Nilmar heading back to Brazil, but no Casemiro in the deal

None of us know why we signed Camuñas, frankly, and I don’t see him having much role going forward. Senna will be retiring in all likelihood after this year, and Cani might well be moved on, I suspect, if we want to go with youth. He’s looking like the odd man out to me in this list.
Assuming everyone else stays, I see:
Bruno and (ultimately) Casemiro in the doble pivote, with Castellani as backup (and Gullon in B team could be a backup for Bruno)
Borja on one wing
Perez/Montero on the other
De Guzman—I still am not sure how he fits in
Gio (if he comes)would play as a second striker rather than attacking midfielder

I think and hope we can rule out playing defenders in the doble pivote going forward

he is another possibility if Gio’s price tag is too great. However, Gio (according to transfermarkt) would qualify for an EU spot since he can claim Spanish ancestry through his parents; Jackson would not. Something to keep in mind.
Castellani’s promotion to the first team means he and Zapata (I believe) are taking up two of the three “foreign” spots we’re allowed, and Nilmar’s departure would free up one which would be claimed by Casemiro, presumably. If he comes.

but right now it seems that anyone could do better.

I think that Gio sucks… He was failure in Barca and Tottenham.
Stay away from him…

the problem there was Santander’s crooked owner. You can’t blame him for that one—if Racing had any real money they would have made the loan deal permanent

If we come out of this with Jackson and Gio to replace Nilmar, that’s not too bad. But I’d like to get more than €8m for him.

Inter will play 15mill. for Casemiro, so that’s why they don’t want to include him in the deal…
But hey… only rumors…

Just happy that things are happening, and we are sending Nilmar on his way, with a profit for us… didn’t we pay 11mill for him?

matches – goals – assists – minutes per goal – minutes
73 – 24 – 11 – 223 – 5355

But if you look at the first half of last season, until he had his surgery, he was great. Maybe even better than Rossi, or at least as good. Villarreal was playing a very counterattacking style at times and he flourished in that. And if I recall he was matching Rossi goal for goal-his finishing was excellent.

Once he had that first surgery, he really didn’t do a lot except against Bayer Leverkusen, where he came off the bench to score two goals. And this year, he’s struggled. Part of it is Rossi being out, sure: Rossi is a player who can get the ball slightly inside the attacking half, draw defenders and let Nilmar use his speed to run into space, while Ruben is not. But even when Rossi was OK Nilmar was finding it hard to get loose and get good shots on goal the way he did last year.

Assuming the deal goes ahead and he’s sold on, I don’t think he’ll be viewed as a colossal bust at Villarreal, but more as a signing that promised more than it ultimately delivered.