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Late last week, Lyall Thomas of Sky Sports did a Q&A regarding Tottenham Hotspur and some possible January moves that could occur. One of those rumors involved center back Federico Fazio, who hasn't seen the light of day at White Hart Lane since October. It would appear that Lyall was onto something as more information is coming out regarding the Argentine.
Yahoo! Sports UK La Liga writer Andrew Gaffney offered up some ITK on Twitter this morning that suggests the move for Fazio not only appears imminent, but with a little twist.
Some good news for Tottenham and perhaps the player himself as Sevilla’s president admits they are working on a deal to re-sign Fazio.
— Andrew Gaffney (@GaffneyVLC) December 21, 2015
Castro: "It’s true we are working on different (defensive) options & Fazio is one of them. But as nothing is closed, he’s just an option."
— Andrew Gaffney (@GaffneyVLC) December 21, 2015
Castro: "It’s clear Fazio didn’t leave [us] how we’d have wanted; he angered me greatly. But I need to look at what is best for Sevilla."
— Andrew Gaffney (@GaffneyVLC) December 21, 2015
According to @carlosperezED [who works for the newspaper which conducted the interview] Sevilla tried to re-sign him in the summer.
— Andrew Gaffney (@GaffneyVLC) December 21, 2015
The quotes are coming from Sevilla FC President José Castro Velasco Caballo, who spoke very candidly about the possible transfer. The surprise, or perhaps lack of surprise, is that Sevilla contacted Spurs about Fazio back in the Summer. It's unclear as to what exactly happened, especially since it was no secret that Fazio was on the block. The only thing that makes sense, and this is pure speculation, is that West Bromwich Albion offered Daniel Levy more cash for the Argentine and told Sevilla to take a hike. Ultimately, Fazio didn't go anywhere and he's done absolutely nothing the first half of this season.
In regards to this move, it makes sense. Fazio has been a bust for Spurs. He doesn't quite fit the system that Mauricio Pochettino runs given that he's quite slow and also showed that he may lack some discipline as he managed to get two red cards last season. It's also obvious that he's fourth choice behind Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen, and Kevin Wimmer. If Fazio is looking for playing time, he needs to go elsewhere.
Gaffney doesn't go as far as to say what a transfer fee would be, but one would imagine it isn't going to be much and Levy is going to have to take a loss on the €10m that was paid to Sevilla back in 2014. There does seem to be one tiny hang up in the deal, however:
A sticking point to getting a deal done is that the clubs are not on good terms. He’d love to return as he still owns a house in Sevilla.
— Andrew Gaffney (@GaffneyVLC) December 21, 2015
Whoops.
We'll pay attention to this as we inch closer to the January window. Hopefully Levy and Castro can put aside whatever animosity exists between the clubs in order to get a deal done.