Marcelino has pointed out a concerning trendplaceholder image
Marcelino has pointed out a concerning trend | Getty Images
One manager has pointed out a concerning trend for Spanish football.
One manager has expressed concern after losing a player to Crystal Palace in the summer. Palace did not have a particularly impressive transfer window, especially when you factor in the handling of the Marc Guehi situation.
The winger did have a big injury last season, and he hasn’t quite reached the big heights he was predicted to, at least not yet - and he is still only 22 years of age. But the price is still a low one, and according to Villarreal boss Marcelino, who was forced to sell the winger, it is part of a growing theme that is seeing Premier League clubs outgun Spanish clubs when it comes to the financial side of the game.
“We’ve taken a step backward,” said the Yellow Submarine boss. “Most teams have much less financial power than they had seven or eight years ago. Crystal Palace signed a player from us [Yeremy Pino], and it’s impossible to get into the fight. Any English club offers double your salary.”
Yeremy said after joining: "I'm very happy to be here. It is a dream of mine to come to the Premier League, to a historic club like Crystal Palace, and I hope that I can help the team."
The finances were surely key to the deal, given the winger walked away from a Champions League club likely to compete for a top four finish to a realistically mid-table Palace side in the Conference League. The Eagles will know that, but their ability to pay big wages has landed them a player who has experience in winning the Europa League and with international success such as the Nations League with Spain.
Villarreal also lost Thierno Barry to Everton this summer, although they made a big profit just one year after signing the striker, while another key player in Alex Baena joined rivals Atletico Madrid on a big-money deal.
They also brought in some big talent, though, breaking their transfer record to sign Georgia Euro 2024 star Georges Mikautadze, while they also spent around £20million on Renato Veiga, and a number of other signings took their overall spending up to around £88million, albeit they still turned a very big profit.
Speaking ahead of his side’s clash with Atletico Madrid on Saturday night, Marcelino said of his side’s new signings: “We've had little time to work together with the new players. A little more with Georges, but very little with both Manor (Solomon) and Tani Oluwaseyi because they arrived at training yesterday.
“We're going to try to help them as much as possible so they can adapt quickly, although it's true that the accumulation of matches will prevent us from training normally, and that adaptation may be delayed a little: we'll try not to. Also for this match, we have the addition of Ayoze (Perez), who had been injured in the first three matches. Gerard (Moreno) is also joining the group now. Together, we'll try to transform a very good squad, which we believe we've built, into a very good team.”
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