Around La Liga 12.22

Valencia:

Valencia: Adil Rami, French denfender for Lille in the French league has come to a 6 million euro agreement with Valencia CF.

Villareal: the club celebrated its annual General Meeting this past weekend. The highlight is that the budget is down 20%, or in other words 30 million euros from last year, and Jose' Manuel Simpson Dura is now Vice President behind President and CEO Fernando Roig.

Levante: Levante will be the first team ti utilize the brand new AVE high-speed, bullet-train to make the trip between Valencia and Madrid for today's Copa del Rey match at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Hercules: Joszef Varga, defensive midfielder for Debreceni VSC in the Hungarian League, is being sought by both Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga and Hercules in Spain.

Andalusia:

Sevilla: Considering the bad run of form that Sevilla are under, President Jose Maria del Nido has pledged that there will be reinforcements coming in the Winter market.

Malaga: Malaga have come to an agreement with Sporting for the services of 21 year old left back Jose Angel for approximately 3 million euros. They are also bringing in Martin DiMichelis from Bayern Munich and are also interested in taking Atletico Madrid reserves Sergio Asenjo and Ignacio Camacho on loan.

Almeria: Club President Alfonso Garcia does not want to talk about buying or selling any players, despite interest for forward Pablo Piatti and keeper, Diego Alves until next Summer or unless there is an unbelievable offer.

Madrid:

Atletico de Madrid: Portuguese winger Simao Sabrosa has signed a 2.7 million euro contract with Besiktas in Turkey, continuing the exodus of Spanish League players to the club led by ex-Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster. The player will get a 200,00 per week pay raise and Atletico Madrid will receive a 2.5 million euro fee for the player.

Real Madrid: The club are struggling mighty hard to patch up the cracks in the relationships between players (Cristiano Ronaldo and Iker Casillas), management (Jorge Valdano and Jose Mourinho), while trying to maintain their way against a rampant Barcelona squad at the top of the table. Everything is fine, it's a mantra by now, but there is still the specter of Jose Mourinho leaving before his contract is over. This sort of instability is part and parcel of Florentino Perez's management of los blancos, over the last decade.

Getafe: In today's Copa del Rey match, Getafe will face a very motivated Real Betis side that is hungry to test itself against first division opponents since being relegated two seasons ago. Razak, Casto, Arzu, Ezequiel, Israel, Iriney, Juande, Isidoro, Salva Sevilla, Jorge Molina, Beñat, Cañas, Fernando Vega, Rodri, Dorado, Belenguer, Nacho y Rubén Castro will start for Betis.

Galicia:

Deportivo La Coruna: ex-Deportivo La Coruna left back Joan Capdevila has resigned with Villarreal until June 30, 2013.

Asturias:

Sporting de Gijon: even though the board of Real Sporting de Gijon presented its shareholders with a 3.7 million euro surplus, the club is still deeply in debt from a previous administration, and while they have succeeded in mounting surpluses over the last four years, there are still some supporters that are livid about the club's desire to sell Jose Angel to Malaga for 3 million euros.

Cantabria:

Racing Santander: former Racing starlet Sergio Canales will not return to Racing, nor will he be loaned out to a club in England (Bolton or West Ham United) as is being reported. Jose Mourinho has made it abundantly clear that the youngster stands to learn more from him at Real Madrid despite not playing much rather than from the possibility of playing more at a smaller club.

Pais Vasco:

Athletic Bilbao: they may not have beaten Barcelona but yesterday's 0-0 draw at the Nou Camp drew many observers as to t he manner in which they stifled the blaugrana. Athletic coach Caparros is optimistic if guarded returning to San Mames with a chance. That is all they wanted. Don't forget, they are still the second best team of all time in this competition, slightly behind their opponent.

Real Sociedad: the club will launch their new membership campaign starting on December 27th and ending om February 28th. Their task is to maintain or exceed the nearly 26,000 subscribers who currently hold tickets to matches at Anoeta. The added attraction this year is that it will be the first in the last four in the first division, and the club are also only four points from a European slot. Happy times in San Sebastian.

Navarra:

CA Osasuna: according to the Diario Vasco, Osasuna coach Jose Antonio Camacho is interested in Cesar Arzo, the Real Valldolid central defender.

Aragon:

Real Zaragoza: with ex-Mexico coach Javier Aguirre taking over at La Romareda, there has been speculation as to some of the young players that he coached. Ex-Barcelona forward Giovanni Dos Santos might be getting another chance after previously failing for Tottenham and in a oan move at Galatasaray in Turkey.

Catalunya:

Barcelona: some crazy speculation has come out stating that Barcelona were interested in offering up a total amount of 100 million euros to Liverpool and Arsenal combined for the services of Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas. While the latter is still very much in the plans of Pep Guardiola's side as an eventual replacement for, and a current partner to I might add, Xavi Hernandez, the former will not be coming to the Camp Nou. The club don't need him and the player won't play second fiddle to David Villa as he does for the National side. Torres will stay in England if he moves from Liverpool.

Espanyol: if it is true that clubs like Manchester City are targeting Victor Ruiz and Pablo Daniel Osvaldo in the transfer window, then it is a troubling trend. Sure, the money would be great, players are meant to be bought and sold, but the club is struggling to maintain a European slot. The money from a European place is much more than they would get from selling either player or both.

Las Islas:

Mallorca: Akihiro Ienaga, the 24 year-old midfielder that many in his country describe as the Japanese Messi is coming over from J-League side Cerezo Osaka to Real Mallorca on a 5 year contract

Mando is in Champions Magazine

Mando and LaLigaWeekly.com were mentioned in the most recent issue of Champions Magazine!

"Laligaweekly.com. A lively blog covering thrills, spills and talking points from Spain and the UEFA Champions League. It also has a Twitter feed and is open to comments. Chief blogger Mando (that's me folks) likes a laugh and can be irreverent, finishing one post defending problem child Riquelme with the line: "It's getting to be a habit-the players I admire Vieri, Cassano or Totti are wack-jobs. Maybe that says something about me."