Aston Villa have reportedly made an offer to sign Tottenham midfielder Giovani Lo Celso, but face competition for his possible signature.
The 28-year-old joined our Premier League rivals in 2019, but has since been shipped out on loan to Real Betis and Villarreal.
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With a year remaining on his Spurs contract, it seems like an exit makes sense for all concerned this summer despite the fact that he featured for them last season, and according to Argentine journalist Gaston Edul, Villa and Real Betis have submitted offers for the midfield ace.
He adds that Lo Celso isn’t expected to be part of Ange Postecoglu’s plans moving forward and so an exit is the desired outcome, but time will tell if our proposal is genuine, and subsequently if it is sufficient enough to convince Tottenham to approve a move for him to join us.
Lo Celso has 10 goals and eight assists in 108 appearances for Spurs, while he also had a spell at Paris Saint-Germain previously to go with his 57 caps for Argentina.
In turn, there are reasons in favour of a potential pursuit from Villa, as he would add experience and quality to our midfield room, while he has the versatility to either play in the pivot or in a more attacking role. That said, we look to be well covered already in those areas, with more pressing needs still to be addressed before the end of the window.
Further,, with the options we’ve been linked with so far this summer, it’s hard to see Lo Celso emerging as the frontrunner at this stage, but if we were to fail in our pursuit of a marquee signing, perhaps he would become a more realistic option towards the latter stages of the transfer window.
Either way, there is trust in Emery and the team around him to identify and bring in reinforcements that will improve us, and so time will tell if Lo Celso is one our summer recruits as we look to compete on multiple fronts this season.
Villa have been busy this summer as we look to improve Emery’s squad, and the expectation is that we’re far from done in the market, with additional signings and outgoings likely to come.
20 million and he’s yours