Journalist Michael Bridge has claimed that Tottenham Hotspur will get more money from Giovani Lo Celso after impressing on loan with Villarreal.
Lo Celso was out of favour for Spurs in the first half of the Premier League season, featuring just nine times in the league before Antonio Conte thought it would be best for the Argentinian to go out on loan to the La Liga side.
The 26-year-old has featured 13 times in all competitions under Unai Emery since his arrival in January, including four Champions League appearances, and his side now see themselves in the semi-finals of the competition.
With the turnaround of Lo Celso’s form, Bridge has highlighted to GiveMeSport that Spurs may be able to get more money for his services if they were to sell him in the summer.
He said: “Someone texted me last week, and they said, ‘Wow, look at Lo Celso, what do you think?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, good.’ And they said, ‘What do you mean?’ And I went, ‘Well, Spurs will get more money for him then, won’t they.’
“I think Conte was asked on Thursday about him, and he said, ‘I never said he wasn’t a good player. He’s a very good player.’ And then he basically said, ‘He’s good, but he’s not cut out for the Premier League.’”
TIF Thoughts on Michael Bridge’s comments…
Lo Celso has been a changed man since he arrived in Spain. In La Liga, he has an average player rating of 7.07, as well as an average passing accuracy of 84% and a successful dribble rate of 72%, as per SofaScore.
Although the Argentinian midfielder is only at Villarreal on an initial loan deal, the Spanish side may look to make the deal permanent in the summer after his impressive displays since January, including a man-of-the-match performance against Bayern Munich in the Champions League before the Yellow Submarine finished the job in the second leg earlier this week to book a semi-final date with Liverpool.