Paul Fennessy

UNTIL RECENTLY, Giovani Lo Celso was the forgotten man at Spurs.

The 27-year-old midfielder was in danger of being part of what is arguably one of the worst transfer windows by a single club in Premier League history.

The summer of 2019 largely does not look good in hindsight from a Daniel Levy perspective and is a big reason why, instead of building on an encouraging season that included a fourth-place finish and a spot in the Champions League final, they went into freefall with Mauricio Pochettino losing his job three months in and the North Londoners struggling to recover since.

Tottenham lost one important player, Kieran Trippier, and another, Christian Eriksen, would depart in January.

By contrast, they brought in Tanguy Ndombele (still a club-record signing at €62 million), Jack Clarke (€12 million), Ryan Sessegnon (€29 million), Michel Vorm (Free), Steven Bergwijn (€31.5 million) and Lo Celso (Initially on loan with a €32 million fee ultimately agreed).

Of those six, none have been an outright success. Three no longer play for Spurs, and Ndombele is unlikely to ever wear the jersey again, as he is currently on loan at Galatasaray and last played in the Premier League in December 2021.

Sessegnon has not been an unequivocal failure — he featured 17 times last season and has been unlucky with injuries — but neither has he ever excelled in the way the club would have hoped.

Although none of the aforementioned players did particularly well, you could argue the fairly poor decision-making at Tottenham by the powers that be contributed to their downfall.

All of the players in question were Mauricio Pochettino signings.

Within a couple of months of their arrival, Spurs had appointed a coach, Jose Mourinho, with completely different ideals to the Argentine boss.

Mourinho is a defensive manager, and the same could be said to an extent about Spurs’ next two appointments — Nuno Espírito Santo and Antonio Conte.

All of the six players were expecting to be part of a team that played progressive football and struggled when a new philosophy was promptly instilled in North London.

Conte did at least bring back Champions League football to Spurs, but for the most part, it feels as if the club have drifted and underperformed in the four-plus years following the Champions League final.

The overwhelming sense that the team were stagnating was a key reason behind club legend and hometown hero Harry Kane’s decision to leave in the summer.

But ostensibly one of the big differences between now and then is that when Conte and Mourinho see a player like Lo Celso, they perceive someone prone to making a mistake — Pochettino and Ange Postecoglou are more likely to look at him as a potential matchwinner.

The Argentine international may have struggled since joining Spurs but he has remained highly regarded elsewhere. He has won 48 caps to date for his country and likely would have been an important player in their 2022 World Cup triumph had a hamstring injury not ruled him out of that tournament.

Yet Lo Celso has been invariably a bit-part player at Tottenham. He did manage a respectable 28 Premier League appearances in his first season, but he has played just 32 times in the three seasons since then in the top flight.

He was ultimately shipped out to Villarreal on loan two seasons on the bounce, helping the La Liga club reach the semi-finals of the Champions League in his first campaign there.

Meanwhile, one of the biggest complaints about Tottenham in recent times before this season is they lacked creativity in midfield and never properly replaced Eriksen.

Lo Celso always seemed to be a decent option, but he was essentially ignored by more than one manager, with the defensive-minded likes of Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Harry Winks and Oliver Skipp often preferred.

Even Postecoglou appeared to have his doubts, which is partially why Tottenham bought another creative player in the summer — James Maddison for €47 million. There was also reports as recently as less than a month ago that the club were willing to sell Lo Celso for €17 million amid links to Barcelona, though Postecoglou subsequently played down talk of a move.

Spurs have struggled badly in recent times — you could literally make an XI of injured players from those unavailable of late — with the result being that they lost three Premier League games on the bounce before today after winning their first 10.

However, Lo Celso is one of the peripheral figures who appears to have grasped his chance in the intervening period. 

After three substitute appearances, he scored on his first Premier League start of the season against Aston Villa last week.

He followed that up with another goal and an impressive display against Man City today.

Another of the big differences with Postecoglou compared to Mourinho and Conte is that the latter two would almost certainly have started the more conservative Højbjerg ahead of Lo Celso at the Etihad today, but the Australian did the opposite.

The manager’s faith was rewarded with not just a superbly taken goal but some really adventurous passing and intelligent movement from the Argentine.

His display epitomised Spurs’ bravery on the ball and resilience to twice come from behind and earn a draw against the reigning Premier League champions.

So at last, Lo Celso’s career in England appears ready for takeoff as he finally has a progressive manager to work with in the long term.