The Joerodon — our favorite Welsh football dinosaur — is returning home. Stade Rennais technical director Florian Maurice has confirmed that Rennes will not exercise their purchase option to buy the 25 year old defender at the conclusion of his season long loan in France, and he will return to Tottenham Hotspur in June.
Joe Rodon return to Spurs confirmed by Rennes technical director Florian Maurice upon expiry of loan deal.
Bright start suggested possible permanent move but just 5 starts in 2023 and none since Feb 12. Lack of game-time worry for Wales boss Rob Page before next month. pic.twitter.com/HQsftJzTqZ
— Phil Blanche (@philblanche) May 16, 2023
As you can see from the tweet above it hasn’t exactly been the most successful of loans for Rodon in France. He made 14 league appearances for Rennes this season, who are in contention for European competition next season, though he was also a regular starter in the Europa League group stages and played nearly 1800 minutes in all competitions. That said, from what I can gather he was actually overtaken in Rennes’ squad by an 18-year old from their academy, and while I suppose it makes sense from their perspective to prioritize a homegrown option all things being equal… it’s still not great and it might impact his international future with Wales as well.
I dunno, it’s kind of hard to see a future at Tottenham for Rodon if he’s not cracking the lineup of a continental team that’s currently sixth in their league. Spurs have a ton of business to do this summer, but I’d be surprised if he isn’t loaned out again or even sold when the window opens. But I guess that comes down to the opinions of Spurs’ new Director of Football and manager, whomever they may be. Regardless, Spurs spent around £12m to sign Rodon from Swansea when they could’ve bought Kim Min-Jae for around €5m, so that seems like a pretty big whiff.
