The English transfer window slammed shut on Thursday last week but Tottenham Hotspur still have an opportunity to shift a player on amid interest from Turkey.
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The Turkish transfer window does not close until Friday and Galatasaray are reportedly interested in a swoop to snap up one of Ange Postecoglou's men.
According to Yeni Asir, the Super Lig giants have 'made' their move to secure the signing of Argentine central midfielder Giovani Lo Celso from Spurs.
The report claims that the player wants a transfer away from North London due to a concern over his game time at the club but does not mention whether or not Tottenham are open to doing business.
Spurs and Postecoglou should, however, brutally ditch the wantaway dud as they could recoup some of the money that has been drained from Daniel Levy's budget since his arrival at the club.
How much Spurs paid to sign Lo Celso
The Lilywhites swooped to sign the midfield maestro from Spanish side Real Betis on loan in the summer of 2019 for the 2019/20 campaign.
They then secured a permanent deal for his services in January 2020 with Jose Mourinho in charge for a reported fee of £27.2m, instead of being obligated to pay £34m for his signature at the end of the season had they qualified for the Champions League – as agreed in the initial loan deal.
He only started 15 Premier League matches throughout his first season at the club and contributed with two assists, zero goals, and a duel success rate of 48%. This suggests that his impact at the top end of the pitch was limited and he struggled with the physicality of the division.
Hamstring
29
Hip
11
Muscle
Seven
Knee
Five
Shin
Two
Quarantine
Two
Knock
One
Unknown
One
Lo Celso then missed 26 competitive games through injury throughout the 2020/21 campaign and chipped in with one goal and one assist in 18 league matches that season.
The Argentine flop was absent for a further nine matches due to injury in the first half of the following term, which led to a loan move to Villarreal in January 2022.
He spent 18 months in Spain and returned to be part of Postecoglou's squad for this season. However, the 27-year-old dud has missed ten matches with various injuries and has only started four league games.
Lo Celso has drained Levy over the years
Lo Celso has reportedly been on a salary of £70k-per-week since the start of the 2019/20 campaign, which works out at around £3.6m-per-year.
He is four-and-a-half-years on from joining the club in the summer of 2019 but the first six months were spent on loan from Real Betis. This means that he has earned roughly £16.2m in wages, at £70k-per-week, in the four years since his permanent move was completed in January 2020.
However, Lo Celso did spend 18 months on loan with Villarreal and it is unclear as to how much they contributed to his wages during his time in Spain.
Tottenham possibly saved around £5.4m in wages if they covered his salary in full, which would take his wage-earning at the club down to £10.8m in total.
Add that to the £27.2m transfer fee that was paid to secure his services and Lo Celso has drained Levy of roughly £38m over the past four years.
That is a significant sum of money for a player who has only started 32 Premier League games and suffered regular injury issues in well over four years at the club, which suggests that he has not provided much value for money as the midfielder has rarely been available or selected to start and influence matches in the top-flight.
This is why Spurs must now ruthlessly ditch the Mourinho flop and try to recoup as much money as possible amid this interest from Galatasaray.