Exclusive: Player frozen out under Antonio Conte has no issue in returning to Spurs this summer
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Giovani Lo Celso has no issue in returning to the club this summer, sources close to the player have exclusively told SpursWeb.
The midfielder spent the whole of last season on loan at Villarreal, which was his second stint at the La Liga club having originally moved to Spain for the second half of the 2021/2022 season and became a regular in the side during both spells.
The Evening Standard reported last August that Lo Celso was one of four Tottenham players who were banished from the first team by Antonio Conte last summer along with Tanguy Ndombele, Harry Winks and Sergio Reguilon after the first team squad returned to north London following their pre-season tour of South Korea.
Conte was said to have told the quartet that he was unable to work with them due to limitations on the number of players within his squad and had been training alone and at separate times from the rest of their team mates.
Telegraph reporter Matt Law yesterday claimed during an appearance on the Last Word On Spurs YouTube channel that he had heard that Lo Celso was not keen on the idea of heading back to Tottenham.
Law said: “I think Lo Celso will go. From what I’m told, he does not really want to come back to Spurs.”
(Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)
Lo Celso is happy to return to Spurs
Earlier today, we featured the Law’s update about Lo Celso on our Twitter account and were later told by well-placed sources to the player that it is incorrect and he has absolutely no issue in heading back to his parent club.
Tottenham appointed Ange Postecoglou as Conte’s successor earlier this week after the Italian departed N17 at the end of March following his explosive post-match comments about his squad in the aftermath of their 3-3 draw at Southampton.
Lo Celso’s loan at Villarreal has officially come to an end and is set to report back to the club’s Hotspur Way training facility in the coming weeks with the rest of the squad ahead of their pre-season campaign which will see them play friendlies in Australia, Thailand and Singapore against West Ham, Leicester City and Roma, respectively.
Spurs completed the signing of the 27-year-old from Real Betis in January 2020 for £27.2million (BBC), having originally joined on a season-long in August 2019 with Spurs holding the option to turn it into a permanent transfer.
Lo Celso featured 29 times for Villarreal last season across all competitions, scoring two goals and providing three assists (transfermarkt).
SpursWeb Opinion
Regardless of where Giovani Lo Celso’s long-term future lies, there is absolutely no issue from the player’s perspective in heading back to Tottenham to work under Postecoglou and the new set up until he is told otherwise.
The 27-year-old finished the season strongly with Villarreal having battled back from a hamstring injury that required surgery in November and kept him out of Argentina’s successful World Cup campaign in Qatar last winter.
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