Renewed Contract: Villarreal have renewed Pires for a year until 2009. It will be interesting to see if he begins to split time pretty evenly with Mati, based on his age and the last few matches. His leadership, assuming we make the CL, will be important.
Transfers:
- Villarreal have officially admitted their interest in de la Red, despite Madrid's interest and buyback clause.
- Teams showing interest in Caceres: Madrid, Juventus, Arsenal, Chelsea. But Roig said it is still possible Caceres "could be in Yellow" next year. However, he said it is important for the team to take advantage economically on players as well, as it did with Forlan.
- Pellegrini is expecting to have Diego Lopez for at least TWO MORE YEARS.
Injuries: Cygan, Angel, and of course Fuentes, have been kept out of practice. Hopefully all of the internationals are back in Vila-Real soon and rested enough for Saturday evening's match.
For American viewers, the match against Atletico will be on at 5pm et on GolTV.