Marco Ruben sold to Dynamo Kiev in shock move

Yesterday it was Wakaso to Espanyol, and Gonzalo to San Lorenzo. Those moves weren't shockers, especially the second, but today brought a surprise--Marco Ruben has been sold to Dynamo Kiev. The 25-year-old was purchased by Villarreal from River Plate in 2008 and spent a season and a half with Recreativo Huelva before joining Villarreal B, newly promoted to the Segunda Division. Ruben was a star of Juan Carlos Garrido's team there, and featured prominently in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons with the first team.

There are two shocks, actually. The first is that Villarreal sold him, given that he has been a prolific scorer in the Segunda and had worked hard to keep us up last year. But the second may explain the first--I'm hearing the Ukranian side offered us upwards of €10m for him, which was too difficult to turn down.

Our best wishes go to Marco, and I for one will be interested to follow his progress in Europe this season.

Now with money in hand, expect to see some purchasing activity in the transfer market....