Are Tottenham making a mistake with Giovani Lo Celso?

Tottenham are going to allow Giovani Lo Celso to play for Argentina this month, but is this a mistake by Mauricio Pochettino and his coaching staff?

Injuries have prevented Giovani Lo Celso from really hitting the ground running at Tottenham this season. Fortunately for Spurs, he’s just starting to round into form and fitness. That’s precisely why Mauricio Pochettino isn’t happy about his midfielder heading out to international duty with Argentina.

According to Dan Kilpatrick, the Argentine gaffer is “not happy” with the fact that Lo Celso is being called up to play again for his country so soon after returning to Tottenham’s first team. For the record, Pochettino is adamantly opposed to standing in the way of any player representing their country. That’s likely even more true when it comes to his native Argentina.

In fairness to Pochettino, preventing a player from going on international duty is a great way to make sure talented internationals don’t want to play for your club in the future. It would be difficult for him to go out and publicly prevent Lo Celso from leaving North London during the next round of international fixtures.

However, quite a few Premier League players seem to come up with minor injuries that prevent them from leaving their training grounds when they aren’t 100% fit. It seems likely that Spurs could manage to keep Lo Celso in North London if they exerted a bit of well placed pressure on their big-money signing. As such, it’s fair to wonder whether or not Tottenham are making the right decision in this instance.

The simple answer to this query is an emphatic no. Lo Celso is a crucial part of the club’s near future if they want to get this season back on track. Allowing him to leave for international duty puts him at significant risk of suffering another injury. Note, his original injury occurred while playing for Argentina.

This is really a classic example of a situation where Pochettino should have tried to pressure Lo Celso to resist the temptation of playing for his country in favour of the interests of his club. Perhaps he did tried that and failed, but that doesn’t seem likely given the hold Pochettino has on most of his players.

Perhaps Lo Celso will go away and play well for Argentina and return to Tottenham brimming with confidence. It’s much more likely he’ll return to Premier League play battered and bruised. That could be quite a loss for Spurs.