A couple of days ago we covered a report from ABC over Tottenham’s first offer for Giovani Lo Celso.
That were insistent that whatever had been claimed before was wrong, in reality Spurs had only put a €35-40m down, the €5m difference likely down to bonus payments.
This was met with shock and deemed ‘totally insufficient’ for the Real Betis player.
We had a suspicion of what may be going on.
A few days earlier Diario de Sevilla had reiterated their claims of Tottenham putting €60m on the table. When those claims first started, it was clear it had been leaked from the Betis side of a potential deal, with several local journalists covering it and also claiming Manchester United interest in Junior Firpo.
Betis were said to want close to Lo Celso’s €100m clause, which seemed unrealistic depending on how they define close. If this €35-40m offer is genuine then it looks like Tottenham were making it clear they won’t be pushed too high.
Tactics in a complicated game.
Betis may have just made their next move, in the form of a claimed offer from Atletico Madrid, who are being linked to any conceivable targets right now.
Estadio Deportivo say Diego Simeone’s club have put together a deal worth a total of €55m, but they don’t explain what the base price is.
Anyway, this is also ‘insufficient’, and Betis have referred to the €100m clause.
However, Estadio say they’ve found out Betis have agreed with the player and his father that offers of €75m will be listened to… which would appear to be someone dangling that figure out there. It’s then stated Tottenham are ‘willing to reach €70m’, whilst again pointing out they’ve only actually offered the €40m deal so far.
€70m, with €10-20m of that made up of bonuses, should do the trick.
