Villarreal Transfer Rumors Thread, updated to 6/30

(UPDATE, 6/30) -- Zapata signing is supposedly close, though Marca basically repeats yesterday's story; Marcos Senna has received a new contract proposal.
    The Spanish league is discussing kickoff times for next season, and apparently wants to have matches at 18, 20 and 22 hours (Spanish time) Saturdays, 12,16,18,20,22 hours Sundays, and the dreaded 21 hours Monday Night Lights.  Of course the time and date of a particular match won't be known more than 10 days before or so....

   Nothing new on Santi, Rossi or anyone else.  Marca notes so far Malaga have spent more on players (€31.3 mil) than anyone else, Madrid 28 million, Valencia 17 million.  Getafe has sold the most, €18 million.

(UPDATE, 6/29) --Malaga has allegedly bid €25m for Santi Cazorla according to journalists on Twitter, but no confirmation in any of the papers I've found this morning.  No word on Villarreal response or comment from Santi, but he's certainly in a position to ask Sr. Roig for an increased salary in return for staying I should think.

  EPM confirms that if Senna is renewed, the club won't go after a central midfielder; Marca reports Garrido asked Sr. Roig to up Villarreal's original offer to Senna, and EPM indicates the negotiations are in process.  AS, for its part, has a nice interview with Carlos Marchena, who looks likely to see more playing time in midfield this year.

   For Jozy Altidore rumor, see comments below; nothing to add to that at present.

(6/28 recap):  With less than two weeks before Villarreal opens training camp, what has been a slow summer of transfers is starting to heat up, or at least the rumors are.  The first month was taken up almost exclusively by Rossi-to-Barca stories, now things are getting more interesting. 

First, the general picture: according to EPM, priority #1 for Villarreal is now Cristian Zapata. 

AS adds if no "cracks" are sold, all Villarreal wants to add is a central defender and an attacker.  That makes it sound as though the club is counting on Senna and perhaps Marchena to provide the bite in midfield.

Below is a recap of recently-active rumors: also take a look at the "recommended fanshot" on the right and the last couple of heavily-commented-upon daily postings to see what people have said to date, then let's continue the conversations here.

Potential big moves OUT:

two players Sr. Roig wishes to keep ("nontransferable"):

Santi Cazorla--clearly Malaga has an interest and think it will take €25-30mil to have a chance (per Malaga news conference yesterday as reported on Twitter); Santi has said he is happy at Villarreal but Malaga is offering a higher salary and a longer contract.  No idea if there have been any serious contacts between the clubs yet.  Interestingly, this was all over twitter and the sports pages yesterday (even a report that Chelsea were interested!), but nothing this morning.

Borja Valero--again, Sr. Roig has said he is not a willing seller and Borja seems to be happy at Villarreal.  Mentioned mostly as a target for Atletico Madrid, Napoli, Malaga (if Santi doesn't work out).  As far as is known no one has actually contacted Villarreal with a bid.

two players transferable for a quoted "good price":

Giuseppe Rossi: Barca offered less than the €30m Villarreal wanted, some talk that Barca might come back (or go for Juan Mata) if Sanchez doesn't sign.  But now the Catalans may be too busy with Cesc to bother.  Juventus and Inter are two Italian clubs rumored to be interested, but no offers have been made.

Diego López: Atleti asked about him a while back and were told €12m; now that DeGea is gone to Man Utd for €20m they are looking for a keeper again. 

Other possible moves OUT:

Joan Capdevila: our World Cup winner is aging, and has been told he can look for a move.  Fenerbahce might be interested, as are "various Spanish clubs", but nothing firm has emerged.

Jozy Altidore: possibly to Sporting Gijon as part of Canella deal (loan?), possibly back to Turkey, possibly to a team in the Netherlands?  No specific rumors lately.

Marcos Senna: all seems to be sweetness and light after this weekend, but a final deal isn't in place yet.  Expect him to be renewed for a year and maybe given a testimonial match in the summer?

Juan Carlos: plan was to loan him to Levante, but the negotiations have gotten complicated.  He's going to have to get loaned somewhere to get playing time, unless Diego López departs.  Note the same article mentions Joan Oriol, who might go to Betis, Rayo or Grenada (perhaps as part of a Zapata deal?)

Possible moves IN, defenders first:

Zapata (Udinese): looked like Matilla was going to be part of a deal, but didn't happen.   Villarreal told Udinese they want a deal in place before the Copa America starts on July 1.   Udinese apparently wants to cash in now, reports are they have already lined up a replacement.

Canella (Sporting): reports were teams were close to a deal at one point but Villarreal are apparently more interested in Zapata.  Perhaps if that deal falls through or Capdevila moves out Canella will enter the equation again.

Brief mention of Chivu (Inter) some time ago, but nothing since.

Attackers:

Camuñas (Osasuna): all indications were he wanted to join Villarreal, but clearly not the highest priority.  Haven't head anything about this in a while.

Canales (Madrid): Madrid want to loan him outside La Liga for experience, Canales wants to stay in Spain, and would love to play in Villarreal.  Villarreal would like a purchase clause in any loan, Madrid says no.  These discussions were very active when it looked like Rossi was going to be off to Barca, but have been quiet since.

Other players Villarreal has been linked to include Capel (Sevilla), Baroni (Fener), some other Madrid players too (Garay, Gago). None of these have gained traction at this point.

     Players already gone: Matilla (sold to Betis for €1.4m and no buyback, apparently; the Villarreal twitter community is upset about this); Montero is on loan to Betis for a year, no purchase option.

  So, have at it!