Villarreal budget increased to €80m this season

Sr. Roig Negueroles has taken over more of the management of the club now, with Sr. Llaneza more in the background and Sr. Roig, still very active, but more as the public face of Villarreal CF rather than a day-to-day manager. His son doesn't seek the spotlight very much, so it was interesting to read an interview he gave with José Luis Lizarraga, a journalist for the local El Periodico Mmediterraneo.

Of course, when asked about our goals for the season, Sr. Roig Negueroles commented our first goal is always to remain in the Primera, and after that, finish as high as possible.  To be in Europe is great; if it's the Europa League, that is fine, if we qualify for the Champions League, that would be the highest honor.   We are competing against clubs with much larger budgets than ours, but our own budget has increased to nearly €80m this season, of which about 75% of that is for the first team.  Remember when we rejoined the Primera three seasons ago our budget was around €50m, and that included €10m or so for the cantera.

He did comment that with all the ins and outs during the summer, we should not expect any major moves in the winter market unless someone leaves, which 'is not the idea'.  So if we are going to try to pick up another striker now that Adrian Lopez is down with an injury until March, look for some sort of loan deal.

When asked about our most successful sale, Negueroles said probably Rossi, because as a result of that sale we were able to bring in seven players to help us gain promotion--though he added we never wanted to sell Rossi (or Cazorla).

Villarreal continues to increase its "brand penetration" in the province, and worldwide the club is very respected, but within Spain, 'at the national level we only talk about two and one half teams".   He was also very complimentary of the new TV deal which comes in to effect next season, saying we will get about €10m more than last season and should be able to increase that number further.

I haven't translated all of the interview but if you are interested the full interview (in Spanish) is here.