Offseason Moves 2012

Time to start the summer moves for both players and coaches in Spain.

I will start with my club Atletico Madrid who have been busy early on. First of all Diego's loan from Wolfsburg likely won't be renewed because the German club want him back and do not want to sell him. Too bad as he really fit in at the club. In his place Atleti have just signed two attacking midfielders, the Turk Emre Belozoglu from Fenerbahce and Uruguayan Cristian Rodriguez from porto. Emre plays more centrally and Rodriguez on either wing and best of all in these economic times, both arrive via free transfers as they were out of contract!

Deportivo have just earned promotion back to the first division but they also are losing one of their best players as left side midfielder, and Mexican international Andres Guardado is leaving for Valencia.

Marcelo Bielsa has renewed his contract for one more season at Athletic Bilbao.

Cata Diaz is leaving Getafe and signing with Atletico Madrid. With his arrival it looks imminent that Alvaro Dominguez will be sold to Borussia Monchengladbach in a surprising move (to me at least.)

It is not yet a done deal but Valencia seem to think inevitable that Jordi Alba will leave and become the next left back for Barcelona. Another of those moves which helps one of the big two at the expense of one of the league's better "other" clubs.

is that Emre that played in the prem a good few seasons ago for Newcastle he must be a good age now, can't see the reason why Atletico Madrid would sign him.

Emre is 31 now, will turn 32 in the early part of the new season. not young for sure but still an effective player and with Diego's loan from Wolfsburgo ending and the club not willing to loan him out again, Atletico were in need of a playmaker and Emre fits that need.

Exactly Don Balon, this is what I mentioned in the first post here, Atletico have brought in two attacking midfielders, Emre and the Uruguayan Cristian Rodriguez, with Emre expected to fill most of Diego's role. Cata Diaz is a tough defender, very much in the style of Diego Simeone, no surprise then that he wanted to sign him for the club.

The out of contract fullback Antonio Lopez has left Atletico Madrid and will sign with Mallorca. At 30 he still has some good years left in him and was a good solid player for Atleti over the years. I think he should help Mallorca.

My English is failing me from describing this better, but Getafe among the clubs a group of fraud artists defrauded by using a false sheik to solicit funds. (article in Spanish) They used the false sheik (actually a Brasilian waiter from Barcelona!) promising to invert funds into the team but before doing so they needed money deposited into their own account to prove the club is financially stable. Some other clubs, mosly in lower divisions, aso were victims of the fraud and they also tried to get Espanyol involved too but they smelled something was not right (unlike Getafe and their president Angel Torres!)

Nothing much wrong with your English, Don Balon...only thing apart from typos I'd correct to is put "invest" instead of "invert" (classical example of a "false friend": two words which are similar in two languages but have different meanings).

So is this scam the Middle Eastern investment which was discussed last year in Getafe? The one where their were reports even of changing the club's name?

Wow it does sound from the article like Angel Torres got taken.

Don Balon, I agree with Sporting, the Spanish verb invertir means to invest in English.

Thank you for the correction to my English, and apologies for making the mistake. I am still trying to perfect my English speaking and writing ability.

Valencia and Jordi Alba are cashing in on his excellent Euro 2012 for Spain. They have sold Jordi Alba to Barcelona for 14 million euros. Good business for Valencia and Alba, and a good signing for Barcelona. In the past 3 years Valencia have lost Villa, Silva, Mata, Albiol, Marchena and now Alba, each one a Spanish international. In that sense it is almost miraculous that they have stayed as good as they are, the 3rd team in Spain.

Valencia also let forward Aritz Aduriz leave and go to Athletic Bilbao in his native basque country. Aduriz should help lessen the burden Fernando Llorente has with Athletic.

No need to apologize Don Balon, your English is excellent!

The Madrid side of me is not happy to see the excellent Jordi Alba heading to Barcelona but I also am not surprised that a player named Jordi would eventually end up in Barcelona!

I am very happy to see a new Jordi with Barcelona! Jordi Alba is exactly what Barcelona needs, we all know that Abidal's career is over due to his illness and while Jordi Alba may not be as strong a defender as Abidal was, he will add a lot to Barca's attack by giving them a legit threat on the left flank. And Alba is definitely not a weakness defensively either. A very good signing.

By the way Don Balon, no need for apologies, you do well with English!

I am sad but it was expected. Jordi Alba started off as a youth player in Barcelona so his return there now that he is an established player was expected. Good business for Valencia but clearly it will hurt the club while it strengthens Barcelona and that does not make me happy.

Valencia are trying to trim some players, they had 40 professional players under contract last season, some of which were out on loan, and this summer they are letting some out of contract players leave for free: Bruno Saltor (Brighton), Hedwiges Maduro (Sevilla), Dealbert (Kuban Krasnodar), Michel (Levante) and Miguel (destination unknown) and others are being sold such as Jordi Alba (Barcelona), Moya (Getafe), Aduriz (Athletic) and Mehmet Topal (Fenerbahce). Topal's loss also hurts the team but for family reasons he wanted to return home to Turkey.

So Mauricio Pellegrino, the new Valencia coach will have some work to do in my opinion to cover the losses of Alba and Topal in particular.

Don't have a link, but I read something today that said Barca got a bargain. Thoughts?