Tottenham Hotspur might have killed two birds with one stone on transfer deadline day.
Because in addition to getting one perennial benchwarmer off Ange Postecoglou’s roster, the Premier League giants also laid the foundations for one of Europe’s rising midfield talents to end up in North London.
HITC reported on deadline day last week that Spurs had agreed to sell Giovani Lo Celso back to Real Betis for a cut-price sum of £8.5 million.
And there are a few good reasons why the fee was so small. One of them, of course, being the fact that Lo Celso was due to become a free-agent in the summer of 2025 had he stayed on the Tottenham sidelines.
The other, HITC understands, is because Spurs have green-lit a deal that could see Johnny Cardoso move in the other direction at some point in the near future.
Tottenham Hotspur have first refusal over Johnny Cardoso
The £25 million-rated USA international has been a big hit since moving to Spain in January from Brazilian outfit Internacional.
And, as part of the agreement that took Lo Celso back to the place where he played the best football of his career, Tottenham ensured that they would have first refusal over Cardoso when the time comes for him to depart the Estadio Benito Villamarin.
With Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg gone, Oliver Skipp gone too, and Rodrigo Bentancur yet to prove he can be relied upon to stay fit week-in, week-out, the Cardoso option may be one Spurs look to take up in the relatively near future.
Manu Fajardo, Betis’ sporting director, opened up on Cardoso’s future before Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to a Kylian Mbappe-inspired Real Madrid.
And he confirms that Tottenham have a major part to play in deciding what comes next in the future of this New Jersey-born 22-year-old.
“(Lo Celso) has played an important role in terms of (Cardoso’s rights for the future,” Fajardo tells Marca. “Leaving next summer? It would depend on Tottenham and other offers that come in.”
Ange Postecoglou pleased with Spurs’ transfer business
Cardoso, rather puzzlingly, has been in and out of the Real Betis XI this season.
Tottenham’s admiration can be traced back to an outstanding second half of 2023/24, Cardoso producing some of the best ball-winning statistics of any La Liga midfielder.
Postecoglou, meanwhile, is pleased with how the window turned out.
Despite Sunday’s 2-1 defeat by Newcastle United, his looks a lot better suited to the Australians free-flowing brand of football these days, following the arrivals of Dominic Solanke, Lucas Bergvall, Wilson Odobert and £35 million teenage extraordinaire Archie Gray.
“I think it’s been another positive window,” the former Celtic boss tells The Standard. “You want to go into every window and come out the other side of it in a stronger sense and I certainly feel that.
“The players we’ve brought in are already making a short-term impact and even in the longer term, I think they’re going to be really good contributors for us.
“I certainly think we’ve got a more well-rounded squad to deal with Europe, the extra games and whatever injuries we have. So yeah, I think it’s been a real positive window.
“I’m very happy. We’ve done a hell of a lot of work in 12 months, three windows. No doubts the squad’s changed.
“The demographic of the squad has changed, the suitability to the football I want to play, we’re much better equipped for that. There’s growth in the team, absolutely.
“We needed to do some fairly major work 12 months ago and since then we’ve gone a long way to getting the team to where we want to.”
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