Unai Emery plans Aston Villa reunion with ‘fantastic’ Tottenham star

Harry De Cosemo 08 Jun 2024 5:25 PM

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery

Aston Villa are looking for experienced reinforcements ahead of their first Champions League campaign and are looking to a Premier League rival for a midfield target.

Aston Villa finished fourth in the Premier League and reached the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League in what was an impressive campaign under Unai Emery. Few expected such success in the Spaniard’s first full season, and now they face a challenge to strengthen enough to compete in Europe’s biggest club competition.

There has been plenty of talk in recent weeks of Villa needing to sell in order to satisfy Profit and Sustainability Rules, but they’ll need players with a proven European track record. According to The Sun, somebody very much in their sights is Tottenham midfielder Giovani Lo Celso.

Lo Celso, 28, was used sparingly by Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou last season, playing 22 Premier League games with four goal contributions, but crucially he only started four matches in total.

Postecoglou, who arrived at Spurs last summer from Celtic, is on record as saying there will be a huge transition of players in his squad.

When asked about Lo Celso’s lack of minutes, Postecoglou told a press conference: “It is not just him. There has been a few in that boat where they just haven’t had a real good run in terms of there has been injury disruptions and other times when he has been fit, other players have played in his position, but I still think Gio’s been good for us this year.

“Through that middle patch when we had a lot of injuries, he really stood up for us and then got his own injury of course.

“Look, he’s a fantastic player, but with all these things you’ve got to keep the perspective that we’re at a big club, we’re going to have a big squad and if it is not Gio, it will be someone else that will play that role next year.

Giovani Lo Celso will never play every Tottenham game

“No one will play every game. It doesn’t happen. It doesn’t happen at all the big clubs, so I am never really worried about the game time players are playing.

“If they want more game time, there are other clubs where they can do that and I’m looking at contribution. With someone like Gio, like I said he has contributed to us this year and that’s been the most important thing for me.”

A number of clubs have expressed an interest in signing Lo Celso, including his former side Real Betis, whom he left to join Spurs for £27m in 2019.

Villa boss Unai Emery is a big fan of the Argentina international, having had him on loan from Spurs while he was at Villarreal. Lo Celso has one year left on his contract.

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Giovani Lo Celso Unai Emery