At the start of the week, reports from the English media claimed Premier League clubs had ‘issued a plea’ to their South American players to return early from international duty.
Since the World Cup qualifiers will be played until the 14th of October, those stars will have little time to fly back to the UK and be ready for their clubs the following weekend.
Tottenham Hotspur would be one of the most impacted clubs, as they have two players at the Argentine national team: Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso.
Now as manager Lionel Scaloni spoke to the local media this week, he made it very clear that he doesn’t plan to cooperate with any European clubs over letting his players early, despite having agreed to that in the last break.
“Before the game with Venezuela I said that they came to play all three games, but then problems arose and I released them,” said Lionel Scaloni (via TyC Sports).
“In this case it’s totally different. They’re about to play all three games and under no circumstances will they leave earlier.”
Argentina are set to play Paraguay, Uruguay and Peru. The last game takes place on the night of the 14th of October, morning of the 15th in the UK.
Tottenham play West Ham United on Sunday the 16th, so Lo Celso and Romero will have a very short period to fly back to London and be available for Nuno Espírito Santo.
Their participation in that match is surely unlikely.
