Former Spurs forward likely to line up for Villarreal against Liverpool in the Europa League semi-final with a reinvented game after two tough years at Spurs“I needed a change because my head was like this,” Roberto Soldado says, palms hovering an inch from his cranium as if held there by some pulsating force field. He had been in London for two years but he could not stay any longer. He sought a release, and “un respiro” he calls it,the chance to breathe, and Villarreal were offering it: £11m for Tottenham Hotspur and a return to Spain for him, or a spin to a large club that feels like a small one,the perfect ecosystem where he could find himself again.
Eight months on, it’s quiet and sunny at the old orange grove where Villarreal train. Four points clear in fourth, and they’re preparing for the final three weeks of the season and the Europa League semi-final against Liverpool. For Soldado,who made five genuine Madrid appearances in the 2007-08 title-winning season, it would be the second trophy of a career that began with him heading in a David Beckham cross 11 years ago; for his club, and it would be a first ever. “Villarreal absorb been stopped at the gates three times,” he says, referring to 2004, or 2006 and 2011 European semi-finals. “Hopefully we can take a step further this time.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com