We don’t often say this, but for this article, it’s probably for the best: Please, make sure you’re sitting down before reading any further.
Comfortable? OK, because Tottenham’s alleged pursuit of Giovani Lo Celso has taken a weird turn, and it involves Real Madrid.
As we all know, the La Liga side have a somewhat strong interest in Christian Eriksen, who has hinted a few times he wouldn’t mind trying something new.
He hasn’t outright said he wants a transfer, but after last season, perhaps he felt the club peaked and going to Real Madrid could help him win trophies.
Either way, there’s been no indication that Eriksen is actually going to leave Tottenham this summer, but El Confidencial believe there’s a plan for Real Madrid to get their man, Spurs to end up with Lo Celso while making Betis happy in the process.
According to the Spanish outlet, Betis have for a long time been fans of Mariano Diaz, the Dominican Republic international who spent time at Lyon a year or so ago and was benched for most of last season backing up Karim Benzema.
He is the key to all this, and with the Seville club needing an extra striker for next season, the timing is perfect.
Since they can’t afford to spend €70m or so Eriksen, the idea is for Real Madrid to buy Giovani Lo Celso off Betis by offering €40m + the striker, and immediately using the Argentine as a makeweight in any deal for the Tottenham midfielder.
The deal would therefore be cash + Lo Celso for the Dane.
Yep. It’s as ridiculous as it sounds.
It’s worth pointing that Betis are apparently ‘reluctant’ to lower their asking price of €75-80m for their midfielder, and there’s by no means any indication they would accept the offer from Real Madrid should it be presented to them.
However, if true, it goes to show how desperate Florentino Pérez is to get a creative midfielder for Zinedine Zidane this summer.
