Last night, the club confirmed that Argentine midfielder Giovani Lo Celso has joined Villarreal on loan for the season.
Of course, Lo Celso spent the second half of last season on loan with the yellow submarine, scoring once and setting up one goal – hardly impressive figures, but even the player’s strongest advocates will argue that Lo Celso’s game isn’t about scoring or creating.
Indeed, even at his best, he was always short in that department, and his loan spell with the Spaniards was still impressive enough that Emery insisted on his recruitment.
Since joining Spurs from Real Betis in the summer of 2019 on a loan deal later made permanent in January 2020, Lo Celso has scored 8 goals in 84 appearances.
We’ve seen glimpses of his undoubted talents, but not on a consistent enough basis to justify a regular place in the team.
Short on game time, Lo Celso only turned out 19 times for us last season before he joined Villarreal in January.
Granted, a host of managerial changes and injury problems have done him no favours, but the player must take responsibility for not winning Conte over; at the time of the Italian’s appointment, I thought that Lo Celso would be perfect for his system.
At his best, he’s tenacious, snappy, and a brilliant ball carrier – as demonstrated in the all too brief golden spell he had in 2020 under Mourinho – but, as I say, for one reason or another, he’s not demonstrated these qualities enough to legitimise a future at the club.