Christian Stuani Set to Leave Espanyol for Middlesbrough
Christian Stuani will most likely cease to be a player for Espanyol on Tuesday afternoon. The white and blue entity plans to officially announce his transfer to Middlesbrough. This way, Aitor Karanka, the 'Boro' coach, will already be able to count on him in Marbella, where the English team began an eight-day stay yesterday.
Stuani, who was supposed to join the white and blue team sometime this week, will travel to the town in Malaga to train with his new teammates and may even play a few minutes in the friendly against Balompédica Linares on Monday. The Uruguayan is heading to the English Championship and signs with a club that is also incorporating winger Stewart Downing (from West Ham). With these two reinforcements, Middlesbrough will seek promotion to the Premier League, which slipped away from them last season at the last moment.
Another player who will leave Espanyol in the coming days if nothing goes wrong is Kiko Casilla. The goalkeeper participated in yesterday's afternoon session at the Sports City and was cheered on by the nearly 75 fans in attendance. Even the children from the RCDE Campus joined in with timid shouts of "Kiko, don't go" and "Kiko, we love you". But his departure seems inevitable if Real Madrid makes a counteroffer. Perico president Joan Collet has been in Madrid since yesterday to attend the Federation Assembly. Today, he will meet with the representatives of Real Madrid who attend this meeting, and they could unblock the operation. Collet wants the white entity to reach six million euros to accept the sale, as no agreement will be reached for less money.
Today, during this Assembly, Madrid could express the intention to improve the initial offer of four million and reach the figure that Espanyol demands. Casilla continues to wait for news about his future and yesterday he was seen training at the same pace as his teammates, oblivious to the offices.