Real Betis president Angel Haro is playing down ‘rumours’ linking Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League benchwarmer Giovani Lo Celso with a return to Spain.
Back in July, after a couple of eye-catching performances in pre-season, Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou indicated that player who had spent the last 18 months out on loan might still have a part to play in North London.
“Yeah, I like Gio,” Postecoglou told The Standard of Giovani Lo Celso. “He fits the way we play. I enjoy working with him and he seems to enjoy working with us.”
Unfortunately for Lo Celso, his hopes of a revival in the white of Spurs have not been helped by the supreme form of James Maddison. There is only really room for one dainty playmaker in Postecoglou’s XI and it is the summer signing from Leicester City currently in possession of the shirt; Lo Celso restricted to just 16 minutes of football in the Premier League even before his recent hamstring injury.
Giovani Lo Celso facing uncertain Tottenham future
Spanish publication AS reported on Wednesday morning that Real Betis could offer the World Cup-winning Argentine the chance to kick-start his career back at the club where he played the best football of his career.
Lo Celso scored 16 goals and set up six more for Betis in 2018/19 before sealing a transfer which eventually set Spurs back an eye-watering £55 million.
Rumours of a return to Andalusia are, however, news to a baffled Real Betis president.
“I’m not aware that there have been additional movements,” Haro tells Estadio Deportivo when quizzed about those Lo Celso links. “I think (these claims) are more rumours than news.”
Maurizio Sarri ‘didn’t want’ the Spurs man
Lo Celso missed out on a move to Serie A before the window closed; Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri vetoing deals for both him and then-Manchester United enforcer Fred.
“I was prepared to open talks with Man United and bid for Fred. But Maurizio Sarri told me no — he didn’t want Fred,” explains Lazio chief Claudio Lotito.
“He did the same with Lo Celso.”
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