John Wenham: Tottenham must do everything in their power to sell Lo Celso
Tottenham News is delighted to welcome John Wenham of Lilywhite Rose as our exclusive columnist. Each week, he’ll be giving his expert insight on the biggest talking points at Spurs…
John Wenham believes it is time for Tottenham “to do everything in their power” to move Giovani Lo Celso on and bring in a “reliable” back-up for James Maddison.
Maddison has thrived at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since his £40million switch from Leicester City during the summer transfer window.
The 26-year-old midfielder has so far scored twice and provided four assists in seven Premier League appearances.
However, Ange Postecoglou is dealing with a relatively thin squad, and due to the unreliable nature of Lo Celso, Wenham believes it is time for Spurs to provide appropriate cover for their star playmaker.
Speaking exclusively to Tottenham News, Wenham said: “James Maddison has been a phenomenal signing and is quite rightly being lauded as the signing of the summer. He is delivering in every single game he plays, whether that’s with goals or assists or even his overall leadership and energy towards the team, which is really infectious.
“Everybody loves him already, he’s a big player and he really gets what it means to play for Tottenham.
“At the start of the season, when I first spoke to you, we were talking about Giovani Lo Celso being Maddison’s backup, and it’s all well and good on paper having somebody there that could be the backup, but he’s never available.
“The whole contribution of Lo Celso’s season has been 45 minutes at Fulham before he again got injured and a couple of minutes at Bournemouth as a substitute. It’s utterly pointless to claim that he’s any sort of backup if he’s not available, and therefore can’t be counted on.
“I just think in January, it’s time to do everything in our power to move him on. He doesn’t contribute to the team, he takes up a foreign player spot, so maybe it is time to bring somebody in as a backup that is reliable and can contribute because if we lost Maddison, it would be a phenomenal blow.”
In other Tottenham news, one Spurs defender led by example during the club’s recent win over Liverpool.