Tottenham Hotspur sent a huge number of players out on loan this season and the next step is set to be crucial for many of them
Roberto De Zerbi will have a busy summer deciding on his Tottenham squad for next season and that includes the next steps for the 17 players who went out on loan.
Spurs sent a huge group of players off around the globe during this campaign with some plying their trade in Germany, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Scotland and at various levels of the Football League. Decisions will have to be made on all of them this summer and it will be De Zerbi who makes the final call.
Some of them will get a chance to train with his first team when the players return in July as the new Tottenham head coach runs the rule over them ahead of the pre-season tour to New Zealand and Australia, while others will have their futures decided long before the end of the summer break.
Spurs failing to get into Europe next season will affect how much game time De Zerbi has to offer his players which will likely mean a tighter squad and fewer opportunities.
With all of that in mind, we've decided to go through all 17 of the senior loan players sent out of the club this season and delivered our verdict on whether De Zerbi will keep, loan or sell them. Let's start with that young defender who got everyone talking in Germany.
Luka Vuskovic
This really needs to be a no-brainer because Luka Vuskovic's time at Hamburg saw him named in the Bundesliga Team of the Season despite the 19-year-old being in the backline of a club battling against relegation.
The centre-back has got the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich and many more watching him closely as he prepares to head off to the World Cup with Croatia.
Even though he is just a teenager, Vuskovic played 30 matches for HSV and scored six goals, some of them spectacular, while providing one assist. It was noticeable that when he missed three games towards the end of the season with a knee injury, Hamburg lost them all and conceded goals aplenty. Despite his age, he was missed hugely and when he returned they won two and drew one of their final three matches to ensure they stayed up.
The only concern about his game and the Premier League pace is his lack of acceleration but Vuskovic has been working on that with a sprint coach this season.
He's now valued as a £50million-plus player and with defensive exits expected this summer it would seem crazy to send him out again or even worse cash in on a star in the making.
Verdict: Keep for goodness sake
Mikey Moore
Another teenager who had a big season of development is Mikey Moore. The 18-year-old showed great mental strength to overcome a tough start at Rangers, with the fans initially unconvinced about him before he became their darling and picked up the PFA Scotland Premiership Young Player of the Year and Rangers' Young Player of the Year awards.
Despite Rangers' rollercoaster season, Moore has been the beacon of constant effort and endeavour with plenty of moments of magic, including in the big Old Firm Derby games.
The youngster played a whopping 47 matches for the Glasgow giants across the season, with 11 goal involvements as Danny Rohl helped unlock him more often in a left-sided playmaker role after Russell Martin's dismal early months of the campaign.
On one hand, if there isn't room for Moore to flourish under De Zerbi then what's the point of having an academy if not for players like this? On the other hand, he's so young still that another season of regular starts will also benefit the player as the lack of European football at Tottenham means he won't get those minutes at his own club, at least not until he gets a chance.
Rangers fans would love to have him back but football.london understands there's loads of interest in the teenager from clubs both home and abroad and he will have plenty of choice if De Zerbi decides he needs another season away from N17.
Verdict: Keep ideally, but another good loan would continue his development
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Alfie Devine
Alfie Devine is also a wanted man as football.london reported this week and the 21-year-old midfielder has a big decision to make this summer.
Devine had a great season with eight goals and eight assists in the centre of the park from 48 appearances for Preston North End. He earned plaudits aplenty for his performances across the season and football.london understands eight clubs are interested in taking him permanently from Spurs.
Before taking Devine on loan last summer, Preston agreed an option with Tottenham to buy the England U20 midfielder in a deal worth around £6million, more than twice their transfer record. The Lancashire club, who finished 14th in the Championship last season, have reportedly triggered the option with payments in instalments.
That means they will now be able to hold talks with Devine but face plenty of competition for his services with Scottish champions Celtic showing interest in the player as well as a number of clubs at the top end of the Championship with Premier League ambitions, including relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Despite Tottenham's youngest ever goalscorer only having 12 months left on his contract in north London, Spurs may well look for a bigger fee from other interested clubs than the one agreed with Preston after the midfielder dazzled with his displays this season.
Devine has impressed over recent pre-seasons but it feels like, with that option agreed before this loan and the number of midfielders at the club, his future lies elsewhere despite his obvious talent.
Verdict: Sell, only because it feels like he won't break through at Spurs.
Kota Takai
The other young Tottenham centre-back in Germany, Kota Takai has had a far less impressive time in the Bundesliga which sums up his experience since making the switch from Japan.
The 21-year-old suffered a foot injury soon after arriving at Spurs last summer and when he returned to fitness months later, he was sent out on loan to Borussia Monchengladbach.
Unfortunately Takai struggled for game time and then picked up a muscle strain which meant he ultimately made just three starts for the German side and played only four minutes of football from the end of February onwards.
The Japan international is miles off playing Premier League football for Tottenham at the moment and the club need to get him out on loan again to help develop him.
Verdict: Loan
Alejo Veliz
We know the answer to this one already as Alejo Veliz is expected to head to Bahia at the end of the season after Tottenham agreed a deal with the Brazilian side to sell Veliz once his current loan at Rosario Central ends. A £7.8m (9m euros) deal was agreed with £871k in add-ons (1m euros) plus a 20% sell-on clause.
The 22-year-old has scored six goals in 24 matches for Rosario this season and starts most matches for his boyhood club.
Verdict: Sell
Manor Solomon
It's crazy to think that Manor Solomon arrived in north London all the way back in the summer of 2023 on a free transfer from Shakhtar Donetsk but has only played six matches for the north London club.
He suffered an injury to the meniscus in his knee just a couple of months into his first season at Spurs which ended it prematurely and was then sent out on loan in the next campaign to Leeds, helping them earn promotion to the Premier League with 23 goal involvements in 41 games.
Last summer, a loan move to Crystal Palace fell through on deadline day and a late switch to Villarreal was arranged instead. Despite five goal involvements in 11 matches, that spell did not pan out for the 26-year-old and he joined Fiorentina in the winter window, with an option for 10million euros [£8.7million] to make his deal permanent, and helped them remain in Serie A with four goal involvements in 19 matches.
Solomon and De Zerbi know each other well as the winger played for the Italian during their season together at Shakhtar, but it remains to be seen whether the Israel international can add to those six appearances, particularly with the number of wingers available when players come back from injury and potentially arrive in the summer window.
Verdict: Sell
Will Lankshear
Will Lankshear firmly falls into the category of those Spurs youngsters who had a terrific loan spell. Oxford United might have been relegated from the Championship but that's not for the lack of trying on the 21-year-old striker's part.
Lankshear was so good for his first loan club that he took home a double at the club's end of season awards. With his 12 goals for the strugglers he earned the Men's Golden Boot at Oxford and also walked away with the club's Young Player of the Year award after he played 47 matches with 16 goal involvements in all.
The striker has bulked up this season with the physical demands of the Championship and De Zerbi will surely want to take a look at him in pre-season. The Italian is expected to want to bring in a new forward this summer, with Richarlison's future in doubt as he reaches the final year of his contract, and what happens there could have a knock-on effect for Lankshear, without those extra European games on offer next season.
Verdict: Keep until January and then loan if he's not getting minutes
Jamie Donley
Jamie Donley had a difficult campaign following a tough spell at Stoke and then a painful injury on his debut for Oxford which delayed his debut for the Championship strugglers.
The 21-year-old Northern Ireland international bounced back to start most of their games in the final months of the campaign, but probably needs another good loan season after his previous impressive year at Leyton Orient.
Donley is the kind of player that De Zerbi will probably like as a former number 10 himself and if he gets the chance in pre-season then he has to grab it. Otherwise another loan season, with plenty of Championship interest, looks likely. Oxford did have an option to buy Donley included in their half-season loan deal and it will be interesting to see whether that happens again on his next move.
Verdict: Loan
Ashley Phillips
Ashley Phillips has become the unfairly forgotten man of the Tottenham defence despite impressing once again during his second season with Stoke in the Championship.
The 20-year-old centre-back was on the shortlist for the EFL Championship's Young Player of the Season award and played more minutes in the league than any other player aged 20 or under this season.
In all Phillips got 44 games under his belt for Stoke this season, recording one assist and earning plenty of plaudits across 3,701 minutes of action in all competitions, but it feels like with the queue of centre-backs ahead of him, including Vuskovic, he may never play a competitive game in a Spurs shirt.
You have to feel for the young defender who has done nothing wrong and in fact has been excellent out on loan at Stoke and before that at Plymouth, where he was named Young Player of the Season despite spending only half the campaign there. But it just feels like he's never going to get a chance at Tottenham and there will be no shortage of takers for him.
Verdict: Sell, to let him enjoy his career
Yang Min-hyeok
Yang Min-hyeok looks even further off playing for Tottenham then he did when he arrived at the north London club two years ago.
As Spurs tried to acclimatise him to the English game, last season brought a loan move to QPR and then in the first half of this campaign the South Korean headed off to Portsmouth where he made 16 appearances, scoring three goals with one assist.
Then came one of the worst loan moves Tottenham have ever handed one of their young players as the 20-year-old made the switch to high-flying Coventry and Yang was left out of the final 15 league games of the season for Frank Lampard's title winners. Although he now has a promotion to the Premier League on his CV, he got just 29 minutes of football in the Championship for them across three matches.
Verdict: Another loan as he still has four years left on his deal
Dane Scarlett
Dane Scarlett was heralded in the past by former Spurs managers like Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte as a huge star of the future, but it's just never really worked out for him.
Now 22-years-old, the striker has just returned from a loan spell at Hibernian that brought one goal and one assist in 13 matches north of the border. Scarlett has made 27 senior appearances for Tottenham scoring that one goal in the Europa League last season and providing three assists.
Ultimately he needs to score more goals as a striker. If you're De Zerbi then you're looking at Lankshear scoring 12 goals in his first loan move while Scarlett has scored 11 across four different moves out of the club over the years.
Scarlett currently has just a year left on his contract at Tottenham, if no option to extend exists, and a decision will be made this summer about what comes next for him.
Verdict: Loan or sell
Oliver Irow
Oliver Irow enjoyed a really bright second half of the season on loan at Mansfield Town and netted four goals in 17 League One matches.
It was the 20-year-old attacker's first loan move and he helped Mansfield to 10th place in the table – their best finish in 39 years - in his first experience of senior football.
With a contract until 2028, another loan move likely beckons so he can build on what he did this season.
Verdict: Loan
George Abbott
George Abbott was really pushing on in his career with a terrific loan at Notts County last season that brought him plenty of attention with 13 goal involvements from midfield in 44 matches as he helped drive his first loan club into the League Two play-offs.
Unfortunately the 20-year-old's second season in senior football was interrupted by injuries. A bright start at Wycombe ended with a serious quad injury that kept him out for months. He returned to Spurs for his rehabilitation and then they sent him with Irow to Mansfield for the season half of the season only for Abbott to injury the same quad in April, bringing a premature end to his campaign and he will return in pre-season.
Abbott only signed a new contract with Spurs last summer so hopefully he just gets fit and back out on loan to put this season behind him.
Verdict: Loan
Yusuf Akhamrich
Yusuf Akhamrich enjoyed a spectacular half-season loan at Bristol Rovers with plenty of moments for his highlights reel.
The direct 20-year-old winger scored six goals and laid on two assists in his 19 League Two matches with Rovers and his superb technique was on full display whenever he played.
Rovers boss Steve Evans told The Bristol Post at the end of the season that he wanted Akhamrich back next season, saying: "He's a real gifted talent, but don't discount that he'll come back in the summer. We'll work hard to try and make that happen, but ultimately we have to respect Tottenham Hotspur, and we have to respect Yusuf that he has to do what's right for him, but he knows my thoughts."
With another two years on his deal, it could be that Akhamrich gets another loan with a potential option in the deal to set up the next step in his career.
Verdict: Loan
Tyrese Hall
Tyrese Hall became an international this season as he made two appearances for Jamaica during his loan campaign at Notts County.
The 20-year-old midfielder was brilliant between September and December for County with eight of his 10 goal involvements coming during that period.
Hall struggled for starts towards the end of the season though and was not in the matchday squad for the League Two play-off semi-final second leg or the final at Wembley.
However, he played his part in County's promotion campaign with those eight goals and two assists across 1,850 minutes in 39 appearances.
Hall has a contract at Tottenham until 2029 so another loan move beckons unless there's a mutual decision to part ways as he's unlikely to break through into the first team.
Verdict: Loan with an option
Damola Ajayi
Damola Ajayi was another who took on his first year out of the club as he had two different loan spells after last season's spectacular Europa League debut and goal for Spurs.
The first half of the campaign took the 20-year-old winger to League One outfit Doncaster Rovers where he came up against Spurs in the Carabao Cup and during his spell there he scored twice and provided one assists in 18 matches, although none of those goal involvements came in the league.
Ajayi then made the switch to League Two champions Bromley, but found starts mostly hard to come by for the high-flyers.
With a deal until 2028, another loan is likely to be in the offing for the attacker if he sticks around.
Verdict: Loan
Alfie Dorrington
Alfie Dorrington was unable to match last season's efforts which brought his Premier League debut for Spurs and a Scottish FA Cup-winning loan at Aberdeen.
The 21-year-old returned to the Scottish club but a groin injury hampered his time back there and he made a winter window switch to League Two side Salford City.
The centre-back made 12 appearances for City and helped them reach the play-off final where they lost to Hall's Notts County.
Dorrington has a long contract until 2029 so another loan move beckons with the number of centre-backs at the club and more set to arrive.