According to The Athletic, Tottenham initially had a different plan in mind when it came to signing Arnaut Danjuma. Instead of signing him on loan in January, they had hoped to use midfielder Giovani Lo Celso in a swap deal last summer
Lo Celso is currently on loan at Villarreal, the same club that Danjuma was playing for before joining Tottenham on loan. It’s clear that Villarreal had a lot of interest in Lo Celso after his successful loan spell last season. However, under former manager Unai Emery, they were not ready to let Danjuma go.
But since Emery’s departure to Aston Villa, the situation has changed and Danjuma is now a Tottenham player, at least on a temporary basis.
This raises the question of whether this swap deal could still be possible. Both Danjuma and Lo Celso still belong to their respective clubs, Villarreal and Tottenham.
Danjuma is now out of favour at Villarreal under their new manager, Quique Setien, who prefers to use more traditional wingers such as Yeremy Pino rather than an inverted wide player like Danjuma.
Meanwhile, Lo Celso isn’t of much use to Spurs either. The Argentine midfielder did arrive from Real Betis for a mammoth £55m fee, but he’s not been a consistent performer at all.
However, with Lo Celso impressing for The Yellow Submarine and Spurs holding an option to buy Danjuma for £27m, we can’t help but wonder if this idea will be revisited come the summer, especially if Danjuma manages to make an impact in north London during this initial loan spell.
It will be interesting to see if any further developments on this front arise in the coming months or if this potential deal is now off the table. Either way, Spurs and Villarreal will have to make decisions on both Lo Celso and Danjuma in the summer, and this seems like a good way to compromise.
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