Three teams reportedly interested in Tottenham’s Giovani Lo Celso

Giovani Lo Celso reported to Tottenham Hotspur for preseason training today. It doesn’t sound like he’s going to be there very long. There are plenty of rumors swirling that there are clubs looking at the possibility of signing the Argentinian national team attacking midfielder, but consensus seems to be settling on three specific ones: Real Betis, Napoli, and Aston Villa.

Here’s Matteo Moretto saying just that.

We’ve known about the Aston Villa links for a while now; Unai Emery has been working on trying to get Gio to Villa Park for a while now and sees him as perfect for the team he’s trying to create. I have no idea what Napoli’s level of interest is. Fabrizio Romano also tweeted today about Lo Celso, specifically saying that Betis is working on a deal, though it sounds like it’s far from a sure thing.

The Betis links surprise me a little, since Betis are not generally known as a club that’s flush with cash — their record transfer is Denilson for £27m in 1999 (a princely sum back then). Hilariously, one of their highest paid transfer fees is for none other than Gio himself — Lo Celso spent the 2019-20 season on loan at Betis from PSG, Betis then exercised their £24m purchase option for him only to immediately sell him to Spurs for £27.5m. Betis would be kind of a homecoming for Gio, but I’m a little skeptical that they’ll be able to actually land him again.

What everyone seems to accept at this point is that Gio isn’t happy at Tottenham and wants to move on. It seems as though Ange Postecoglou and Tottenham are happy to do just that. I’m sad, because I like Gio and really wanted him to work out here, but unhappy players tend to not play good football, Tottenham need to slim down their squad significantly, and he’s a guy for whom Spurs can probably collect a decent transfer fee. That would be a win for everyone involved.