Attention turns back to transfers: Villarreal news, January 24 (updated)

Lots of discussion in Vila-real this morning and on twitter: some of it remarking on the match last night, but most of it
caused by comments from Nilmar's agent to the Brazilian press:

"São Paulo vai precisar mexer com a cabeça do Nilmar", diz agente

Orlando de Hora, Nilmar's agent, has done his best to burn Nilmar's bridges in Vila-real by claiming the player hasn't been paid in three months and that the club is struggling to pay salaries (untrue, says Diego López: Villarreal pays its players on time) and by suggesting that Nilmar wanted to play against Sporting Gijon but "the coach was ordered to take him off the game list" and "Nilmar is upset and threatened to take the case to FIFA".

I suppose there might be a small (very small) grain of truth in this last, because while the club said Molina had talked with Nilmar and they had agreed he shouldn't play--which doesn't mean Nilmar didn't want to play, simply agreed not to--but as for involving FIFA (!)

Also, de Hora claims that "Nilmar doesn't want to go back to Brazil", he "has offers from other European clubs", and "Villarreal didn't talk to him before making a deal with Sao Paolo", which all appears to be at variance with, or at least a creative interpretation of, the facts as reported by numerous sources over the last month.

I think all of these comments can be understood in the context of the negotiations between Nilmar and Sao Paolo. it's in the agent's interest to portray his player as wanting to leave his current club, sure, but he also needs to play up the 'others out there' so he's got to get a good salary in order to come back to Brazil (and of course the agent gets his cut). As the headline says, 'Sao Paolo has to mess with Nilmar's head" and persuade him to come. I don't think it's a style of negotiation we're used to--insult everybody with offhand comments and then sit down to talk--but maybe it works in Brazil. Guess we'll find out.

Two final comments: (1) it's pretty clear none of these off-the-cuff comments to a Brazilian radio program were made with Nilmar's blessing or approval; (2) those on twitter lumping Nilmar's and Rossi's agents together are wrong. Sr. Pastourello plays up the interest of other teams in Rossi, sure, but he has always been very complimentary of Villarreal and acknowledges Rossi is happy in Vila-real. He's been far more professional than Sr. de Hora, and I'm sure will continue to be.

However, there is a team that has been paying its players late, and hasn't been paying transfer fees on time either:

La LFP prohíbe fichar al Málaga - MARCA.com

Osasuna have tired of the sheik's excuses and have reported Malaga to the LFP for failure to pay the final installment due on Nacho Monreal's transfer, just as Villarreal has previously done in regards to Santi. Whether this 'transfer embargo' will actually do anything is unclear, but for now Carlos Kameni is in limbo as his registration hasn't gone through yet. (Of course, following this logic, Atletico Madrid, Real Zaragoza and Racing Santander, just to name three, shouldn't be allowed to register players either).

Returning to Villarreal now: interesting interview with Sr. Llaneza, back home now.

Llaneza: "El tema de Gio está encaminado" - Deportes - El Periódico Mediterraneo

Key points: the Gio Dos Santos deal "is on track" and "it seems the player wants to come here". As for Nilmar, he's more circumspect, saying basically 'we'll let you know when there's a deal, we don't talk about it when negotiations are going on'. He also comments (perhaps an indirect reply to Nilmar's agent? I don't know) that "until March, when the Brazilian transfer market is closed,we have time" and that the arrival of Gio (or anyone else) isn't linked to sales. "Si tenemos que fichar, lo haremos, independientemente de las salidas", he says. In other words, Nilmar and/or his agent aren't going to force us into a deal just because we need money for signings.

Let's go back to Giuseppe Rossi for a minute, there's a nice story on the official site (h/t to Tanya at the Source for pointing this out):

Rossi: "I'm sure we will get around this"

And a sad story from Portugal--not only is Joan Capdevila not playing, but now Benfica have put a "gag order" on him as well, threatening to fine him €6,000 if he talks to the press. (Maybe he should hire Sr. de Hora as his agent so he can threaten to

And you've probably read by recap and others' take on last night's win, here is one from our friend Thomas who is spending the year in Vila-real. I'm glad he was finally able to see a win in his home shirt.

The hard work starts here for Molina’s Villarreal " Blog the Football

As he says, with Barcelona upcoming it's less the result than the 'image' of the team people are going to be looking at. Sporting were in their own way as dire last night as we were on the road against Atleti--no shots on goal, very little on offer. Barca will be a different story, for sure!!

Highlights from yesterday's match are here:

Villarreal Sporting Gijon Highlights Video 24/1/2012 (3 - 0) Goals: Rubén, Valero, Bruno

Enjoy them, and if there's any breaking news from Vila-real we'll update you. Endavant Villarreal!!

UPDATE (11AM EST): twitter news is Granada is apparently going to try to make a bid for Gio Dos Santos. Another club that shouldn't be allowed to buy anybody, frankly.

As for Dorian Dervite, who has been MIA for a while now, news that he's training with Auxerre in France. From their website:

En défense l’AJA cherche à se renforcer. Le club a fait venir à l’essai Sarr de Belgique. Aujourd’hui Dervite est arrivé. Il va s’entraîner cette semaine avec le groupe élite, cela permettra de voir son niveau réel et actuel. Ces deux joueurs ont très envie de rejoindre le club, ils sont partants mais cela ne veut pas dire qu’ils seront signés. Le coach et son staff les observent à l’entraînement et les recruteurs scrutent d’autres pistes en même temps.

Basically what this says is he has arrived in Auxerre, will be training this week with the first team, which will let the coaches evaluate him. He hasn't been signed yet. Whether Villarreal has officially released him isn't clear, but it sounds like it.

Meanwhile Carlos Tomas and Fofo are moving or have moved to Ponferradina, I believe, which is currently competing to get out of the same Segunda B group as Mirandés.

As for Nilmar, another report agreeing Villarreal would get €8-9m for him, but nothing new really.