2021, the Everest of the New Age

To avoid relegation, the Board have seen fit to grant a transfer kitty of 20M and a wage budget of 325K.

We are currently spending about 136K per week on wages.

For those of you wondering how I did turn the finances around, bear in mind I have bought a lot of new players that are as yet untested at this level, and I have sold most of the disappointing team from last year. Surprising, for wads of cash. So much to the point where I have sold players to the tune of 54M and only spent 4.1M.

To make it interesting, my newly recruited players will play the first match of the season against last years league champions, Valencia.

It'll be a great benchmarking exercise, but given they are hardy likely to be familiar with the tactic, or each other, the best I can secretly hope for is to lose well.

Which leads me to the question, can any team lose well?

Odds for the season, 5-2 Barca will walk away being La Liga champs, Real Madrid 5-1, Valencia 6-1.

Osasuna are priced 2000-1. Might be worth a cheeky tenner, but I really don't believe the clubs talent are ready to mix it with the big boys at the moment. Given time, who knows.

The only player now being paid more than 10K per week is former Real Madrid winger León, who is drawing a massive 23.5K. He was the Fan's Player of the Year last season, and is still technically strong so is still of worth to the team, but his salary demands are proving to be an issue with other clubs.

I don't understand sometimes, Norwegian striker Josh King had agreed terms and gained the necessary work permit for a move to A-league side Adelaide United. The deal fell through as Adelaide already had a "marquee" player, Ben Halloran.

With that deal not proceeding, King was offered to clubs, for four clubs to be again interested. Adelaide were one of the suitors, and guess which contract offer Mr. King decided to accept, only for it to fall through....again!

And I think I may just have been taught a lesson here, I should have quashed the Adelaide deal with Joshua King and let him discuss terms with other clubs that were interested in his services. I've offered him to market (third time is the charm, right?) and now Adelaide are the only club interested!

To summarise the transfer positions, Osasuna has sold, let go, or loaned out no fewer than 29 players thus far, and I am working hard to make León an attractive proposition. I would be nothing short of ecstatic if I could organise transfers for Josh King and Deivid, the former Sevilla centre back. These three players represent the past and they are all of an age where the reports all say “unlikely to improve in the future.” From a value standpoint, it would be better for the club if they were sold now; we benefit from the transfer fees and manage to get the three top earners off the books.

In contrast, twenty five players have been bought into the team, with the oldest being 24 year old defensive midfielder Ruben Bottarelli, who was scouted when Italian side Torino released him after making only five appearances over nine years.

Former captain Jonathan dos Santos was a club legend, and León, is listed as favoured personnel. Guess I should try and get a decent fee for León if I can.

Before the July transfer window opened, Osasuna had already booked deals to sell two defenders to Dutch side Feyenoord, and pocketed 4.4M.

Days later, defensive utility Javier Vera signed a contract with English Premier League club Cardiff for a fee of 7M. The Paraguayan joined on a five year contract earning 33.5K per week. Vera joins All White captain Marco Rojas at Cardiff and hopes to be successful in the hardest league in the world.

Jonathan Zonga also saw the writing on the wall and sought approval to begin contract negotiations with other clubs. The 28 year old striker, who had chalked up more than one hundred appearances for Osasuna was quickly signed to a five year deal for 4M at 26.5K per week by Turkish club Betsiktas.

Midfield utility and Senegalese international Daouda Diallo concluded the transfer activity before the window by signing a deal with relatively new Russian side Anji. Osasuna collect 1.8M, and Diallo collects 14.25K per week for the next five years.

The end of June 2021 bought to close to the Osasuna’s career of veteran goalkeeper Juan Carlos. The last laugh may be with us, because although we didn’t derive a transfer fee from him leaving, he is currently unemployed. Five members of the under-19 squad also left as their contracts lapsed.

Soon after the window opened, loyal goalkeeper Andres was taught a hash lesson in professional sport. After being on the books of Osasuna’s books since 2007, an offer was accepted from Real Madrid and he was pensioned off to the tune of 2M on a two year deal earning 8.25K per week.

“...one of world football’s global superstars” Jonathan dos Santos was resigned to the fact that he was leaving Osasuna. His 30K per week salary had clearly not gone over well with the clubs new management. The decision left for him now was either Chelsea, or German powerhouse Werner Bremen.

Deciding to throw himself in with the Germans for 33.5K per week, the structured deal of 7.5M up front, 7.5M over 48 months and ten percent of future transfers left the financial situation at Osasuna vastly improved.

José Antonio was a 24 year old left winger who would be best described as a journeyman. After been brought in from Celta the previous year for 1.9M and being nothing short of disappointing in his fifteen appearances, he was sold to Serie A outfit Cagliari for 2.3M.

Italian side Inter made an approach for utility forward Julián Luque offering 6.5M, and a deal was soon done and Luque was soon on his way. He had been with the club since 2015, but the three year, 21.5K a week offer from Inter was not to be passed over.

Experienced Mexican forward Ulises Dávila always had had an eye for the “glamour” clubs. While he had spent five years with us, his previous clubs included a lengthy spell at English EPL side Chelsea, and Dutch club Vitesse. When successful German club HSV made a 4.5M bid, he knew it was the end of his stay with us. He left on a two year, 24.5K per week contract.

Other players sold in the past fortnight have included:

Aging Columbian defender Brayan Angulo (575K) and striker João Silva (775K)to La Liga rivals Hércules CF;

25 year old Brazilian winger Tinguinha has been loaned out to Granada on a year- long loan for 350K with a clause to purchase for 1,1M;

Defenders Sergio Diaz (4.3M) and Polish international Adrian Liberacki (1.6M) left to pursue opportunities with cash ladled Elche;

Midfielder pairing of Sergio (1.5M) and José Vicente Gómez (1.4M) left for Empoli;

Experienced 'keeper Luca Perozzi (1M) to Palmero;

Attacking midfielder Rubén Gutiérrez (325K) to Roma;

To round off the outgoing transfers, Croatian winger Zvonimir Karabogdan (250K) is on a year loan to Xerez, and four of my promoted under 19 squad were released on free transfers.

While some fans have been shocked by the systematic dismantling of the club, they are pleased with the fee income that has been generated as a result. I'm still trying to move three of the senior players for decent money, whereas I will take a more philosophical approach with the under-19 squad; meaning I am willing to consider any offers which are made.

With the number of players I had chosen to release, it stood to reason that I would need to rebuild from the ground up. I managed to bring in new faces, fresh talent to supplement the players that remained with the team.

Bringing in most of them on free transfers, 5.5M has been spent to date, on six players - one of those was a 1.6M necessity after the Russian striker Mammaev shunned our advances. A further 1.45M was spent on two exciting youngsters to give depth to our right back position, after not being able to find suitable quality in the transfer market; or at least not of quality whom would discuss terms.