Tottenham Hotspur are pretty fortunate this summer with two of their major transfer targets.
Despite Jean-Michel Aulas trying to engineer an auction for Tanguy Ndombele, he hasn’t had the impact he’d have hoped. The clubs who were thought to be potentially interested, and the ones Aulas has publicly invited to the sale, such as Juventus and PSG, are thought to currently have other targets.
It’s a similar situation at Real Betis. Stories have been fed to the club’s local media talking up interest and offers for Giovani Lo Celso, but right now Tottenham appear to be the only club in town.
Their first offer was around €40m, and Betis had originally been looking for potentially double that.
Mundo Deportivo believe that in the event of Christian Eriksen leaving, Tottenham ‘should put around €75m on the table’ for Lo Celso.
In reality, even if Eriksen goes for what Spurs want, the Premier League club would still likely try to get the price down.
And then there’s the issue of where Eriksen goes. Despite claims of the player’s family house hunting near the club, Real Madrid’s local media aren’t pushing a transfer as imminent.
Indeed, on Saturday Marca said Daniel Levy had offered the player to Los Blancos, who hadn’t bitten… yet.
Mundo believe Madrid could still move for the Spurs ace, saying Paul Pogba, Zinedine Zidane’s preference, is ‘closer to Juventus right now’.
Yet with Matthijs de Ligt thought to be close to signing for the Italian club, and Adrien Rabiot today landing in Turin, that could be questionable on both a funds and squad space basis.
It’s a mess, and for Tottenham to get to Lo Celso, for whatever fee, it needs untangling, unless Levy will allow Pochettino to get the player and also retain Eriksen.
