Another day without a Villarreal signing...

To recap a not-exactly-frenzied start to the summer transfer market, Villarreal’s only “signings” so far have been Santi Cazorla, who extended his contract, and Pau Torres, who is definitely returning to the first team after being on loan at Malaga.

Meanwhile, Villarreal have sold Nicola Sansone, Roberto Soriano and Pablo Fornals, and even will pick up some money from Rodri moving from Atleti, but I guess you’d have to say that €45-50m isn’t exactly burning a hole in Villarreal’s pocket.

What is going on with Raul Albiol? Napoli have already said he was leaving, supposedly his signing with Villarreal was imminent...but, it hasn’t happened. There is some thought in Italy that he really wants to return to Valencia and so is simply marking time until they move for him.

A week ago a deal for Moi Gomez was apparently in the works—nothing since. Alfonso Pedraza was going to Eintracht Frankfurt for €15m—no news since. Villarreal is apparently interested in various players—the latest to be mentioned is Cameroun international André Zambo Anguissa. He’s a defensive midfielder whom Fulham bought from Marseille for €25m, but they were relegated so maybe the price would be cheaper?

Javi Calleja said he didn’t want to have a lot of late signings (unlike our trend the last few years) but there is a lot of work to do dealing with returning loanees—Cheryshev, N’Diaye, Semedo, Suarez, Unal, much less buying and selling anyone.

And we still don’t have that Director of Football or whatever the term is we’re looking for. A lot to do before the first team reports to practice in a few weeks!! Surely the pace will pick up....