Villarreal rumors: Roberto Soriano to Inter?

Roberto Soriano has been an enigma this season. Last term he scored nine times in the league and once in the cup for us; this season, he hasn’t dented the scoresheet at all.

Partly this could be because he’s been played in the middle too often—his natural position is on the left, and he’s looked better there. Maybe minor injuries have played a role, too. But for whatever reasons, he’s not playing a lot and not producing when he is.

Word is that Soriano’s agent asked Villarreal if he could contact other teams to indicate Soriano could be available to move on this summer. The Italian press has said Inter Milan is interested—who knows. We bought Soriano for around €14m from Sampdoria and he has three years remaining on his contract. I expect Villarreal would like to get somewhere in the €12-15m range for him.

In other rumors, Super Deporte reports Villarreal, Sevilla and Valencia are all interested in Manu García, a young attacking midfielder currently playing at Breda on loan from Manchester City. Perhaps so. Of course the article also says Valencia are interested in Fran Sol because Marcelino knows him from Villarreal, but Marce was the guy who was happy to let him go on a free in the summer of 2016, so I am not putting a lot of confidence in that one.

And, a brief Rubén Semedo note: one of the minor charges against him—a misdemeanor—looks likely to be settled out-of-court. This is the case where Semedo was accused of whacking a guy on the head with a bottle outside a discotheque in Valencia; Semedo arrived for trial but apparently the charges will be dropped in return for some sort of cash settlement, amount and terms unknown.

However, Semedo is still awaiting his trial for more serious charges; Villarreal have suspended him without pay, pending resolution of these accusations. Semedo was denied bail in February and remains in Picassent jail.