{"id":2238,"date":"2025-06-26T15:12:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T15:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/?p=2238"},"modified":"2025-06-26T22:28:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T22:28:48","slug":"marcelino-garcia-toral-all-but-confirms-next-big-signing-for-atletico-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/26\/marcelino-garcia-toral-all-but-confirms-next-big-signing-for-atletico-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcelino Garcia Toral all but confirms next big signing for Atletico Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Villarreal manager Marcelino Garcia Toral has all but confirmed that Atletico Madrid will be successful in their bid to sign Alex Baena. The Yellow Submarine have been in negotiations with Atletico for several weeks<\/a>, but after returning home from the Club World Cup, Los Colchoneros appear to have picked up the pace.<\/p>\n

Baena was in tears in his final game at La Ceramica, and gave a farewell speech to the fans, suggesting his exit. Atletico are his leading suitors, and have been trying to bring down his price tag. Although Villarreal are open to negotiating, they do appear to want at least \u20ac45-50m for the Spain international.<\/p>\n

Marcelino gives take on Baena at Atletico Madrid<\/h2>\n

Asked whether he had given up hope of Baena staying, Marcelino told Cadena SER<\/a> that he was expecting him to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, practically yes. Well, I don\u2019t consider him \u2018lost\u2019 either. I\u2019ve had the pleasure of enjoying this player for a year and a half. Cycles begin and end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\ud83d\udde3\" \"\ud83d\udfe1\" Marcelino: “\u00bfDoy por perdido a \u00c1lex Baena? S\u00cd, pr\u00e1cticamente s\u00ed”<\/p>\n

\"\ud83d\ude44\" “Tampoco es dar por perdido, lo he disfrutado durante a\u00f1o y medio, pero los ciclos empiezan y acaban”<\/p>\n

\"\ud83d\udcb0\" “El fichaje de Moleiro se hace previniendo una situaci\u00f3n que se iba a dar m\u00e1s tarde o m\u00e1s temprano” pic.twitter.com\/KlFpWGswQ8<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 El Larguero (@ellarguero) June 25, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Villarreal manager even evaluated his fit at Atletico Madrid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure Simeone will find the ideal situation for Baena to get the most out of his game, offering his full footballing talent, and the Atletico fans, the coach, his teammates, and he himself will all be very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Baena
Image via Cordon Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Villarreal already have replacements in situ<\/h2>\n

Last week Villarreal confirmed the signing of Alberto Moleiro from Las Palmas, which many saw as a move to cover the exit of Baena.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoleiro\u2019s signing was done to taking into account a situation that was bound to arise sooner or later,\u201d Marcelino confirmed.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\ud83d\udea8\"\"\ud83d\udc40\" Midfielders from Europe’s Top 5 Leagues who have completed the most interceptions in all competitions in 2024\/25 season:<\/p>\n

\u2013 Federico Valverde (87)
\u2013 Ryan Gravenberch (83)
\u2013 Johnny Cardoso (79)
\u2013 Aurelien Tchouam\u00e9ni (74)
@OptaJose<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/g210YZO7aR<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) June 25, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One of the ways in which Atletico tried to bring down his price was by including Rodrigo Riquelme in a player swap deal. Marcelino confirmed why that would not be happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have two good players we have complete confidence in, Moleiro and Yeremy Pino. As of today, if no one leaves, we have that position completely covered. I\u2019m not saying that Riquelme isn\u2019t an interesting player; I think he\u2019s a very good player, but right now he doesn\u2019t fit in with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodrigo Riquelme future<\/h3>\n

It seems Atletico are looking to move Riquelme on this summer, after a season with much less involvement than either player or club would want. The latest is that Real Betis have made an approach for him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The post Marcelino Garcia Toral all but confirms next big signing for Atletico Madrid<\/a> appeared first on Football Espa\u00f1a<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Villarreal manager Marcelino Garcia Toral has all but confirmed that Atletico Madrid will be successful in their bid to sign Alex Baena. The Yellow Submarine have been in negotiations with Atletico for several weeks, but after returning home from the Club World Cup, Los Colchoneros appear to have picked up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2238"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2240,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238\/revisions\/2240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albluesguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}