Riquelme Watch

Roman is out on the market.

First notable offer came from, well you probably have guessed it, Atletico... 3 year contract. Roman gets 4 million Euro per year, which is quite a bit higher than what Villarreal was paying him. Atletico starts from bottom of the table in UEFA Cup, they need some help to gain position in both UEFA Cup and La Liga this season.
There are three Argentine internationals on los Rojiblancos first team. Maxi, Aguero and Leo Franco.

Many Argentine coaches had their stints in Atletico, notably Helenio Herrera, Juan Carlos Lorenzo, Cesar Luis Menotti, Alfio Basile and Carlos Bianchi. Ironically, it was under Basile's short stint that Atletico last obtained the Spanish title (95-96 season), and they gained the Copa del Rey that year as well. Atletico's last major European trophy was 1962 European Cup Winners' Cup (competition no longer exist). They were relegated to Spanish Segunda Division for the 2001-02 season.

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According to Olé, Tottenham Hotspurs had put down a 15 million Euro bid for Riquelme.

The team from White Hart Lane started the season with some surprising struggles. After the promising signing of Gareth Bale and Darren Bent, Spurs managed a 1-0 lost at newly promoted Sunderland in their opening match, followed by a 1-3 defeat at home to Everton. For a team threatens to break into top 4 of premiership, that was unacceptable, even considering the fact some of their key players hadn't been fit.

Aaron Lennon's speed had been a key element in Martin Jol's attack. To utilize assets like that, he usually deploys 4-4-2, but had gone with 4-3-1-2 before. Tottenham has many versatile midfielders such as Zokora, Jenas and Tainio. If they managed to acquire Roman, these players will probably shoulder more supporting duties because Riquelme is a conductor type midfielder and natural to being supported. In the mean time, Spurs could certainly use Roman's help to overcome their injury crisis (Bale, Lennon, Berbatov...).

Just like Atletico, Lilywhites are in UEFA Cup first round. In term of opportunity in European competitions, the 2 sides are similar, and should be equally attractive to Roman. However, for Villarreal's sake, they wouldn't have to worry about Riquelme becoming a domestic competition if he went to White Hart Lane, although the sales price would also takes a dive.

10 days to go.