Another Tottenham Hotspur player is out the door on deadline day. The club announced, as expected, that 20-year-old striker Alejo Veliz has completed a “dry” loan to Sevilla until the end of the season. “Dry” means there’s no purchase option or obligation, and he’ll return to Tottenham in June.
Alejo Veliz has joined La Liga side Sevilla on loan for the remainder of the 2023/24 season.
Good luck, Alejo!
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) February 1, 2024
We in the Carty Free writer’s room have lovingly dubbed Veliz “Big Lumpus” due to his overall size and status as a target man striker with a proven record of being good in the air. (“Just chuck it to Big Lumpus in the box and let him cook.”) That makes him a different sort of striker to anyone else we have in the squad, barring maybe Richarlison who has somewhat similar qualities.
But he’s only now coming back from a hamstring injury sustained in the Bournemouth match, Tottenham have plenty of quality attackers ahead of him, and with so few matches left it’s unlikely he’ll get meaningful minutes between now and the end of the season. Sevilla supposedly have promised him game time on loan, and so this makes a great deal of sense.
I think Veliz likely has a future at Tottenham — he’s only 20 and is highly promising. But for now, this is the right decision. Let him head to La Liga and play some actual football for a while. And who knows, maybe he can pick up some shithousery tactics at the feet of his countryman and Master of the Dark Arts Erik Lamela.