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This article is part of Football FanCast's Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news...
Tottenham Hotspur are not willing to pay more than the club-record fee they shelled out for Tanguy Ndombele to sign Giovani Lo Celso, per Football.London.
What’s the word?
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The Real Betis midfielder has been heavily linked with a potential move to north London this summer.
Spurs, of course, smashed their transfer record of £45m when they acquired Ndombele from Lyon for a fee of £63m, per the aforementioned piece.
Lo Celso has a release clause of £88m, Football.London report, but Spurs are not minded to match that valuation.
Instead, they would prefer to do business for a price similar to that paid for the France international.
PSG, Lo Celso’s former club, are also reported to have a 20% sell-on clause meaning that, if he did move for £63m, they would be due a total of £12.6m.
Levy time
Daniel Levy drives a hard bargain.
Ndombele became the club’s record signing after manager Mauricio Pochettino reportedly identified him as his top target for a summer of rebuilding.
Lo Celso is not a player of similar importance; where the Frenchman will replace Mousa Dembele, the Argentine could replace Christian Eriksen, but even that remains up in the air; the Dane is at the centre of his own transfer saga this summer.
Thus, it makes sense for Levy to cite the deal done for Ndombele in negotiations for the Betis star, and it again speaks to the excellent tactic of bringing the midfielder in early.
Lo Celso probably isn’t worth his release clause – he enjoyed a spectacular season at Betis, scoring 16 goals in all competitions, but struggled at PSG – and one feels that this is a negotiating tactic designed to drive his price down.
Having Ndombele signed nice and early ensures that Levy has already set a precedent and he is well within his rights to call back on it in these talks.
It could end up saving Spurs a fortune and it shines an excellent light on his dealings already this summer.