A quiet winter as Spanish clubs tighten their belts
Despite a flurry of last-minute deals in the final hours before the January transfer window closed on Friday, Spain has shown that it is far from immune from the financial woes that plague European soccer.
Despite a flurry of last-minute deals in the final hours before the January transfer window closed on Friday, Spain has shown that it is far from immune from the financial woes that plague European soccer.
Transfer activity in Spain had been close to a standstill throughout most of the month, with few clubs daring to venture into the market at a time when fears over growing debts and uncertainty over future income had led to belt-tightening by nearly all the top-flight sides.
The transfer market was brought to life only by a handful of struggling clubs concluding loan deals in an attempt to stave off the even more financially serious threat of relegation.
Even the most eye-catching deal of the Spanish winter, which saw Argentine international defender Juan Pablo Sorin join Barcelona from Lazio, took place only as a result of anxiety and economic crisis.
Desperate to turn around their season by shoring up their injury-plagued defence, the Catalan side were reluctantly forced to make a foray into the transfer market.
In the end they managed to strike up a deal for a top-class player only because the cash-strapped Serie A side were so anxious to cut their wage bill.
For big clubs in the upper reaches of the table, such as Real Madrid and Valencia, the primary concern has been to off-load players and cut wage bills rather than bring in reinforcements.
With Santiago Solari's move to Inter Milan collapsing because of the Italian side's refusal to match the wages paid by Real to the Argentine midfielder, the European champions were obliged to offload Raul Bravo to Leeds United for the rest of the season.
LOAN DEAL
Valencia also managed to divest themselves of out-of-favour striker Salva Ballesta for the rest of the season as he too moved to the English premier league in a loan deal with Bolton Wanderers.
But many players who have been sidelined at their present clubs have preferred to sit tight rather than undergo the upheaval of a short-term loan deal.
Real Madrid striker Fernando Morientes and Barcelona defender Michael Reiziger turned down respective moves to Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City despite pressure from their clubs to accept.
The relegation-threatened clubs that have attempted to strengthen their squads have invariably done so through loan deals or by scouring the market for players who are already out of contract.
Espanyol snapped up out-of-work Italian defender Moreno Torricelli, while fellow strugglers Villarreal struck a loan deal with Inter Milan for midfielder Javier Farinos.
Tellingly, the most active Spanish club during the January transfer window was second division basement club Cordoba.
As well as changing their coach, they concluded 10 loan deals in a desperate attempt to avoid dropping into the wilderness of Spain's regionally-based third division.
Player transfers may have slowed down but one thing that has not changed is the volatile market in coaches.
Barcelona's Louis van Gaal, Rayo Vallecano boss Fernando Vazquez and Manuel Preciado of Racing Santander all lost their jobs in January and there is almost certain to be more movement on the management front before the end of the season.