Friendlies: Villarreal have now arranged two friendlies for August.
On August 9, Villarreal will visit Swansea City, EPL side where Jonathan de Guzmán has plied his trade the last two seasons.
The Saturday before, on August 2, Villarreal will visit the Riverside Stadium to play Championship side Middlesborough, curerntly managed by Real Madrid's forner number two (and Mourinho press conference stand-in) Aitor Karanka.
Villarreal will start their La Liga campaign August 23 (we expect fixture lists to come out in early July), and their playoff round match in the Europa League will be August 21 (presumably the away leg, since Villarreal will be seeded) and August 28 (probably at home). Guess that first league match should be on August 24 or 25, then. We do love Mondays.
I am guessing if we can find suitable opponents for the Ceramica Trophy (remember, we played Fiorentina last year) that match would probably be around August 16.
IN the event any of you in the UK or other places in Europe might be able to attend the UK friendlies, do let us know. You can go to the Swansea City and Middlesborough FC websites to get ticket information when it's available (it isn't yet).
Transfers/loans: Finnbogason (Icelandic international at Herreenveen who was linked with us) appears to be going to Real Sociedad to replace Griezmann, for something like €10.5 million, though not done yet.
Newly demoted Real Betis are apparently interested in taking Alexander Pantic on loan.
Villarreal is one of several teams looking to sign Bruno Gonzalez, a defender from Tenerife.
We are trying to sign Jaime Isuardi for our B team, but Real Madrid Castilla want him too. Some dude called Zinedine Zidane is going to be coaching RMC next year. Headbutt drills at 11:00!!
Vavel (sports newspaper) chose Juanto as the Young Player of the Year in our Segunda B group, and Nahuel gets a positive report too. And could Moi Gomez be one to get into the Spanish NT in the future? Think Football thinks so, and so do I.
Other: In a totally non-Villarreal related thing, Helena Costa resigned at French second-division club Clermont Foot, either on her first day or before it, I'm not sure. She would have been the first woman to direct a team in the second division of a major Eurpoean footballing country. (Full disclosure: I love the Auvergne). After initially declining to state why she left, she let both barrels go. Read about it here.
And, in case you haven't read or heard anything about it, there was another Luis Suarez incident yesterday, which prmpts me to urge you to read this ESPN piece on Luis.
Enjoy the day, enjoy the World Cup, and ENDAVANT VILLARREAL!!!