Villarreal preseason starts Monday; who will be there?

At the moment, Villarreal have 31 players who could reasonably be expected to report for first-team training next Monday. Diego Lopez, Ivan Marcano and Jefferson Montero have left, Alejandro Martinuccio's loan has ended (he is going to be playing for Cruzeiro in Brazil next season), but there's still a big need to reduce the payroll.

Gonzalo Rodriguez has been told he is surplus to requirements, but nothing has come through. De Guzman may be reunited with Michael Laudrup at Swansea: Swansea keen on Jonathan De Guzman - report - Goal.com

There is still talk of Bruno Soriano moving to Valencia: Bruno Soriano es el que más gusta - Superdeporte

Nilmar: Porto Alegre still want him, so do Dinamo Kyiv, but the Brazilians don't seem to have enough cash and Nilmar would prefer to go there. Surely the impasse will be broken this week: Semana clave para Nilmar - Villarreal C.F.

Borja Valero raised some eyebrows when he indicated he was happy to remain with Villarreal in the Segunda, but surely that is unlikely. There were rumors that some of the Malaga negotiating contingent were in Vila-real a few days ago but for all we know they could still be discussing the last Santi payments--and Malaga is being linked with everyone from Jonathan Dos Santos on these days.

And then there is the Pedro Rios story. He had agreed terms with Villarreal even before the end of last season, but Villarreal were willing to let him go to a Primera club since we were relegated. A deal with Zaragoza fell through, and now Levante are interested but may not have the money....El curioso caso de Pedro Ríos - Deportes - El Periódico Mediterraneo

Transfers in: mostly for the B team, but we did sign Felipe from Real Valladolid B and Salva Chamorro, who was loaned to Cartagena, is returning home.

Rumors: after failing to land Colotto, etc. we are wanting Julian Escudé from Sevilla. This has been confirmed by the Andalucian side but we'll see if it happens. He would give some experience in central defense while Musacchio and Lejeune develop, certainly.

Major rumor (or maybe simply desire) has to do with Juan Roman Riquelme, who announced the end of his Boca Juniors career after they were defeated in the Copa Libertadores final last night:

Corinthians finally break their duck as Emerson sees off Boca Juniors | Football | guardian.co.uk

I don't see it happening myself.

Miscellany: Finally, some news of La Liga coverage in the US this fall: Al Jazeera to Kick Off Pair of Soccer Channels in U.S. this August - 2012-05-17 19:58:19 | Multichannel News

At least we have uniforms! Li Ning's Spanish subsidiary has gone belly up (the parent company is having some problems of its own) and so Celta, Real Zaragoza, Recre, and Las Palmas are all scrambling to find a new kitmaker: Equipos sin equipaciones | Deportes | EL PAÍS

For any of you interested in club finances, here's a look at Racing Santander's plan for the next five years. They assume just over €10m in expenses this year (excluding interest on debt and repayment of sums owed creditors under their repayment plan) and player salaries of €6m (20 players at €300k each):

Vendovos Mareo: El plan de viabilidad del Racing de Santander. (I)

Finally, the club presidents who want to change the league met July 3. Good luck:

The 14 presidents who want to change La Liga met yesterday - LIGA BBVA - AS.com

We hope all our American readers had a pleasant July 4th (with power)