One of the interesting deals that came out of last summer’s transfer window was the sale of Giovani Lo Celso back to Real Betis. It was implied that as part of that deal, Spurs received a priority window to sign Betis and USA international defensive midfielder Johnny Cardoso during a two week window at the start of the transfer window. That deal also apparently included a sell-on fee if Spurs decided NOT to purchase Cardoso, a rare situation where a football club could receive money for the sale of a player that they do not, and never did, employ.
Well, it appears that Tottenham are not going to end up purchasing Cardoso after all. Previous reporting had suggested that Cardoso did not want to transfer to Spurs, and Betis is currently in negotiations with Atletico Madrid for a €25m transfer for Johnny.
That sell-on clause has been a little tricky to confirm, but it seems now we’ve finally gotten some confirmation that it exists — that’s the good news. The bad news is that Betis and Atletico are currently in cahoots to try and get around that fee, according to Spanish outlet ABC de Sevilla Deportes (via SportWitness). That sell-on clause has an end date in July, and so ABC writes Betis and Atletico are potentially going to delay the final signing of Johnny until closer to the end of next month to get around the sell-on fee.
Shenanigans! But honestly, fair play. I find it difficult to get too mad at this considering Spurs have pulled similarly dirty tricks to do ends around various contract clauses for their own benefit. Ironically one more recent example was the transfer of Giovani Lo Celso to Tottenham in 2019 — at the time Lo Celso was on loan at Betis with an obligation to buy, and that contract also included a sell-on fee. Instead of buying Lo Celso outright, Betis first completed their purchase obligation for Lo Celso, then immediately loaned him to Spurs with another obligation to buy. That loan fee was then deducted from Lo Celso’s purchase price, making the eventual sell-on fee to PSG lower than it would’ve been.
There are other examples of Daniel Levy doing creative accounting to get around or minimize fees, so it should be unsurprising that other clubs are trying to do the same to Spurs.
Whatever. Spurs may be out a few million pounds over something like this, but Johnny clearly didn’t want to move to Spurs and the sell-on was worth the gamble at the time. It gave Spurs a priority option for a player in a position of need, and if they don’t end up with him, well, then move on to the next target, I guess.