Giovani Lo Celso IN, Dani Raba OUT

It has happened! Villarreal are indeed bringing Giovani Lo Celso in from Tottenham—latest reports are it is a straight loan without a purchase option. (No word on whether Spurs are paying part of his salary, but since the deal originally envisaged included a purchase option, there was obviously some to-and-fro in the negotiations).

Lo Celso is at the moment in Argentina, preparing for an Argentine NT match against Colombia on Wednesday. As far as I am aware, Gio can be registered for the Champions League round of 16 matches against Juventus (who have had some roster changes of their own!).

This has all come together fairly quickly. Spurs have made no secret of their desire to find a loan outlet for Lo Celso, as he has found it difficult to feature for their first team and there seems to be some feeling that he’s “not physical enough for the EPL.” Originally it appeared Olymoique Lyonnais was going to be his destination, but the player balked at that. Now he is joining Villarreal until the end of the season and is being united with Unai Emery, for whom he played for 18 months at Paris-Saint Germain.

To make room for Lo Celso on our roster, Villarreal have parted ways with Dani Raba. Apparently (I have not seen full details on this yet) Villarreal have rescinded his contract and he is now free to join another club. I don’t know if Villarreal had to pay to do that, or if the agreement was just that this way he can sign with someone else for a similar wage so no fee is being paid. I do know Villarreal had tried hard to move him.

It was also reported Paco Alcacer turned down loan moves to Granada and Cadiz, make of that what you will.

Welcome Giovani Lo Celso, we hope you do well and that we find a way to keep you around after this summer!