Tanguy Ndombele closes in on another title, busy Djed Spence and the Alejo Veliz mess

Some of Tottenham’s loan players found their spells away from the club coming to an end while others are closing in on their final dramatic games of the campaign.

The 2023/24 season is now in its final weeks, which means the north London outfit’s big group of loan players, young and old, are all aiming to return to the club with their heads held high before seeing what the future holds. Spurs have players out on loan across England in the Premier League and Football League as well as abroad in countries such as Spain, Turkey, the Netherlands and Italy.

Eric Dier and Ivan Perisic also went on loan to Bayern Munich and Hajduk Split respectively. The former is through to the Champions League semi-finals this week against Real Madrid and the latter is back in action with five substitute appearances following his cruciate ligament injury. Both players have agreed to join those clubs permanently this summer when their contracts at the north London club come to an end.

Here’s how all of Spurs’ other 12 loan players have got on over the past week:

Tanguy Ndombele (Galatasaray)

Tanguy Ndombele’s dismal time in Turkey continued as he was an unused substitute again for Galatasaray. This week he watched on from the bench as they won 3-0 at Adana Demirspor.

Ndombele looks set to add a Turkish Super Lig title to his CV, to go with last season’s Serie A one with Napoli, with Galatasaray four points clear at the top of the table ahead of Fenerbahce. However, it will be another season when the midfielder has barely contributed.

The Frenchman has played five minutes of football since mid-March and 31 minutes in the Turkish Super Lig since the end of January. In total he has managed 454 minutes of league football and 661 minutes across all competitions in 26 appearances. To put that into some context, Ivan Perisic has played around 300 minutes this season, despite missing most of it with that cruciate ligament injury, and with four games to go could end up matching Ndombele’s league total if he plays most of them for Hajduk Split.

jed Spence (Genoa)

Djed Spence got another half hour of Serie A football to his name this week. The 23-year-old came on in the 74th minute at right wing-back for Genoa in their 3-0 home win against Cagliari on Monday night.

Spence had a busy spell after coming on, touching the ball 21 times, going on one dribble, making two tackles, blocking one Cagliari shot, getting fouled twice and completing 81.8% of his 11 passes.

The full-back has so far played in 12 matches in Serie A, getting 600 minutes under his belt, which is far more than he got in total across his time at Leeds this season and last season at Tottenham.

Sergio Reguilon (Brentford)

Sergio Reguilon suffered his first defeat in more than a month at Brentford as they went down 1-0 at Everton in the Premier League on Saturday.

The Spaniard played 77 minutes at Goodison Park and made two key passes, two dribbles, had one shot, won one aerial duel, made three tackles, one interception, one clearances and blocked two Everton shots having picked up a yellow card just before half-time.

The 27-year-old has now racked up 25 appearances this season across his time at Brentford and previously Manchester United, laying on four assists since joining up with Thomas Frank’s men.

With a year left on his contract at Tottenham, Reguilon is not part of Ange Postecoglou’s plans for next season but is making his case for a good transfer elsewhere in the summer. The local media around Brentford have suggested that his wages at the north London club, double what the highest earners at his loan side make, will make any potential permanent move there difficult.

Alejo Veliz (Sevilla)

Alejo Veliz remains an unused part of Quique Sanchez Flores’s Sevilla side to continue his mess of a loan spell. The young forward was kept on the bench for the home win against Mallorca in La Liga and then the 1-1 draw at Real Betis.

The 20-year-old striker has played just 23 minutes for Sevilla since joining in the winter transfer window and has not got on the pitch since March 2, suggesting he would have been better served by remaining at Tottenham and continuing to adapt to the English game.