuss moves. That’s not even counting players like Bryan Gil and the injured Manor Solomon while Yves Bissouma is now in the final 11 months of his contract.
Alasdair Gold, Football.London
The biggest surprise on this list is Vuskovic, but even that’s not especially surprising. The big Croatian has impressed in his preseason friendly appearances, but he’d still likely be fourth CB at the highest, depending on how quickly Kota Takai heals from his plantar fasciitis, so considering Luka’s age and ability a loan makes a ton of sense. After what he did in Belgium last season, my guess there’s going to be any number of quality clubs that would be interested in loaning in a ginormous 18-year-old central defender who scores goals.
Elsewhere, Donley, Lankshear, Abbott, Yang, and Hall all would also benefit from another loan elsewhere. Yang sticking around would be a really cool torch-passing moment, but even in preseason he’s had something of a bit role and there are plenty of attackers ahead of him at the moment. I could imagine Donley sticking around as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency fullback, but that’s probably not a good enough reason to keep him from a developmental loan. Lankshear, Abbott, and Hall are all really solid young players and Championship loans (or League One for Abbott) would be ideal.
The question of Gil and Solomon continue to hang over the club. Gil will not play for Spurs again and it’s just a matter of when (and how) he leaves the club. Solomon is currently injured, so all bets are off with him but I really can’t see him making an impact and we really should sell him to Leeds as soon as practical.