Villarreal shed their skin and return to La Liga

Villarreal’s president Fernando Roig and Giovani Dos Santos (L) during his presentation as a new Villarreal player at the Madrigal Stadium

Even though they recouped a total of £29 million in transfer fees over the course of the summer, Villarreal operated on free transfers and cheap deals to build a determined squad hungry for immediate promotion. The 528,000 Euros spent to secure Frenchman Jeremy Perbet’s loan deal in January their only spend over the past season.

And it has been a season in which they finally reached their main objective of returning to La Liga, albeit via another managerial casualty with Velazquez sacked in January and Marcelino Garcia Toral being drafted in to see the job through. The Yellow Submarine eventually finished in second place after concluding the season with a run of just 1 defeat in 21 matches.

It was a fitting way for Marcos Senna to end his eleven year spell as the midfield lynch-pin, the 37-year-old departing for the New York Cosmos to deep nostalgia in Costa Azahar. Gate 19 at the club’s El Madrigal stadium is now named after him. Venta, Mellberg and Pandiani have all left the club as they will return to the Spanish top-tier with a new look squad.

The captaincy has now passed to Soriano, the 29-year-old defensive midfielder, who is likely to be joined in the spine of the side by Tomas Pina, the 25-year-old, who has been signed for £4.4 million from the newly-relegated Mallorca. Giovani Dos Santos, the Mexican attacking midfielder who has so far seen his promising career stutter in Spain after passing through Barcelona’s highly-regarded La Masia academy, also joins from Mallorca for a fee of £5.2 million.

Enough was seen in Jeremy Perbet’s 18 appearances (and his 11 goals) to make his deal permanent whilst Aleksandar Pantic, a promising 21-year-old centre-half from Red Star Belgrade, and left-back Bojan Jokic, a regular for Chievo and the Slovenian national side, will bolster the defence.

In the search for goals, they will still be relying on Jonathan Pereira, who hit a modest tally of seven, including the goal that saw them promoted, in the Segunda last season, and Nigeria’s Ikechukwu Uche who top scored last campaign with 14 and has a respectable scoring record in Spain with spells at Recreativo and Getafe.

The creativity behind them will come in the form of Dos Santos, the very impressive Perbet, Cani and the experienced Juanma, who joined from Betis in January. Javier Aquino, having also arrived in January, is also a very exciting prospect, the right-winger having already amassed 17 caps for Mexico by the age of 22.

Following the most heart-breaking of recent years that included the steepest of declines since becoming the last club to break the Real Madrid, Barcelona hegemony in 2008, La Liga is preparing to welcome back one of its most-loved clubs in the yellow-kitted submarine that is based in a town with a population of just 50,000.

Loss of brilliant players both to injury and financial struggles, managerial sackings and even managerial deaths, Villarreal have suffered it all in recent years but they’ve served their time and now, under the cultured stewardship of Marcelino Toral, they are back to reap their rewards.

This relatively small club, having only emerged to the top level in 1998, are returning to paint Spain yellow, in the hope this time, their new-look submarine won’t sink. One thing is for sure, they’ll have the support. El Madrigal was a 25,000 sell-out for the promotion-sealing win over Almeria last season and it is likely to be more of the same as the good times are back. After all, the supporters know just how horrible, and just how easy, it is to experience the bad.