“A hard, long and crazy market”

“Closed for vacations”. The summer market described by all the parties involved as the “toughest, longest and most crazy in recent years” closed its window on August 31 at 00.00. The deadline is always open for free players, without a contract, who can sign for any club at any time, without adjusting to the official windows. It is the moment of the final balance in which the 'specialists' in the field seek the rest of the warrior after dealing with complicated working conditions in which it has been more difficult to sell than to buy players and in which LaLiga's agreement with the CVC fund has been key to many clubs having been able to close operations that seemed impossible.

José Manuel Llaneza. Villarreal. Anonymous society.

After 27 long years at the club, Llaneza made the leap from sports director to vice-presidency. Few like him know the ins and outs of the last days of the market and since his new position he has followed everything that has just ended. “Although it only affected one club, the reality is that this market has been very marked by the signing of Mbappé. In the end it does not come out and three clubs make a carom that I have not finished understanding very well. Barcelona is left with a forward, De Jong, who is not a starter in his team, Sevilla; Atlético takes out a player with full guarantees, Saúl, only on loan to Chelsea and picks up Griezmann, whom the people of Atlético seemed 24 hours before that they did not finish loving. All very rare, but without reaching the signing of Rivaldo by Barcelona. They cleaned Deportivo their best man in the last minute of the game. “

Villarreal, with almost 55 million euros of investment, has been second in the virtual classification of transfers, only behind Atlético de Madrid (75). “Our economic situation was good and we could do it. The final help from the CVC fund allowed us to also reach Danjuma, a player who at first eluded us due to the economic pretensions of the club we came from (Bournemouth). We have had an offer, no Real Madrid or Barcelona, ​​for Pau Torres, but the kid wanted to play the Champions League with Villarreal and he wanted to stay. We were delighted. “

Braulio Vazquez. Osasuna. Sports Society.

After his experiences in Valencia and Valladolid, Braulio landed in Osasuna, then in Second, in June 2017 and after promotion (2018-19), last season he consolidated in First. His previous experiences in office allow him to compare this market with others that he had lived through. “We have found a market with overbooking of players. Osasuna is not a Public Limited Company and we have not been able to enjoy the contributions of the CVC fund until it is approved by our Assembly. We had our homework done quite well for a long time and we did not have to enter in bids in recent days. Luckily. We had closed Kike García and Budimir for a long time. Only at the end did we transfer Manu Sánchez and, due to Kike Barja's injury, we signed Ontiveros who was on his way to Malaga. “

Although he is no stranger to the maelstrom that arises in times of pressure, Braulio acknowledges that “the operations that are closed in the last 48 hours are more mistakes than successes. Usually they are not well argued. Operations are accelerated, many of them, They are crazy. If we analyze them well, surely many of us would not do them. Then some turn out well. Last year we got Budimir on loan at the very last minute and with his goals he gave us half salvation. This year all the clubs were very afraid and when the CVC fund was activated it was like a starting gun. We all had to sell and suddenly it went into a collective madness. I have never seen a market as crazy as this one. What is clear is that operations have been carried out that had not been signed 15 days before. “

Felipe Miñambres. Celtic. Anonymous society.

After ten years in the position of sports director (Rayo and Celta), the former international player and coach from Leon, has a master's degree in this type of extreme situations. “It has been a tough, difficult market. You come from a time of recession, of losses. At Celta we are not used to this situation. We had four or five years with benefits and what we tried was to do the two or three operations that we wanted to do. as quickly as possible, before an economic injection could come in for everyone, as happened with the CVC fund. Celta, in addition, is not a club of last minute crazy things. We always pull more low than high. “

Felipe was attentive to all strategies. “I saw that the clubs at the beginning thought a lot about the exchanges of players, but they are very difficult because of the salary issue, because it is difficult for you to like one and the other club to like the other player you offer and that's how many have stayed. more transfers without making than other years. It also gave me the feeling that it has been a longer market with the same dates as always. It seemed that we were not reaching the end. In general, the clubs, due to the economic situation, wanted to get more players than other years, especially if they wanted to buy something later. In many teams there was overbooking of chips and in these situations it is more difficult to sell than to buy. This case we have not experienced at Celta. We wanted to get six players and in the end we got five We are 21 and we were never overwhelmed. “

Rubén Martín. Huesca. Club relegated to Second.

The perspective of the club that has lost the category and has found a new economic and sporting panorama has its own idiosyncrasy. This is how Rubén Martín, its sports director, recognizes it. “Releases bring a lot of changes. The idea is always to maintain an important block in which at least the key players continue, but the reality is that it becomes very complicated for salary reasons. You cannot keep those players. The economic balance would be broken. Players with a certain cache want to play in First and it is difficult to retain them. The post-Covid situation left us all in a position of precaution in the face of the salary cap and annual budgets. The big clubs with a medium Euro Cup did not start operating until the market started well, which also slowed down the movements of the smaller clubs. If those above do not move, we less. When the CVC fund was approved there were three or four days of inflation in the market. Offers and salaries of footballers were inflated. Through negotiations that asked you for three, they went on to ask you for six … There was a lack of information at the beginning about the operation itself, fortunately when it was explained well, everything was coming back to reality. An impossible situation had been created. “