Villarreal are run as a tight operation and while they have constructed a team full of quality, generally the Yellow Submarine rely on making one or two major sales each summer.
That was expected to be the case last summer, with two players in mind in particular. The previous two summers saw Villarreal invest heavily, with a net spend exceeding over €50m, which many expected to be addressed by the sales of Arnaut Danjuma, Pau Torres, or both.
Torres has been linked with a move away from Castellon for almost two years but the concrete interest never arrived last summer. Neither party would have been disappointed with that, but having turned down significant offers the previous year, it was not in the route map both the player and the club had in mind.
Having had exclusive access to Fabrizio Romano’s column with Caught Offside ahead of publishing, Football Espana can reveal that Villarreal are considering lowering their asking price for Torres.
While there are no negotiations ongoing currently, various Premier League clubs are interested and Villarreal would be willing to deal Torres at around €40m, instead of his €45m release clause.
The latest links to England have been with Aston Villa and former manager Unai Emery. While this does not mean that a deal will be done in January, if Villarreal are open to stepping off the release clause, it opens the possibility of further negotiations in general.
Torres has been consistent for Villarreal for several seasons now, but there is no doubt an idea in Spain that he needs a more grizzly central defender, like Raul Albiol, beside him in order to succeed.
