Sevilla sporting director Victor Orta has this evening made crystal clear his frustration with La Liga rivals Valencia, over their ultimately fruitless negotiations for the transfer of Rafa Mir.
The name of frontman Mir of course took its place front and centre in the media headlines in the buildup to Thursday’s January transfer deadline.
This came amid a concerted push on the part of Valencia to bring the 26-year-old back to the Mestalla with a view to the 2nd half of the campaign.
Talks towards precisely that appeared to be very much on track in the hours leading up to the deadline, with all signs having pointed towards Mir’s dream Los Che reunion being granted.
At the last, however, the deal collapsed.
Amid claims that the powers that be at Valencia altered the terms on their end at the last minute, Sevilla felt that they were left with no choice but to pull the plug.
And, as alluded to above, on Friday, Nervionenses director Victor Orta has taken aim at his counterparts in the Mestalla boardroom, for what he has made clear was a completely unprofessional affair.
Providing a remarkably in-depth breakdown of the negotiation process, Orta accused Valencia of not staying true to their word, before concluding that, ultimately, Los Che simply ‘did not want Rafa Mir’.
Orta’s full statement, as cited by Diario AS, is showcased below:
“We received verbal interest in Rafa Mir from Valencia and within 10 minutes it was already leaked to a famous journalist. He had practically not yet exchanged the verbal offer with the general director of Valencia and the offer was insufficient. Yesterday morning, Valencia began to increase the offer and we told them that we would pay Rafa Mir’s salary until February 1 and that from then on they would cover it. Valencia, never in writing, tell us that they would cover almost the entire salary, but that there is a small part that they cannot reach. We say that we pay until February 1 and that the rest, this is football, is resolved by Valencia and Rafa Mir. They ask Rafa to give up money. Rafa doesn’t even respond and, for two or three hours, that part of his salary remains stuck. We get back to the issue and tell Valencia to start resolving documents.
“There, Rafa Mir’s advisor tells us that he has not reached a salary agreement with Valencia. Therefore, if the player does not have an agreement with the club, the purchase option we had talked about has no value. We were very close to reaching an agreement. Valencia should have responded to that email setting their conditions. That email did not arrive and when we asked Rafa’s advisors if there was any news, they told us that they felt offended because we had not been faithful to the negotiation, when the negotiation was almost closed. Valencia did not want Rafa Mir, because if they had wanted him, they would have signed him. I have been doing football operations for 18 years.
“Rafa Mir asks us to rehabilitate the operation. I call Cordero, my counterpart at Valencia, and the president of Sevilla calls the general director of Valencia. They tell us that they cannot contact those above (Peter Lim) because they consider the operation closed. Rafa Mir comes to the stadium to find out what happened, we show him emails and WhatsApp conversations. His advisor confirms that and again she feels his frustration. “If Valencia wanted Rafa Mir they could have signed Rafa Mir.”
Conor Laird | GSFN
