Villarreal’s summer business: the money so far

Villarreal has been busy! First the Bakambu money was transmuted into two forwards, Ekambi and Gerard; then part of the Rodri money went for Funes Mori, and now we’ve sold half of Roger Martinez’s rights. So where are we?

In calendar year 2017, we sold Jona dos Santos, Pato, Musacchio and Soldado and picked up Fornals, Unal, Andrés Fernandez, and (sigh) Semedo. Our net gain that year was a couple of million €.

Calendar 2018 has been busy. We have sold Bakambu, Rodri and Roger (total 66.5m, plus probably another €5m for Rodri); we have bought Javi Fuego (€1.7m), Ekambi (€18m), Gerard €20m), Roger (€14m) ,Funes Mori (€9m), Santi Cazorla (free) so at the moment our balance sheet is about €8m to the good.

We are expecting to sell Alfred N’Diaye, Nicola Sansone, Roberto Soriano, and probably Victor Ruiz; this group cost us something like €36m altogether. If we can earn most of that back, then we have a tidy profit for our summer dealings this year.

So, no reason why we wouldn’t look to pick up Albiol (€6m) and Bacca (€8m offered); no reason why we need to sell a player like Cheryshev or Castillejo unless they want to leave.

We don’t appear to be breaking the bank as far as fees are concerned; wages, I am sure, are rising, but then so are our TV revenues. And Europa League moneys (I’ll have more information about that soon).