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The Gerard Moreno situation continues. The striker seems to want more money than Villarreal want to pay, and with his contract ending in the spring of 2016, the club is unwilling to keep him on and let him leave at the end of the season on a free.
Espanyol is interested in acquiring him, as they need a striker after the departure of Sergio Garcia and Cristian Stuani--and Gerard, being from the Barcelona area, would be happy to return home. But the problem is the "pasta", as they say in Spain. Espanyol are a selling club, and don't have the money to pay much for Gerard.
However, they do have a Mexican international defender, currently recuperating from a foot injury, who as it happens will be out of contract in 2016--Hector Moreno. With Mateo Musacchio still recuperating, and given how often our center backs pick up injuries (I can hear Sidarth saying now "you never can have too many centerbacks"), what about a swap of Moreno for Moreno?
Villarreal would presumably include the sellon clause in Gerard's contract so they would get good money if he gets sold on to an English team or something, and in the meantime they'd get a proven defender with four years of La Liga experience. And with Jonathan dos Santos on the team, he'd have another Mexican international to hang out with. At any rate, that's one rumor flying around.
Another is that Hector Moreno may move to another club, but Espanyol will give Villarreal another player (unnamed) as part of the Gerard deal. At any rate, it appears Gerard is going to force a move to Espanyol, one way or another.
As for Roberto Soldado, he seems to want to force a move too, in his case from Spurs to Villarreal. But, again, money is an issue. His wages are high (€3m/year) and then there's the transfer fee. Still, he seems to have made it clear he wants to come here, rather than to Sevilla; he's a Valencia native. Daniel Levy drives a notoriously hard bargain as Spurs owner, but he has to be wanting to get some return on a €30m investment.
Watch this space!!