VUSA Podcast #89: Allen and Jamie look ahead to next year

It’s been quite a season for Villarreal. Profitable, certainly, with a run to the semifinals of the Champions League, but ultimately coming up short due in part to injury issues and also due to our keeper regressing to his mean (yes, I am channeling Zach here!).

In the league, a slow start plus a couple of late losses to ultimately relegated squads—Alavés and Levante—mean that we will become the first Spanish team to compete in the UEFA Europa Conference League. (The Spanish berth was left vacant last year because we ended up in the CL, so the 6th and 7th teams played in the Europa League).

We have a lot of questions to answer this offseason. Pau Torres and Arnaut Danjuma are the two players who are most likely to leave, and certainly Villarreal won’t stand in either player’s way if the offer is good enough and the player wants to go. But we also have loanees coming back, some squad players who are getting long in the tooth....you get the idea.

And, we have probably €80m+ in revenues from the Champions League run (€72m before the TV money). What do we do with that? Probably bank a lot of it for future purchases, though we clearly would like to add Gio Lo Celso permanently. What about underperforming or less-trusted players like Paco Alcacer or Boulaye Dia? And, having allowed Sergio Asenjo’s contract to expire, are we going to sign someone to push the mercurial but wayward Geronimo Rulli for the starting goalkeeper position? Questions, questions. Enjoy and Endavant Villarreal.