Villarreal's wheeling and dealing: the money side

Villarreal have been busy in the last couple of transfer windows, not entirely by choice.  For those of us used to long-running plot lines involving one player who we finally manage to stump up the cash for just before the window closes (Gio, deGuzman) or whose departure is intimated a long time before it happens (Santi, Rossi) this year--the January window and the summer one-- has been quite a bit different.  Villarreal has quickly lost players, quickly replaced them, and the sums of money involved have been rather astonishing.

Sr. Roig has always had a good reputation as a strong money manager, though there was that 2011-12 season when it turned out we overspent ourselves on the way to relegation.  So one obvious question is, can we afford to bring in players like Soldado, or are we deficit spending for the future?  To get a better picture,  I've gone back to the January window, and looked at the transfer fees in and out.

Since Villarreal doesn't tend to confirm fees, I've used the transfermarkt site as my source.  I think the Aquino fee might be high, but then there were various lower figures kicked around for the two Samus, too.  Basically,  it's the best we've got.  And of course, I am also assuming all fees are paid or received when the deal is done--no time payments.  That is probably not quite right, but again, broadly true.

To recap our activity so far:

(1) Central defense: Gabriel sold (not our choice), Eric Bailly signed, Victor Ruiz purchased, Dorado released (out of contract)

(2) Strikers/Wingers:  Vietto sold (not our choice), Gio sold, Uche sold (with Aquino),  Leo Baptistao on loan with €6m purchase option; Samu Garcia and Samu Castillejo signed, Cani released, Hernán Pérez released (out of contract)

(3) Keepers:  Areola loaned for a year; Barbosa signed on a free; Juan Carlos released

Rumored to be In process:  Gerard Moreno to Espanyol, Aleix Garcia to Man City, Cedric Bukambu from Bursaspor, Roberto Soldado from Tottenham.   Jony Pereira and Espinosa probably won't remain part of the team this season--whether loaned or sold, don't know yet.

Transfer fees, net:

Gabriel (€15m), Vietto (€20m), Gio (€6m), Uche (€3.5m) and Aquino (€4.9m) = €49.4m received

Ruiz (€2.7m), Bailly (€5.7m), Samu Castillejo (€8m), Samu Garcia (€8m)= €24.4m spent

Bakambu's fee I estimate at €7m (we offered 6, Bursa wanted 8).  Soldado I don't think we'd go over €15m for, probably not even that, but even at that price, Villarreal still have €3.5m left over.

This doesn't include any potential sale of Gerard Moreno, any sale of Aleix Garcia, which could total €4-5m or so. It doesn't include anything to buy out Cani's contract, or Juan Carlos's, but those costs would be small.  So, it appears as though Villarreal will actually end up with a net gain of at least €7m, assuming my Soldado and Bukambu fee estimates are accurate (and they actually happen).

Wages:

This is harder because we don't know the new players' wages,  and we don't know if wages are being split between clubs on players being loaned. The 'golden goals" site is the only one I know of that provides salaries, so I'll use it.

We lost €9.5m in salary, including Cani, Aquino and Cheryshev (and not including Joel Campbell). And that is assuming Victor Ruiz is still on Valencia-style salary, which is unlikely.    So I would figure we have lost €10m in salary via those sales.

As for the incoming players, Baptistao is on €1.9m; the two Samus were gettting €1.6m between them, I'll assume they are now getting €1m each (Pina/Trigueros range),  Bakambu €1m (I think he got half that in Turkey), Areola and Barbosa €1m each, and I'll budget Soldado in at €2.5m.

That's €9.4m, so suggests we aren't increasing our overall salaries by much, if at all. And some of these estimates could be high.  If Cheryshev returns, we might have a slight increase, but not significant (I also didn't subtract out Gerard's salary, €600,000).

Conclusion: Adding one big-money player is doable.  If however we decided to pay €20m for Cheryshev (say), then we wouldn't have the ability to bring in a €10m-15m rated striker.  So one player, yes, two, no.

Overall, as far as the money goes, it appears to be prudent reinvesting of profits.  As for whether it's the best use of that money and what the team ultimately looks like or still needs, that's a question for another day.  Endavant!