The Evening Standard have revealed that Antonio Conte considers Giovani Lo Celso to be ‘gifted’ but feels that the midfielder is not suited to the intensity and physicality of the Premier League.
Lo Celso has thrived at Villarreal since his loan move in January and his impressive displays in La Liga would not come as a surprise to those who watched the midfielder during his Real Betis days.
Reports over recent weeks have indicated that Villarreal have begun talks over signing the Argentine permanently (Football Insider).
This has now been backed up by The Evening Standard, who suggest that while Unai Emery’s side do want to make the loan deal permanent, Tottenham’s asking price will be a major issue for the club.
It is explained that the North Londoners want to recoup the majority of the £55m they paid to Betis for the 26-year-old but that would be a problem for Villarreal, whose record transfer stands at just £21m.
The report goes on to explain that it was at Conte’s insistence that Lo Celso was loaned out in January, with the Spurs boss feeling that the midfielder needed to be playing regularly back on the continent.
Spurs Web Opinion
The decisions that we made during Pochettino’s final transfer window in 2019 continue to haunt us.
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While Ndombele and Lo Celso are clearly talented players, we seem to have wasted £100+ on two players who are not able to cope with the intensity and physicality of the Premier League.
Loaning both players out to the leagues where they made their names was always going to be our best chance of recouping a large portion of the fee that we paid for them.
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