Gerard Moreno move to Espanyol is nearer; Henrique rumored to Villarreal (again!)

Gerard Moreno may be leaving Villarreal very soon.  Word in today's paper is Espanyol are prepared to meet Villarreal's conditions for Gerard's sale.  These include Villarreal retaining 50% of his rights, a purchase of the remainder for €1.5 million, and an agreement that Espanyol would be obligated to sell him if an offer of €5-6m comes in.  (Whether this last is an attempt to ensure our 50% has significant value, or we are putting other clubs on alert that he will be available for a modest fee--so screw you, Espanyol!--I am not sure).;

I hate to lose the player, but he has made it clear, or his representatives have, that he wants to be a guaranteed starter, and Villarreal has historically not looked favorably on these sorts of demands.  Gerard's departure would be easier to swallow if I believed Denis Cheryshev could force the same sort of move on Real Madrid.  After all, he wants to play, we can guarantee him a starting role.  But Madrid are Madrid, and presumably impervious to those sorts of demands.  I don't doubt Chery wants to come here, but as he said months ago, Real Madrid hold his contract.  Still, we can hope....

And in other news, stop me if you've heard this before....Napoli's Henrique is rumored to be of interest to Villarreal.  He played for Marcelino way back in 2010-11 at Racing Santander.  What's new is Napoli are looking to get within the Financial Fair Play rules and so the Argentine defender may be available on the cheap.  He would be a good reinforcement at center back until Mateo Musacchio returns in October; then, with a grouping of Henrique, Ruiz, Bailly, and Musacchio, Iniguez and/or Pantic would appear to be surplus to requirements.  But given our history of CB injuries, you'd hope they wouldn't go far!