Raul Albiol: £15M Spanish Defensive Rock Still on Liverpool & Arsenal Hitlist
Arsenal and Liverpool are both reportedly vying for the signature of Spanish international Raul Albiol this summer after the defender suggested the Premier League is of interest to him.
The 23-year-old should be available as his club side Valencia continue to suffer from financial difficulties and will need to sell some of their prized assets, particularly as they are not as of yet assured Champions League football next term. Albiol is currently with the Spanish squad in South Africa competing at the Confederations Cup and a deal is expected to be completed on his return.
Reports suggest that even though the player has a buy-out clause of £50m he will be available for around £15m. The club’s Sporting Director Fernando Gomez as confirmed the club will consider any reasonable offers this week when he told Sky Sports, “The situation has not changed and we are obliged to sell players. We know of the English interest but we have not received a formal offer for Raul.”
“But we are aware that the Reds (Liverpool) have been scouting around here in recent months.”
Both the Gunners and Liverpool are in the market for both centre-halves and defensive midfielders and Raul Albiol is able to play in both roles. Arsenal may be about to sign Thomas Vermaelen from Ajax but there are still question marks over both William Gallas, Phillipe Senderos and Kolo Toure so they may have a totally new central defensive partnership next season. Albiol is a mainstay of the Valencia side having made 34 League appearances last season (33 starts). The 23-year-old has been a first team regular at the Mestalla for the past 4 seasons, making 131 League appearances and scoring 5 goals. His only club honours were the Spanish Cup in 2008.
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The player himself told Sky Sports, “If I leave Valencia I would only go to a big club.
“The Premier League could be perfect because I have always been a fan of the football they play.”
The Spanish international began his career with the Valencia B side but a season with Getafe in 2004/05 allowed the youngster to show his quality where he made 17 League appearances for the club (15 starts). This came after battling back from a serious car accident. Albiol is a full Spanish international with 14 caps to his name and was part of the victorious Euro 2008 squad playing in two of the group games including 1 start. The Valencia star was also part of Spain’s winning side in the Uefa U19 championship in 2004 alongside the likes of Juanfan, Sergio Ramos, David Silva and Ruben de la Red.
Albiol may join the Spanish contingent at Anfield although Arsene Wenger may see the player as the ideal man to play alongside his compatriot Cesc Fabregas in the Gunners midfield or firm up the back four. At 6 ft 2, Albiol would certainly boost the strength of the Arsenal side. The Spaniard is strong in the air and impressive on the ground and has obviously learnt from previous seasons playing alongside the Argentine Roberto Ayala.
So do you like the look of Raul Albiol? Would he be the ideal signing due to his versatility? Let’s hear your views.
Tags: Arsenal, Confederations Cup, Euro 2008, Liverpool, Raul Albiol, Spain, Valencia
June 19th, 2009 at 12:03
I cant see wenger splashin 15mil on him. He wud be perfect for Arsenal and form prob one of the best partnerships with Cesq.
With Vermaelan possibly signin today, i really cant see this Spaniard arriving. Not for 15mil anyway!
June 19th, 2009 at 12:04
Good player but Liverpool dont need him. There’s Agger, Carragher and Skrtel.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:18
please arsense buy albiol get rid of gallas please keep toure
June 19th, 2009 at 12:32
This player will be joining Real Madrid by the end of next week, along with david villa. Ribery will join by mid july. If anything happens involving arsanal it will be cesc joining us. Cesc doesnt think small time like foolish wenger - he wont turn us down like that idiotic frenchman with no bottle.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:39
Liverpool need to let two-face Mascherano go for the 45-50mil then buy Abidol, Silva, Defour, Van der vaart, and a backup striker for Torres… and maybe get Owen back to for free, Great backup and he will briong positive influence to LFC…
June 19th, 2009 at 12:44
Clinito - Raul Albiol is coming to Real Madrid. You should worry about keeping gerrard and torres from joining us as well. They are our targets for next summer. Torres may be committed to our great rivals Atletico but money talks. We will pay him 300k a week to partner him with david villa when raul retires.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:47
Zizou…. you’re an idiot!
Bet since 80 mill was accepted by Ferguson you decided to become a Real Madrid supporter. Glory Hunter is what you lot are known as.
You will jump ship to Barcelona next year when they win the double again!
June 19th, 2009 at 13:28
Real Madrid can buy all of the world’s expensive players and still achieve nothing…haha..why?, When a football star wants more money, more relaxed life and don’t have to play as hard as they used too before they became the big names they are now all they have to do is join Real Madrid…it’s their vacation club for two maybe three years before they retire or before they get serious again… Pity Real Madrid FC…huhu
June 19th, 2009 at 13:42
Oh yeah pity us;
9 european cups
31 la liga’s
17 copa del rey’s
As you said retirement home where you win nothing not the biggest club in the world with the highest won amount of honours – of course not
June 19th, 2009 at 14:28
haha! zizou, only that! have real madrid won treble before like barcelona or even man utd? dream on! The most club having manager being sacked! that wat u call a world class club! crap! Real madrid nowdays is jus a club stealing star player from other club to make more moneys! not like past real madrid! sad! ;p
June 19th, 2009 at 14:38
Bob you are a bafoon
June 19th, 2009 at 16:10
I ll bet you real madrid will still not win the league this year/
June 19th, 2009 at 16:17
zizou arent u forgtign summing didnt liverpool beat 4 0 and 1 0 at the bernabeau or whatever so shut your mout and im a arsenal fan
June 20th, 2009 at 11:46
Come on guys, of course Wenger is capable of paying £15m,what do you think Ashavin cost? 10pence? Wenger likes to pay for quality not £16,5m for Darren bent or £15m for Bentley although he did’nt mind that a fraction of that £15m went into our kitty.
I have a feeling that next season will be enjoyable for us Gooners. I’m sure Wenger is also fed up with our team struggling when a couple of players injured coz we have a thin squad.
What is wrong with fabregas? Should’nt he be halping to convince his compatriots that Arsenal is as good as gold?
To get that Albiol and Melo would really be marvelous then we can hope we flog Ade and bring Chamouni at Bordeau or whatever his name is
June 20th, 2009 at 23:14
To Zizou: Why are you proud of your club spending so much money? Is that football? Sounds like buisness to me. Everybody including its owners understand that Real Madrid’s goal is not to play good or exciting football but rather to make money. They are in it to sell millions of ronaldo jerseys, not to seriously put on good displays of football. Everyone knows with your future team you will need 11 balls on the pitch or else some players might start crying and go buy a new car or two to feel better. Real Madrid-burn in hell for eternity.
June 20th, 2009 at 23:16
Look at how they treat their players with the likes of van der vaart, robben, huntelaar, sneijdar. Have fun wasting all that money only to lose to Barca again! HAHA!
June 21st, 2009 at 06:23
if mash goes we need to get a defensive midfielder so this guy mayb a candidate