Tottenham set asking price for rare victim of Maddison addition, as January exit door opens
Tottenham midfielders James Maddison and Giovani Lo Celso
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Giovani Lo Celso is now effectively up for sale in the January transfer window, according to a report.
There has been a bit of confusion about Lo Celso’s status at Tottenham after he returned from a loan spell at Villarreal in the summer. He was ultimately reintegrated into the first-team squad, but has since only started one match under Ange Postecoglou.
Other clubs might be checking in on Lo Celso’s situation ahead of January. And Football Insider now claims Tottenham are ready to say goodbye to the Argentina international.
To sanction a sale, they will be asking for a fee between £15m and £20m. Lo Celso is approaching the final 18 months of his contract in north London, so Spurs will be keen to get what they can for the former Real Betis man.
As an attacking midfielder, Lo Celso’s opportunities have been blocked by the summer signing of James Maddison from Leicester City. Many pundits have declared Maddison to be one of the best signings of the season, so his form is keeping Lo Celso out of the team.
At the age of 27, the South American star does not want to be sitting on the bench. The fact that Tottenham do not have any European or Carabao Cup games on offer to rotate him in is further reducing his chances of playing.
Where next for Lo Celso?
The report does not mention any suitors for Lo Celso’s signature, but other sources have previously suggested he will have markets in Spain and Italy. One look at the calibre of previous clubs on his CV would show that he should still be attractive to some decent teams.
Tottenham are actually the club that Lo Celso has represented the most in his career, having made 87 appearances for them. However, they are not the club he has scored the most goals for (Real Betis) nor who he made the most assists for (Rosario Central).
He has been with Tottenham since the summer of 2019, but has never started more than half of the Premier League games in any of his seasons with the club.
Perhaps with that in mind, his market value has declined since Tottenham signed him for more than £40m (combining the initial loan fee and the price they paid for his permanent signature).
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