Juan Román Riquelme Sought By Italian Clubs, Villareal Exhale A Feeble “Meh”

With the relationship between Spain’s Villareal and Argentine Juan Román Riquelme slowly coming to an end, clubs across Europe are sniffing out the reality that there’s a quality playmaker on the market. Italy’s Juventus and Inter Milan are two of the big names that are chasing the Argentine. But Villareal (mostly head coach Pellegrinni) have done the vile thing of calling out Riquelme’s speed as an issue. Basically, they called him a slow poke. But Italian clubs aren’t going to be fooled.

“They say that Riquelme is slow and it makes me laugh,” Samuel told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“With him the ball goes so quickly. He is a great three-quarter (attacking midfielder) and the kind of player you can rely on - I’d love to have him here at Inter.”

It’s absurd that “Los Submarinos”, a.k.a. Villareal, have distanced themselves from Riquelme for so long. In fact, it’s damn near ignorant. And after his recent double in this weekend World Cup qualifier against Bolivia, we’re betting on Villareal falling out of the top tier of the Spanish league tables like an Italian diver. Yeah, we’ve used it before because it’s so damn true.

Inter and Juve to battle for Riquelme, reports [AFP]
Inter y Juventus quieren a Riquelme [Terra]
Image [Daily Mail]