Club reach deal in principle to sell David Villa to Atletico Madrid for 5.1mi

[Guardian]

This was a bit of a 'sell of', not a sell...
His current value was somewhere close to 8-10m, not 5.1 that can be even 2.1 ...
Villa's case is another financial disaster for the club.. And it is exemplary of the non-existing policy on the matter..
Laporta bought him in 2010 for 40m, when he was already 29! His price back then was maximum 25m, and the management managed (!) to pay as much as Valencia wanted..
Beside that, when summer of 2011 Chelsea offered something like 30m for him, no one at the club considered this offer seriously.. Even though it was evident since second half of 10-11 that he was in decline. Even though everybody knew he was 30 years old, and even if there was a questionmark on whether he can play well for 1-2 more years (which never happened), no one thought that it is the right time and price to SELL, and buy too young wingers (instead of one that eventually came -> Alexis) for the future..

+1 yep, the management has been terrible in recent years

 

[Galning]

The deal will be worth a maximum of 5.1 million Euros, with Barça reserving the right to 50% of any sell on fee

 

[JonM]

Sad news but inevitable.

Thanks for everything big Dave and good luck at Athletico!

 

[TornAndFrayed]

Not inevitable.
Probably the best deal for Villa yeah, but Atletico is notoriously broke.
Anything less than $9m was a joke. Anything less than let's say $11m was a bargain. I mean, just keep him around if it's going to be like this.
Ridiculous for Barca standards. Lyon or Marseille would gladly pay around $10m up front too

 

[Barcaman]

I was shocked when I heard. And I don't even rate Villa.

Clubs are paying millions on nobodies nowadays and we can't flog David Villa. Funny world.

 

[John Antonio Bilboa]

This is the single most disgraceful piece of dealing I've ever come across. First of, how can you sell a player of David Villa's quality after one below par, not terrible season??? We need a big squad with depth and wealth of players in every position surely we could have gotten at least one more season out of him or at least half of what we bought him for 3 seasons ago??
Its just incredulous to me, that we let a player that we fought tooth a nail for to obtain for a couple of season go for 12.5% of what we bought him for..Like wtf, i've seen some horrible deals by Barca in the past, the Ibra fiasco, Caceres & Chigrenski etc, but this has to go down in history as one of the biggest transfer farces in our history.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

To everyone who thinks this is a bad deal, can someone explain what I'm missing? Villa is a 32 year old who wants playing time in a top CL club, preferably in Spain. We would ideally get rid of him, because he costs too much (based on what he can offer) to keep, and because we can't offer him the regular playing time he wants. So when Atletico rollls around, and Villa wants to leave, how the hell do we persuade them to increase their price when they have absolutely no reason to do so? They could always leave and find another player, Villa would by no means be crucial for them, so they have absolutely no incentive to raise the price. We have to sell him though, and if not to Atletico then where? There's nowhere else he wants to go...

Maybe you can answer then?

 

[Cruijffista]

You are guys complaining now but won't be when we have first refusal on a deal for Oliver Torres.

 

[ryuken]

And what makes you think we want Oliver Torres?

 

[serghei]

I was shocked when I heard. And I don't even rate Villa.

Clubs are paying millions on nobodies nowadays and we can't flog David Villa. Funny world.

That's what happens when a huge club is run by incompetent people. Things like 0-7 vs Bayern and Villa sold for the same price as Rusescu (transfered from Steaua Bucharest to Sevilla). Embarrassing. Really.

 

[Galning]

And what makes you think we want Oliver Torres?

Plus, he's just making this up. Nobody's reporting this is part of the deal

 

[sailor]

Callejon to Napoli for 10 M
Villa to A.M for 2.5 M
Does This make sens ? I wouldn't have believed it few days ago !

 

[unknowngenius10]

^ Callejon is young, has shown to be a good player and was asked to play for Napoli by Rafa( meaning Napoli wanted the player). He also had a few more years in his contract with madrid. Almost all players who have left madrid b.c of lack of playing time have done well in other teams. His wages were probably not that high.

Villa is old, comes from a injury, he's not in good form. His wages were so high ( if his wages had been lower, his price would have been higher), he was in his last year of contract ( he could walk free after this season, everyone knew he had to be sold and there was no option). He only wanted to go to Atletico ( no other options left) .

Think about why madrid can't get rid of Kaka...
His wages are too high. There is no way they will get a lot of money for him. His wages are too high for a player who is not a star anymore... Just like villas were .
Lets enjoy we got rid of the Guaje . We made 2.5 millions but we saved 13 millions on his salary. ( 11 salary and 2 millions for other prizes. Ex being la liga champions, ).

 

[oz187]

Transfer values are based on supply versus demand. Real Madrid were not an option and Real Sociedad are too small/ can't afford him. The only option was Atletico. He didn't want to go abroad(maybe to maximise his chance of getting to the World Cup). His wages are also high, so with only one buying club that put Atletico in the driving seat in terms of negotiation.

Personally I am happy he's gone to Atletico, hopefully he does well and it keeps the league more competitive this coming season.

 

[XaviMessiGirl]

Why would going abroad hurt his chances of going to the WC though? Torres still gets called up all the time & he plays in England & doesn't even play well most of the time. Silva & Mata play abroad & are regular call-ups, etc. As long as the club he goes to plays him regularly I don't see how it would matter (Fiorentina/Spurs are big enough clubs too).

I heard it more had to do with him not wanting to move his family abroad though.