What Is Happening With Giovani Lo Celso

What Is Happening With Giovani Lo Celso

Transfer Talk tonight looks at what is happening with Spurs pursuit of Giovani Lo Celso?

We know he is away at the Copa America and will then be on holiday after that. But slowing down negotiations with Real Betis is the fact that they have been in a state of flux for over a week now.

They are changing the way the club is run. Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, Sports Director at Real Betis has left his post, they intend to run more as a transfer committee now. The club President, Ángel Haro and the Vice Chairman and CEO, José Miguel López Catalán held a press conference yesterday to explain it.

These changes don't just happen overnight so it's clear until their own internal situation is resolved that progress on signing one of their players, who they have yet to find a replacement for, negotiations would be extended and difficult.

Real Betis want both clubs to match their £66.70m (€75m - $84.60m) whereas an independent valuation of him from CIES Football Observatory has him below €60m (£53.75m - $67.40m).

A reminder that our initial offer was €35m (£31.16m - $39.68m) plus €5m (£4.45m - $5.57m) bonuses, a total of €40m (£35.58m - $45.10m). That is just a starting point for negotiation to bring expectation down, a common negotiating tactic, indeed one all clubs use.

Manchester United have not made a bid for him, it's all paper talk. They have to give 20% to PSG of any profit and Betis do not have enough to pay the release clause of €28m (£24.88m - $31.58m) for Borja Iglesias, the 26-year-old (27 next January) striker they would like to buy.

Hence they need the sale of players to go through to conduct any business. That puts us in a strong bargaining position.

This is a report from Estadio Deportivo suggesting that Ángel Haro and José Miguel López Catalán travelled to England last week to advance talks.

They also suggested Betis wouldn't release Lo Celso until they have a replacement lined up, especially with other players like Junior Firpo and Sergio Canales expected to leave. Their failure to qualify for Europe means keeping a tight reign on the purse strings.

That's just common sense and normal practice, fans may not like it or understand it, but that's generally the way the football industry works.

Lo Celso's father, Juan, acts as his representative and he is thought to favour Manchester United whereas Giovani himself favours working under fellow Argentinian Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham.

Betis will obviously play one off against the other but at the moment we are the club in for him, but we will not be forced to simply overpay for him with Fernandes and Zaniolo as alternative options. I suspect we will want him for no more than €60m (£53.75m - $67.40m), preferably less.

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