Villa's decision no surprise

Reports on Barcelona's club website report that they and Atletico Madrid have agreed a fee for the transfer of Spanish international, David Villa to move from the Catalan club to the nation's capital.

The deal is expected to be a maximum of 5.1m Euros (£4.4m) with Barcelona retaining the right to 50% sell on fee should Villa move on again.

This is upsetting to many a Tottenham Hotspur fan, for whom Villa seemed destined to become a new idol of  for the Lilywhites, however those rumours were more than likely a part of the gossip columns.

For Villa though, the decision to remain in his homeland is not a hard one.  At the end of next season, there is the World Cup and so for him to remain in the spotlight and back pages for Vicente Del Bosque to look over him week-in, week-out is a very tantalising caveat.

Villa has not really recovered from the broken leg he suffered in December 2011 during the World Club Championship in Japan.  He returned to the Barcelona side, very much second fiddle to the unstoppable Lionel Messi and was even losing playing time to Alexis Sanchez.  He leaves with a record of 48 goals in 119 games - not that great a record for one of Europe's elite strikers.

Much of the surprise about Tottenham being in the ring for Villa's services was the lack of European competition offered for the side, whereas Atletico will be in the Champions League next season, and he will be top dog after Falcao leaving for Monaco earlier this summer.

Villa's needs to regain his form as he is currently behind Fernando Torres in the Spanish striker power rankings after the Confederations Cup.

The search for a new striker at Tottenham continues with the expected departure of Emmanuel Adebayor and Jermain Defoe, and Arsenal who were also chasing Villa's signature have just had an offer for Luis Suarez rejected today.

It has been a strange summer for strikers, with no-one really going where intended or expected to arrive at. Falcao was expected to go to Manchester City, instead he has gone to tax haven Monaco.  Mario Gomez left Bayern Munich to head for Fiorentina. Whilst the final destination of Edison Cavani, Luis Suarez and Wayne Rooney remains unclear.

The carousel is just cranking up, expect the ride to pick up speed soon enough.

This blog first appeared on The Sideline Agenda, click here for the link.

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