Villarreal are still considering Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Giovani Lo Celso as their main transfer target for this summer, according to the Spanish media outlet AS.
Antonio Conte has already appeared to give a clear message that Lo Celso is not in his plans moving forward after the head coach left the midfielder out the squad for last week’s pre=season tour of South Korea (The Express).
Unai Emery and the Yellow Submarines board have agreed that signing Lo Celso should be their main objective of this transfer window. However, they will need to sell some of their players to raise some much-needed funds with the likes of Boulaye Dia, Paco Alcacer and Pau Torres all said to be heading out of the exit.
Lo Celso is interested in returning to Estadio de la Ceramica, having enjoyed a great spell on loan last season. However, he also has other suitors in Fiorentina who have recently rekindled their interest in securing the Argentine’s signature to improve their creative optons (Corriere Fiorentino).
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Tottenham have already done their best to bring in the necessary signings in their attempt to back Conte for the upcoming season. However, getting rid of the fringe players is just as important as keeping the squad bloated would not be wise in any case.
Furthermore, selling such out of favoured players would also see us raise some funds which can further be utilised in this transfer market. Lo Celso does fall into that category, so Spurs would hope that Emery’s side can table a bid that would match their valuation of the 26-year-old.
Fabrizio Romano revealed back in May on Twitter that the north Londoners are looking to earn a fee in the region of €20million for Lo Celso. With Villarreal being open to selling Pau Torres for €40million, perhaps we could see the Spanish club meet our asking price after all.
Then again, we have also been linked with a move for Torres last month (Daily Mail), so it remains to be seen if a potential cash plus player swap deal could be on the cards or not in this summer transfer window. However, since Juventus are in the mix to sign him, we may need to speed things up after Matthijs de Ligt has left them to join Bayern Munich (The Guardian).
