Borja Valero to Fiorentina? €7 million? Really? Seems so...

I guess we should not have been too surprised Borja Valero was moving on, but the destination and price paid are surprising. There had been interest within Spain from Malaga and Atletico, but Sr. Roig showed his disdain for those clubs by selling Borja outside La Liga, to Italy's Fiorentina.

The only price I've seen reported so far is €7million, which seems low, but the terms of the deal are unconfirmed and there are almost certainly variables and incentives which might improve the take. This does remove another large salary from Villarreal's payroll, but it also removes another experienced talent from our club.

At times Borja was a sublime player, his passing from midfield bringing a new dimension to our club. At other times he was frustrating, never quite able to score consistently or set up enough goalscoring chances. Ultimately, it appears Srs. Roig and Velasquez have concluded his inconsistency means he wasn't worth keeping to build a team around.

If the funds from this transfer are invested in a quality striker who can help us get back to the Primera, for instance, I doubt the fans will lose too much sleep over this; it was never looking that likely that Borja would be willing to stick around and battle it out in the physical Segunda when he's a player who has been capped for Spain as recently as last summer.

The agreement for transfer has been announced on Villarreal's official site and Borja is apparently en route to Italy for a physical (remember, he had an ankle operation this summer). We wish him well.