Villarreal attacking possibilities: latest rumors

Gerard Moreno:  supposedly Tottenham have been scouting him, we know Espanyol have been interested as well.  There was a lot of discussion abouth this last week, this week it seems to have stalled a bit.  Villarreal clearly want to keep him, but don't want to lose him for nothing next season.  His play in the Emirates Cup shows why Villarreal want to keep him--so we'll see what happens.

Roberto Soldado: everyone knows Tottenham want to sell him, apparently Sevilla may be more interested than Villarreal in paying Daniel Levy's price (Sevilla has sold Carlos Bacca, remember).    But if they sign Soldado, what happens to Kevin Gamiero?   Yesterday his name blew up on social media as a player Villarreal were interested in--but whether he is actually available might depend on whether Soldado actually goes to Sevilla.

Word is Gamiero's release clause is €40m, which is of course well outside the range that Villarreal could afford.  The hope is if Soldado signs and Gamiero is surplus to requirements, Sevilla may be willing to negotiate some reasonable release, or perhaps a loan with an option to buy, which we seem to like to do when possible.

EPM reported yesterday that Soldado prefers to play at Villarreal; of course, that doesn't solve the economic issues.  Tottenham want cash, we would maybe prefer a loan with an option to buy.

Cedric Bakambu: The Bursaspor player is highly rated; the Turkish club want €10m for him, which seems a lot but he has scored 20 goals in 38 matches.  But does success in Turkey translate to success elsewhere?

Cristian Espinosa: The Huracan player is available for €5m, according to reports, we have offered €4m.  No new news on this in the last few days.

Meanwhile, we continue to hope Real Madrid will decide Denis Cheryshev's future lies with us, at least for another year.  The Russian did score yesterday in the merengues'  4-1 drubbing of Manchester City, but there's no indication he is going to be a significant player in the plans of Rafa Benitez, and we know Denis was happy here and would like to return to a team where he has a great chance to play.

We do know Madrid want to loan out Mario Asensio, and potential destinations are Betis, Espanyol or Villarreal.  (I see Ravi is conducting a one-man campaign on Twitter to convince Asensio to join us!).

No news doesn't mean things aren't going on behind the scenes!