Manu Trigueros Celebrates Ten Years at Villareal!

Manu Trigueros is wildly underappreciated, not just as a player but as a part of the fabric of Villarreal. Today he celebrates ten years as a part of our club, and I hope he is around for many years to come.

It has been too often forgotten in the last few weeks that before Santi Cazorla came back from Arsenal, it was Trigueros who 67 league matches in the previous two campaigns (where we finished 5th both times). He’s an extremely good La Liga level central midfielder, and I am sure he is well aware of this fact, yet he was willing to sacrifice playing time to make way for a club legend to return.

Many, many players in the modern game would never have done this. That sort of self sacrifice shows a love for the club that deserves the undying affection of the fanbase. Since helping us regain our rightful place in Primera during the 2012-2013 season, he has been a constant in a shifting sea of players and managers. Remarkably, ten years on he is still just 27, so we could be seeing a player that spends a total of fifteen years or more at Villarreal.

Now that Santi has moved on to Al Sadd, he will probably be asked to step up and start the majority of matches again. There will be signings this summer, but with the needs in defensive midfield and center back, I do not see us bringing in a creative midfielder who is better than Manu Trigueros. I look forward to seeing him on the pitch even more in 2020-2021. Congratulations Manu!