Valencia puts Villa and Silva for sale

Valencia regional newspaper Las Provincias claims that Valencia will put for sale Valencia forward and Spanish international David Villa (27) and Valencia left winger and Spanish international David Silva (23) in the summer.

New Valencia CEO Javier Gómez said last week at a press conferecne that the club is now looking at all options to deal with the bad financial situation of the club: "The situation is very delicate. We'll have to reduce the spending, especially regarding the squad, and we'll have to sell assets. We will do what is necessary."

The paper says that the club has decided that Villa and Silva will be put for sale at the end of the current season, but that they won't sell on the cheap. Valencia hopes that there will be a bid race for both the left winger and the striker and the club plans to sell to the highest bidder.

The main Catalan sports papers El Mundo Deportivo and Sport both claim that Barcelona is closely monitoring the events as both players are on the club's wish list. Sport claims that Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain is more in Silva and that Villa is only an option if Eto'o would leave.

Asked about the new rumours, Silva said in an interview with Valencia regional television channel Canal 9 that he didn't hear anything from the club yet: "I'm a club player and I will always look at the interests of myself and of the club. I didn't here anything so far and if the club wants to tell me something, they will have to talk with me."

Read more:
Asenjo, Zhirkov and Silva main transfer targets
Villa doesn't want to talk about speculations
Barcelona still interested in Silva

Barcelona and Villa reply to transfer rumours

Asked about the new rumours linking Valencia forward and Spanish international David Villa (27) with a summer move to Barcelona (read more here), the player's agent José Luis Tamargo seemed to leave the door open in an interview with Catalan radio station Onda Cero:

"This is new for me. I don't know if this report is true or not. But Barcelona is a big club, so if they would be interested in David Villa that would be a nice thing.

I don't think he would have problems to adapt, I'm sure he would score at Barcelona. Both Barcelona, at this moment the best club in the world, and the player would benefit from a transfer. And it would be amazing to see him play together with Messi. I think they're two compatible players, with Messi creating things from the wing and Villa being a killer in the box.

But Villa now is a Valencia player, a club which he owes a lot. He's very happy there and is only thinking about the next game. He has a contract until 2014, with a buyout clause of 150 million euro°, although he could probably leave for less. Last summer he was close to Real Madrid. That deal didn't went through because of a difference of 5 million euro. The clubs couldn't sort it out, it wasn't to be."

In an interview with Valencia regional television channel Canal 9 Tamargo nevertheless clearly denied the rumours: "Until this day, I'm not in contact with any club. Villa wil stay at Valencia." Villa himself reacted ironically to journalists: "The report doesn't say when I will join Barcelona, right?"

Valencia first vice-president Migual Zorío rejected the option of a transfer when speaking to journalists: "If we didn't sell Villa and Silva when we had no cash at all last summer, we're certainly not gonna do it when we're on the verge of signing a few deals that will provide us some money."

Asked about the rumours, Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola denied a deal with Villa at a press conference: "Like I already said recently, I didn't yet speak with the sports department about the incoming and outgooing transfer for next season. I would advice the press to check their stories before they publish them."

Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain said to journalists that there's no truth in the story: "I deny to have been in contact with the player. We didn't even talk within the club about an interest for the player. At this moment, the sports department is working hard to prepare next season and the following one.

We're now analyzing the squad to see which are the weak points. We'll talk about it with the coach, I'm sure he knows the weak points. But I can assure you that we're still not going after concrete players. Only later on we will start looking for players, but I insist that there's nothing going on at this moment."

Read more:
Villa prefers Barcelona
Barcelona considers buying top striker
Verbal agreement with Villa

News of the day - Friday

(This post will be updated throughout the day.)



Txiki and Guardiola will meet today to decide if Barcelona will go after a left wing attacker with Arshavin, Palacio and Capel being the options that could be activated (Sport)
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Txiki and Guardiola keep looking at the market trying to bring in a left wing attacker with Arshavin now being the priority (El Mundo Deportivo)
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Capel is the number two on the list and Neves -who has been scouted in China this week- and Palacio are the other options (El Mundo Deportivo)
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Arshavin and Palacio are the two options, although Barcelona isn't desperate to sign another player and won't pay excessive fees (Marca)
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Guardiola says that, although he has faith in the guys, the squad could be a little short at this moment and that they're following a lot of interesting players, one of them being Arshavin (press conference)

A Zenit Saint-Petersburg official confirms that the club has lowered its asking price for Arshavin in the transfer negotiations with Tottenham (Sovietski Sport)
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Through a Brazilian agent Barcelona has shown interest in Cruzeiro left winger Wagner Ferreira dos Santos (23), who should cost 10 million euro (Sport - unconfirmed)
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Silva says Valencia has always been his first option but he thanks Barcelona for the interest they've shown in him (Canal 9)

Barcelona has told Tottenham that they are ready to make a move for Berbatov and Tottenham would rather sell the striker to Barcelona for a reduced fee than letting him join Manchester United (The Sun)
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Guardiola says that the players from the B team will in principle return to Barcelona Atlètic although the staff will look at it case-by-case, loan deals are almost excluded (press conference)

Effren Suárez, father and agent of Jeffren, says that Barcelona still hasn't decided if the player will stay with the first team but that the decision will be taken in the coming days, if he doesn't continue a loan deal is an option, although Barcelona prefers not to loan him out to a Primera Division or a foreign team (Equipo)
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Pedro says he considers himself a Barcelona Atlètic player until he's been told the opposite, if he had to leave the first team he would join the B team with the will to work hard to get another chance (El Mundo Deportivo - Sport)
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Deal on Caceres

Catalan sports paper Sport claims that Barcelona has reached an agreement on the transfer of Villareal central defender and Uruguayan international Martín Cáceres (21). The deal could be announced today.

Barcelona's first offer of 15 million euro° was last week rejected (read more here). Villareal held on to the buyout clause of 20 million euro°, an amount the club has to share with Uruguayan club Defensor Sporting de Montevideo, the former club who still holds 50% of the rights of the player (note: some sources are still claiming that it's actually his agent who holds that other half).

Barcelona refused to pay the buyout fee and was considering other options like paying a part of the sum in variables or convincing Defensor to accept a lower fee. Villareal bought half of Cacerés' transfer rights last summer, paying between 1,5 and 2 million euro°. Catalan sports paper Sport claims that the final fee would be 17 million euro° plus 3 million euro° variables.

Villareal seems to assume for a while now that Cáceres will leave this summer and is already looking to replace him. Madrid sports tabloid Marca claimed last week that the club had contacted the agent of French defender Pascal Cygan, whose contract with Villareal expires this month and who had been told he could leave, to ask the player to postpone a decision on his future for ten days. If Cáceres leaves, Villareal in the end could offer Cygan a renewal.

Villareal chief executive José Manuel Llaneza told journalists yesterday that a deal on Cáceres was very close: "Every day that goes by, the situation is moving in the right direction and that makes one think that an agreement should be near, although I cannot yet confirm that we have a final deal."

Cáceres meanwhile didn't stop giving interviews (Spanish television station La Sexta, Spanish local television station Canal Nou, Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo twice, Madrid sports tabloid Marca, Catalan radio station COM Ràdio) basically repeating the same: he wouldn't mind staying in Villareal, but Barcelona is a great club which he couldn't say 'no' to and he hoped there would be an agreement soon.

In an interview with Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo, Cáceres, who is believed to have a personal agreement with Barcelona on a four-year contract earning 2 million euro plus incentives a year (read more here), said that he was close to joining Real Madrid two weeks ago: "Madrid wanted me and everything seemed to be agreed upon. I don't know why it didn't went through in the end."

After he spend days waiting at his house in Huelva, Cáceres yesterday flew off to Ururguay to join the national team. Daniel Fonseca, his agent, had asked the player to postpone the start of his holidays because a deal seemed close. And if an agreement on the transfer would be found, Cáceres could then immediately travel to Barcelona to undergo the medical tests and to sign the contract.

Read more:
Villareal rejects offer for Caceres
Deal with Caceres
How things stand: Central defenders