Raul Albiol On His Way? Arbeloa Too?

By: Corey | June 24th, 2009

Raul Albiol, the 23 year old Valencia center back who is currently with the Spain squad in South Africa, could be headed to Real Madrid for 15 million euro in a smart move from the Real management. Albiol has long been an up-and-comer in the Spanish game, rated as one of the best young center backs along with Marc Torrejon and Cesar Arzo. He will hopefully make the move after the Confederations Cup is won by Spain, and Im not saying that because I am cocky, it just seems a distinct possibility. More information on the move can be found at AS.

It appears that Valencia still does need to sell players this summer, and Albiol will be the first to jump ship to Real. Albiol’s agent made it clear that no player is ‘untransferable’ at Valencia, a clear indication that a move for David Villa is not completely dead, but also the best sign that Albiol will move to Madrid this summer. Albiol is a Valencia cantera product, and only spent one season on loan at Getafe in 04-05. He has been a Spanish international since he was 17, making a handful of appearance for the full squad since 2007. He has impressed mostly as a center back for Valencia, although he is also able to play as a defensive midfielder, and looks like he could be a Hierro type player for the future of Real Madrid. He has good timing in the tackle, although he is a little over aggressive some times which leads to him getting caught out of position.

He is fairly quick which helps him regain his position, but he is not a finished product yet, so there is room for growth still with this player. It seems some twit went ahead and modified his English wikipedia page to say he has already signed for Real Madrid, which is not the case. A little selection of how stupid people can be:

In poor English: ‘he loves real madrid and wats david villa to join him there’, and ‘he signed for real madrid for 15 million. Did an 8 year old write that? Sometimes I think that Wikipedia needs to have more stringent rules for contributors…

Also on the block for Real is former canterano Alvaro Arbeloa, who seems to be the primary target for the left back spot (he is naturally a right back) after he left Real for Deportivo and then Liverpool. He has one year remaining on his contract and it seems that Rafa Benitez is resigned to selling the player as a contract extension seems unlikely. Arbeloa is also in South Africa with the Spanish squad, and his deal, which could be a great piece of business, should also be concluded after the competition.

I say a good piece of business because Arbeloa will not command much of a few given he has one year left on his contract. He is not a free transfer, but he will be pretty cheap compared to Albiol. The defensive signings the Real Madrid faithful were crying out for seem to be shaping up pretty quickly. We are still linked with Racing’s Marcano and for some reason beyond my knowledge, Villarreal’s Godin and Rodriguez???? Oh wait, its cause Pellegrini use to be their coach, AH HA! Real has not exactly put out the fire on these two possible moves and seems intent to keep looking at the market, with this strange post on their official site. Not sure what to make of that?

Anyways, the transfer intrigue continues, with Valencia looking to swoop in for Esteban Granero and Kalu Uche of Getafe for 15 million euros and a youth team player headed in the other direction. This is seen as a bad move on the part of Valencia, simply because they must keep their hands off of Granero! Valencia is looking in to several different options, including Achille Emana, Javier Camunas and the Serb Kalinic for the upcoming season, but it looks like they will need to sell before they can buy, so Albiol seems like a certain deal. Also in the news, Ruben de la Red’s agent has told the press that they are still waiting on the final round of genetic tests on Ruben’s heart to give him the all clear to play once again. The early indication is that with the whole battery of previous tests all coming up negative, Ruben should be okay to play again. Lets cross our fingers for that!

Your thoughts on Raul Albiol, Alvaro Arbeloa or even Ivan Marcano?