As the memory of the World Cup slowly fades away, thoughts of the new season begin to creep into the consciousness, almost despite oneself. Over here in Spain, all the top-flight teams are back in training, minus their World Cup heroes, of course, and the pre-season transfer tittle-tattle is starting to occupy the sports pages.
What's the big news so far? In the wake of a World Cup, only two things really happen. Players' values can rise or fall, and previously unknown or unappreciated players come to the fore. Barcelona, with typical Catalan seny, bought David Villa before battle commenced, and probably saved themselves a few €s in the process. However, let's begin with the players we already knew about.
Diego Forlan has come a long way since his unhappy spell at Manchester United, which was very much a classic case of wrong place, wrong time. He has been excellent ever since, both at Villarreal and at Atletico Madrid, but now in the wake of his high-profile deeds in South Africa, Juventus are busy preparing a package to prise him away to Italy.
Agnelli has a flight booked to Madrid this week, but he knows that Atletico will not permit their star man to move for anything under €30 million. No less than 84 goals in three seasons with Atletico is a more than decent clause in Forlan's CV, quite without his recent exploits, but Agnelli might find that unless he pumps up his offer from €20 million (although that hasn't been formalised) then Tottenham may step in with a bid that is closer to the Madrid club's valuation.
Forlan, still on his holidays, has indicated he might be interested in a move, but Atletico, much as they would like to keep him, have little cash available for their own targets, Deportivo's full-back Filipe Luis and Villarreal's central defender Diego Godin, who was with Forlan in the Uruguayan side in South Africa. Filipe Luis, who, had it not been for his injury, would surely have featured with Brazil in the World Cup, received rave notices last season in La Liga and featured in many journalists' 'best of' lists. Deportivo have worse financial problems than those of Atletico, and so the latter look like landing their fish for less than €10 million, a snip for such a fine player. But if they splash out on Godin as well (they've already paid €5 million for the French defender Rod Fanni), €25 million for Forlan might look difficult to turn down.
Over on the other side of Madrid, the World Cup has also been having a certain effect, as one rather suspected it would. Apart from the fact that people are still scratching their heads and wondering why Wesley Sneijder ever left the Bernabeu (Manuel Pellegrini was asking the same thing in the Chilean press at the weekend, claiming that he always wanted the Dutchman to stay), Germany's excellent showing and the emergence of several young prospects in their squad has had moneybags Florentino Perez busy during the summer, preparing for his next attempt at immortality.
The galáctico signing of the summer, however, looks destined not to happen, since Inter Milan remain less than amused at Real Madrid's pursuit of Maicon, and anyway, Jose Mourinho has now admitted that he's happy with Sergio Ramos at right full-back. And who wouldn't be? Save your money, Florentino!
There are plenty of other players who will fit the bill in other positions, and one of them who looked very tasty indeed during South Africa was Sami Khedira, who is reported to be close to moving from Stuttgart to the Bernabeu for around €10 million. Unless his showing was a flash in the pan, Madrid have made a good signing, because the position of working midfielder had become something of a problem since confidence in Lass Diarra ran out and dismay with the other Diarra (Mahamadou) is still prevalent.
Now the rumours suggest that Mourinho also fancies Mesut Ozil, whom Werder Bremen seem resigned to losing. He would also represent an interesting addition to La Liga, although Madrid have already signed two players for the upper-midfield creation zone - Sergio Canales from Santander (he was signed well before summer) and only days ago Pedro Leon from Getafe. Leon, a highly-rated right-sided midfielder-cum-winger in the mould of his previous manager, Michel, represents a further strengthening of the squad's Spanish profile, although other foreign signings are in the pipeline. Mourinho wants the centre of the defence shoring up (a more consistent partner for Pepe) and has fixed his gaze on Milan's Thiago Silva. Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic is also a possibility, whom Jorge Valdano has long had in his sights.
With German striker Mario Gomez (not for the first time) also on Madrid's agenda, the question, as ever, is who the club will be putting in the window for the big summer sell-off. Guti looks Besiktas-bound now, but all remains silent regarding Raul, handed some extra days' vacation to make up his mind over his future. Karim Benzema is still around, despite Alex Ferguson's alleged interest, as are Royston Drenthe and the two Diarras - all surplus to requirements.
Over at Camp Nou, with new president Sandro Rosell now installed and his new team of accountants predictably throwing darts in the direction of the previous regime, the announcement that there is only €50 million to spend has not really focused as much attention as the various ins-and-outs of the past few days. Thierry Henry has departed for New York, departing rather in the manner of his three years at the Camp Nou, with little mutual affection displayed. As soon as he was out of earshot of the club, he announced to the press that he thought that Cesc Fabregas would be better off staying at Arsenal. One would not wish to dispute this with the ever-wise Thierry, but the announcement must have charmed his erstwhile Camp Nou fans.
Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger continues to put the spokes in Cesc's wheel, revealing only that the two have had cosy talks - but the contents of the chat have not been revealed. Wenger was reportedly unamused when two members of the Spanish squad dressed Fabregas up in a Barcelona shirt during the post-victory celebrations.
As the Fabregas soap-opera continues, Barcelona have signed Adriano for €10 million from Sevilla, the third player they have signed from there since 2008 after Keita and Dani Alves. Adriano goes some way to filling the vacancy left by Yaya Toure's €30 million move to Manchester City. Adriano does not have quite the same profile, and can play just about anywhere on the field, but Barcelona could obviously not resist the offer from Manchester, especially considering that the squad is still well populated by defensive midfielders. Centre-back Dmytro Chygrynskiy has also left the club and returned to the Ukraine, from whence he came. He will probably not be missed.
There has been talk of Barcelona being interested in Bilbao's Javi Martinez, who featured briefly in the World Cup but who is rated by the Barcelona players who trained with him, but apart from that things are as they were at Camp Nou. Pep Guardiola has signed on for another year, and although Rosell has said that he is "delighted" at the news, it's hard to see why, especially considering that he'd offered him a four-year extension.
Sorry to state the obvious, but it seems to me that Guardiola's action is a statement of caution, a sign that he is not altogether convinced by the new regime and its personnel. He has left himself a get-out clause. Delighted Sandro? Pull the other one. In addition to this little blip, the Zlatan Ibrahimovic issue remains unresolved. Does anybody out there want him?
Elsewhere, Marseille have expressed interest in signing Bilbao's Fernando Llorente, a player whose value has increased since South Africa. He seems unlikely to go, but a rumoured €20 million offer might tempt Athletic, who need all they can get to finance their future move from their San Mames home. Selling Llorente, however, would hardly represent a step in the right direction.
Valencia, last year's top club outside of the duopoly, have of course lost their two big names, the two Davids, Villa and Silva - the latter to Manchester City. Nikola Zigic has gone too (to Birmingham City), and the main news for the club therefore is that they are still standing, despite massive debts, and they still have Juan Mata, a player who did figure in the World Cup but whose profile remained sufficiently low not to cause any international fuss.
Valencia banked over €80 million for the three transfers, an amount which at the very least keeps the creditors at bay for the next few months. Progress in the Champions League, however, is crucial, and the purchase of Roberto Soldado from Getafe and Aritz Aduriz from Mallorca as goal-scoring replacements for the great Villa looks a reasonable policy, given the limited margin of movement available to manager Unai Emery.
As domino-effect consequences, Dani Guiza, unhappy in Turkey, may return to Michael Laudrup's Mallorca, ex-Valencia hero Ruben Baraja may move to newly-promoted Levante, and Villarreal are interested in Carlos Marchena, who may finally move from Valencia.
That's all for now - I'm taking a break for the next few weeks, but will continue to keep an eye on La Liga-related happenings. My team, Real Sociedad, are also back in the top flight, which means that I won't have to travel quite so much this season to witness and report on some of the above-mentioned players in the flesh.
By Phil Ball
Soccernet