Last year (lol I’ve been waiting to use this) we heard rumors that Tottenham were considering recalling Yang Min-hyeok from his loan at Portsmouth to loan him back out somewhere else where he can get more minutes. The same is happening to Damola Ajayi at Doncaster; the Dons are terminating his loan and sending him back to Spurs this month. We’re still waiting on confirmation of Yang’s situation, but we do have another young on-loan player who is coming home early, at least for now. Spurs announced on social media and their website that Jamie Donley is being recalled from his season long loan at Stoke City.
Donley was one of two Tottenham players sent to the Potters on loan, along with central defender Ashley Philllips. But while Phillips has established himself as one of Stoke’s two main central defenders and has tallied 1400 minutes so far this season, Donley has barely sniffed the pitch. He picked up an assist in Stoke’s opening week win over Derby County, and started both of Stoke’s EFL Cup matches, but has only made a total of 4 Championship appearances for 81 minutes of match time. Not great! I’m sure anyone who regularly follows Stoke can probably tell me why he’s been stuck on the bench, but it’s an untenable situation for him right now.
This is kind of a critical moment for Donley. A lot of Spurs fans have high hopes for him especially after a successful loan stint at Leyton Orient in League One last season. He’s young, but at age 20 now old enough where he should be able to contribute at the Championship level. That’s kind of a key metric. I’d expect him to be loaned out again for the second half of the season, though there aren’t as of yet any indications on where that would be — either another Championship club or somewhere on the continent.
I don’t know if his failure to launch at Stoke is due to ability, effort, circumstance, or some combination of all of them, but failed loans suck. Hopefully Spurs can find him a place where he can get minutes and that isn’t, IDK, Westerlo.