With the departure of Martin Caceres to Barcelona for a cool 16.5 million euros, a 10 million profit on Villarreal's behalf (which is pretty great considering the fact that he played a grand total of 0 games for us and even scored against us on one occasion!), the Yellow Submarine have been forced to look for defensive cover, instead of splashing out on another young starlet the board have decided to renew Pascal Cygan's contract for another year. The Frenchman was expected to be let go but Roig and Co. have shown a bit of humility by backtracking on previous statements and handing him a new deal.
Now some people would be quite skeptical of Cygan, the terms 'walking disaster' and 'accident waiting to happen' and even the slightly cruel 'you're shooting the other *bleeping* way!!!' have been thrown around in the past. However when you look at the guys stats and his form in the Villarreal shirt to date you can't really complain. Cygan has played over a 100 games for both Lille and Arsenal and that includes over 20 Champions League ties. His experience could be vital for us in the coming season considering that the majority of our squad will not have sampled the Champions League before. As Maddi pointed out he hasn't featured much this season and he should be rested and ready for what will hopefully be a very busy season. Another plus is his attitude, despite being a bit part player all season, he has always stated that he wants to stay on and that he loves the club, not once complaining about his lack of game time.
So all in all we've lost a very long haired glory hunting starlet but we have made a tidy profit and re-acquainted ourselves with a very humble bald Frenchman!
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