Villarreal news, February 6

A couple of quick updates:

first, Srs. Del Nido and Monchi met with Marcelino this morning and fired him after yesterday's loss to us. I doubt that will come as a surprise given a lot of people felt he had to win yesterday to keep his job. Rumor is Michel may replace him; Quique Sanchez Flores has also been mentioned.

Villarreal had a practice session today (Giuseppe Rossi tweeted he wore his NY Giants hoodie to practice!), will be off tomorrow. As matters now stand, unless the competition commission changes things, Oriol, Bruno and Gonzalo will all be out against Granada, and Jaume Costa can't be used either as he is suspended for his red card for the B team. Word is the club is planning to appeal Bruno's yellow for sure; Gonzalo's was merited, Joan Oriol's first certainly wasn't but I don't know if that will be appealed or not.

Thought is perhaps a back four of Mario-Musacchio-Marchena-Angel? Or possibly Wakaso at LB, Zapata in middle and Angel on right? Marchena in Bruno's spot? Or Castellani? We will have to see what transpires.

As for Nilmar, no real news, it's pretty clear the Brazilian move is very unlikely and whatever offers there are from Russian teams haven't been made public. Surely though the club will want to resolve Nilmar's status very soon--it isn't in anyone's best interest to continue to leave him out of the team if there's no possibility he's leaving. Although coach Molina has said all along the decision to leave him out has been his.

As for Alejandro Martinuccio's "debut" (20 seconds on the pitch, no opportunity to touch the ball) one Villarreal supporter on twitter pointed out Santi Cazorla's debut for Villarreal was similar, a last-minute appearance in an away win (1-0 at Depor, 30 November 2003). Hopefully that's an omen!

Nice article in EPM on Villarreal's Chinese marketing strategy--says behind Barca and Madrid (natch) we are the "third team" in China as far as La Liga is concerned.

Couple of loose ends: Tenerife defeated Albacete 2-1 on the weekend, are just outside the playoff places in Segunda B Group 1. Remember, if they get promoted, we get money from our sale of Kike Lopez to them, so come on you insulares! (Lopez just joined the team, didn't play). And Marcos Gullón didn't play for Racing either on the weekend.

Finally, there's a report Michu (10 goals for Rayo now!) is wanting to move to a bigger club, with us as a possibility, along with Valencia and Atletico Madrid. And Jonathan Viera is attracting attention from Barcelona, allegedly, as well as Valencia and possibly us.

Enjoy the day after a great win! (and no, I'm not talking about the Super Bowl!) Endavant!!