In a strange twist, Paco Alcacer’s loan at Al Sharjah has been canceled by the United Arab Emirates club. This comes as Villarreal were completing Boulaye Dia’s loan move to Italy and trying to finalize the arrival of Edison Cavani to replace the outgoing strikers.
Villarreal have claimed that Al Sharjah decided “unilaterally” to call off the move, strangely after they had already officially introduced the player to the United Arab Emirates. The whole situation makes the transfer situation to Villarreal very complicated, since Paco has a very high salary that would have to be transferred to incorporate the Uruguayan star Cavani.
With Dia on loan now, real forward options are a bit thin. Both Gerard Moreno and Jose Luis Morales are winger/forward hybrids, and Nicolas Jackson, Arnaut Danjuma and Yeremy Pino aren’t true CFs either. Given Unai Emery’s preference for a 442 for much of his time at Villarreal, the problems are obvious.
It is still unclear whether Al Sharjah will owe Villarreal some form of compensation for this botched move or if there was a clause of some sort that would allow them to do so on such short notice. As things stand right now, Alcacer’s previous record signing has returned to being a Villarreal player before playing a game for any other club, and there are only a few days left to try and find him a new home in order to make room for Cavani.
