Real Betis may have found its Lo Celso replacement

The protracted negotiations between Tottenham Hotspur and Real Betis for the transfer of Giovani Lo Celso haven’t shown very many signs that they’re ending soon, but if one French outlet is correct, Betis are ready to sign Lo Celso’s replacement.

According to French paper Le Parisien, Betis is in “very advanced” discussions with Lyon over a €30m deal for 25-year old attacking midfielder Nabil Fekir. The Lyon club captain, Fekir is pretty much a like-for-like replacement for Lo Celso, and while the article states that Fekir’s signing is contingent on GLC’s departure, that does seem like some pretty strong circumstantial evidence that a deal could happen eventually.

Le Parisien says that the clubs have had an agreement on terms for a couple of weeks now, meaning Betis are ready to immediately reinvest the profit from Lo Celso’s sale into their squad. No, that doesn’t mean that a Lo Celso agreement is imminent, but it does seem to strongly imply that the differences between Spurs and Betis over Lo Celso are mostly just horse trading over price and not because Betis are counting on Lo Celso to anchor their midfield next season.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that some other club could come in with a big bid for Lo Celso that blows Spurs out of the water, but there hasn’t appeared to be a whole lot of interest apart from Tottenham, and the player is said to really want a move to Spurs to work with his fellow Argentine Mauricio Pochettino. In the mean time, the clubs will keep haggling, and hopefully it won’t take forever before we get some resolution.