Farewell, Luciano Vietto....we hardly knew you...

Luciano Vietto spent less than a year with Villarreal, arriving at the beginning of August in a deal with Racing Club (Argentina) for €5.5m.  He made his debut for Villarreal a long way from Spain, coming on as a substitute for Ike Uche in the 63rd minute in the Astana Arena on August 21.  He made his league debut at Levante on August 24, and his home debut at El Madrigal against Astana on August 28, promptly scoring two goals and setting up another.

In total, Vietto was in the Villarreal squad 48 times, scored 20 goals (all competitions), especially impressive given his last tally was in mid-March and he was out of form due to injury for the last two months of the campaign.

You'll recall we were able to buy Vietto because other clubs took a pass after his falloff in production in Argentina (from 13 goals to 5).  I suppose there's a chance he won't have the success at Atleti he did here, but to be honest I expect him to be a big star for years to come.

We net a nice profit on the sale (we sold for €22m, apparently, and Racing got €3m of that) but it's a sale we really didn't want to make.  However, with clubs willing to pay his buyout clause, and Vietto evidently unwilling to negotiate a higher clause as part of a new Villarreal contract, there really wasn't much of anything we could do.

He's still young, commits some silly dives now and then, but he's a finisher for sure....