Villarreal Transfer and Injury News: Chukwueze, Caseres, Paco Alcacer, and more

Okay we got some quick hitting information from Javi Mata today on his Twitter feed. We’ll share that and then break it down a little bit.

We should see Paco Alcacer back this weekend. Fortunately for us, Fer Nino has been good enough that I don’t think we need to rush Paco back into the thick of things. Fer has 3 goals in 8 La Liga appearances (about 400 minutes) and while he is slightly underperforming his xG, his movement and overall play has been really impressive.

One man comes back and another appears to be gone for a while though as Samu looks to be headed toward surgery. This seems to explain why Emery appears to want a right sided player who can chip in at both the wing and fullback positions (similar to Pedraza on the left.) For more on that search, see our article in the ‘related’ box below.

Financially, it looks like that move will be at least partially funded by moves for Caseres, Raba and Chakla. Chakla, in particular, has just never been good enough for the first team, and Raba seems unlikely to break into this team. Meanwhile, the role Caseres would have filled in a return from loan seems to have been taken by Etienne Capoue. Even if all these guys are simply loaned out, that should keep enough salary free for the club to do something.

As assertive as Villarreal have been in the market over the last 12 months (really, starting with the Paco signing), I fully expect a right sided player to show up before the end of the window. The finances of it all may make things tricky, and with Mario and Samu on relatively short term injuries the club may fully intend to just loan someone in until the end of the year, but we are clearly ambitious about the outcomes for this season and do not want to be derailed by injuries. I find that sort of proactiveness from the club really encouraging.