A look at Villarreal's departed players....

Here is news of some of the players who departed Villarreal last year. ( I have not included those playing in the Segunda since they get mentioned in match previews).

Borja Valero and Gonzalo Rodriguez are both at Fiorentina, and the Viola fans are very happy with both of them. Gonzalo (who we sold for €1.5M) is playing in the middle of a three-man defense there and that seems to be working for him; he also has four goals in 13 matches, including a penalty in their last match (he never scored more than two goals in a season for us!). He has started every game except one--he was sent off in Fiore's 2-1 loss at Inter so was suspended for the next match.

Borja (€7M) has started every match, has scored one goal and assisted on five others already (he had only six assists all last year for us). Fiorentina has lost only to Napoli and Inter, both away, and drew with Juve at home. It looks likely they will be in the mix for a top-three finish and a Champions League place, if their current fine form continues.

Jefferson Montero (€3.5M) is playing for the Morelia Monarchs in the Mexican league (Liga MX). They finished fifth out of 18 teams in the first half of the season (the Apertura), and lost in the playoff quarterfinals to América, who had finished fourth. Jeff pretty much started every game, has only one goal. He did score a hat-trick in a Cup match but Morelia was later knocked out of that.

Nilmar (sold for €10M, I think?) is playing for Al Rayyan in the Stars league of Qatar. He's scored five times in seven matches, for what it's worth. Probably not much.

Marco Ruben (€8M) is at Dynamo Kyiv, and there is a rumor he may come back to us on loan. He has only one goal and since they have another striker who is scoring goals in bundles (Brown Ideye, with 10 in 15 matches) Dynamo might be willing to let him move for a bit. They are only in third in the Ukrainian league, though--Shaktar Donetsk are running away with it but Dnipro is currently ahead of Dynamo for second place and the league's other Champions League spot.

Diego López (€3.5M) was the first to depart, but has found it difficult to dislodge 39 year-old 'keeper Palop in the Sevilla nets. He started the first two matches of the season, but in the 34th minute of a match against Granada was sent off. The resulting penalty was saved by Palop and since then, Gran Diego has been riding the pine. He did feature in goal in Sevilla's 3-1 win against Espanyol in the home leg of their Copa tie.

Jonathan de Guzmán (loan) has played in all but one of Swansea City's matches, scoring one goal. He's being used in more of a deep playmaker role there, apparently, and Swansea supporters are very happy with him, as well as fellow La Liga import Michu (seven goals already!). Expect the Swans to make an offer for a permanent deal, unless they falter and get relegated from the EPL. At present they're ninth, so that doesn't look likely.

Nicki Bille (loaned to Rayo, I believe?) hasn't done much--eight matches, four of those off the bench, no goals. He had a sprained ankle last month, and hasn't played in November.

Carlos Marchena (free) and Javier Camuñas (loaned? or free? not sure) are both playing for Depor this season. Camuñas has mostly been coming off the bench; Marchena has mostly started, had a thigh strain recently. Don't know much more than that about them, as I haven't watched them this season.

Angel López (free) has seen two minutes of action for Betis this season.

And then there is Wakaso Mubarak (free transfer?). He has been in the thick of things at Espanyol, starting 11 games. He has scored one goal, assisted on two others. Unlike so many of our players, he is willing to fire from outside the area, though marksmanship remains a problem (of his 27 shots taken, only 6 have hit the target). That's the good. The bad is he has picked up seven yellow cards (including one in each of his last three matches) and a red in those games, so discipline remains a problem. But I miss him, all the same...!