On the surface, it seems quite simple: Barcelona want to sell David Villa, who wants to leave, while teams like Arsenal and Tottenham are waiting to pick him. And yet, a transfer that’s been talked about for six months might not happen because of money.
For now, Barcelona are trying to find someone willing to pay them €15 million for the 31 year-old striker, which sounds a bit difficult to accomplish. Both Arsenal and Tottenham are rumored to be on board up to €12 million, but if Barca realize their demands are slightly high for the market, they will find common ground.
The bigger problem is part of the reason Barcelona would like to see Villa leave. When they signed the striker from Valencia in 2010, they gave him a four year contract; he earned €7 million on each of the first three seasons with the club, but his salary was bumped up to €11 million for his fourth year, which begins now, pretty much.
So while Villa would like a team he knows he can be a part of the first team setup, something that won’t happen at Barcelona, especially with the arrival of Neymar and possible other changes coming in the near future, it’s hard to believe the North London clubs will be willing to give Villa that kind of money, knowing that there isn’t too much left to his career.
Villa isn’t only about playing time just because he gets bored on the bench. With the 2014 World Cup coming up, Villa wants to be playing fairly regularly so he can be called up to the national team for the tournament and be part of the team defending its title, which he had a big part of , scoring five goals and co-winning the tournament’s Silver shoe.
Villa has scored 282 goals in 575 matches during his career, including a total of 16 in 40 matches last season for Barcelona, which was considered disappointing by all parties involved, which might suggest that despite his age and past injury, there’s still plenty of football for him to give, and that Spurs and Arsenal should spend as much as he asks them to.