cartilage free captain 
14-03-2024 17:02
14-03-2024 17:02
Report: Sevilla manager "doesn’t give a damn" about Alejo Veliz
Tottenham Hotspur sent 20-year old Argentinian striker Alejo Veliz out on loan to Sevilla in the hopes that he would get some good experience playing first team football. It’s not going well. Despite playing for a team that both features Erik Lamela and also is in danger of being relegated, Veliz has only managed 52 minutes of action since joining the club in January.
Now, Spanish daily ABC Sevilla has a report out that details how manager Quiquie Sanchez Flores “doesn’t give a damn” about Veliz, or fellow loanee Hannibal Mejbri (Manchester United). The article is both in Spanish and behind a paywall, but thankfully we have Sport Witness to summarize it for us.
Phrases like “doesn’t give a damn,” “barely counting on them,” and “testimonial roles” are all pulled from the article, which y’know — not great!
Spurs have struggled with this situation before, where they sent young players out on loans that turned out to be disastrous, and they’ve recalled them in those instances. This feels like one of those instances, but with the added twist that Veliz was apparently only sent out on loan to begin with because Dane Scarlett had his own disastrous loan recalled in January, and he couldn’t be sent back out again as he’d played in an early round cup match for Tottenham. (Rules state that you cannot play for more than three teams in any one season)
So assuming we can trust [checks notes] ABC Sevilla, we have a situation where two of Spurs’ young strikers have basically wasted at minimum a half season because Tottenham didn’t handle their loans well. That’s pretty infuriating. Veliz was never going to get a ton of minutes for Spurs this season but he’s gotten some situational minutes late in matches when Spurs needed a Big Guy™ to hold up play and lump balls to in the box. Feels like he’d have been better off just sticking around and fighting with Scarlett for whatever mop-up minutes are left from now until the end of the season, rather than doing the same thing in Spain.
I don’t know what the solution is. Yelling “stop sending players out on bad loans” at clouds doesn’t feel especially helpful (I’m sure it’s hard and literally out of the club’s control) but surely we can do better at identifying loan destinations for young players that will actually play them, or at minimum “give a damn.”
Now, Spanish daily ABC Sevilla has a report out that details how manager Quiquie Sanchez Flores “doesn’t give a damn” about Veliz, or fellow loanee Hannibal Mejbri (Manchester United). The article is both in Spanish and behind a paywall, but thankfully we have Sport Witness to summarize it for us.
Phrases like “doesn’t give a damn,” “barely counting on them,” and “testimonial roles” are all pulled from the article, which y’know — not great!
Spurs have struggled with this situation before, where they sent young players out on loans that turned out to be disastrous, and they’ve recalled them in those instances. This feels like one of those instances, but with the added twist that Veliz was apparently only sent out on loan to begin with because Dane Scarlett had his own disastrous loan recalled in January, and he couldn’t be sent back out again as he’d played in an early round cup match for Tottenham. (Rules state that you cannot play for more than three teams in any one season)
So assuming we can trust [checks notes] ABC Sevilla, we have a situation where two of Spurs’ young strikers have basically wasted at minimum a half season because Tottenham didn’t handle their loans well. That’s pretty infuriating. Veliz was never going to get a ton of minutes for Spurs this season but he’s gotten some situational minutes late in matches when Spurs needed a Big Guy™ to hold up play and lump balls to in the box. Feels like he’d have been better off just sticking around and fighting with Scarlett for whatever mop-up minutes are left from now until the end of the season, rather than doing the same thing in Spain.
I don’t know what the solution is. Yelling “stop sending players out on bad loans” at clouds doesn’t feel especially helpful (I’m sure it’s hard and literally out of the club’s control) but surely we can do better at identifying loan destinations for young players that will actually play them, or at minimum “give a damn.”