Seville radio journalist says Tottenham increased Lo Celso bid to €68m

Here’s the latest on the protracted transfer saga that would bring Giovani Lo Celso from Real Betis to Tottenham Hotspur. And yes, there’s news of a sort. Kind of. Maybe.

El Transistor, a sports program on Seville radio station Onda Cero, tweeted today a quote from Seville-based Betis journalist Carlos Higaldo, suggesting that Tottenham has upped their bid for Lo Celso to €68m, of which €42m will go to Betis and the remaining to PSG as part of Lo Celso’s sell-on clause.

Regardless of what you think of the original source, it does appear to be something that we should probably pay attention to. Radio sources aren’t always reliable, but they do sometimes get it right. For example, Radio Kiss Kiss was the first to report on Atletico’s interest in Kieran Trippier several weeks ago, and that ultimately came to fruition.

Clearly, this would be a huge statement of intent for Spurs — they’ve already broken their transfer record once this summer with the signing of Tanguy Ndombele and could be set to smash it for the second time in a single summer. Lo Celso would be a huge signing, regardless of what happens with Christian Eriksen.

Unfortunately, this is still a pretty nebulous rumor, and to my knowledge no more reputable sources have picked it up. For now you should probably wait to get excited until it hits a better source.

Let’s say this is accurate, however — with the news about Betis being close to signing Nabil Fekir and other reports suggesting Spurs have agreed personal terms with Lo Celso, all that remains is a transfer breakthrough. This might — might — be it

Everyone associated with Spurs wants this to happen, which would be reflected in an increased bid by Tottenham, but until now they’ve been reluctant to meet the €75m release clause demanded by Betis, which is considered outrageous. It seems difficult to imagine that Betis wouldn’t accept an increased offer for Lo Celso, even if it doesn’t quite hit their asking price.

So watch the news carefully over the next couple of days, because this might be the beginning of what eventually brings Lo Celso to North London. Or it could be nothing.