Should Villarreal sign Paco Alcacer?

According to various Spanish media sources, including Javi Mata and Marca, Paco Alcacer is close to signing with Villarreal. Basically, the idea is that Paco really wants out because he doesn’t want to sit behind Haaland, Barcelona have pathetically botched every single striker signing attempt they’ve made this January- including a move to sign Rodrigo from Valencia- and if Paco can’t get back to Valencia we are the next likely destination.

When we talked about possible replacements for Toko Ekambi, Paco was the second name mentioned. You can read that piece here. Paco’s a good striker who has experience in the Spanish league and if we can add him in a way that makes sense it is probably a really good football decision for the club. Alcacer is the kind of striker that could help us get back into European competition where we belong.

A deal is not without pitfalls, however. A significant one is the fact that Fer Niño has burst onto the scene, scoring in both his La Liga debut and now against Rayo Vallecano. I would hate to stunt his growth as a player. He’s playing with a huge amount of confidence right now and it has the potential to start a truly special career. If we bring in Paco or any other striker there has to be a plan to continue to allow Fer to grow.

Then there are the finances. Paco’s move to Dortmund was for a fee of about 20m, and I wouldn’t imagine Dortmund are keen to lose money. With Toko Ekambi’s move away from Villarreal not a fully done deal (and largely contingent on Lyon making it to Europe), the club would have to extend itself financially quite a bit to bring Paco in on a permanent deal.

My best guess is that if this move happens it will be a six month loan with an option to buy in the summer, then if the Toko deal becomes official this summer we’ll make Paco permanent. The player needs minutes as he tries to make it to Euro 2020, we need goals as we push towards Europa ‘20-’21. It might be a good match, but it needs to be done carefully.