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Calm but attentive: this is how Oviedo arrives on the last day of the winter market

Oviedo attends the outcome of the winter market relatively relaxed, a period in which he has been one of the animators in Second, but in which he reaches his epilogue with his homework done. The deadline to hire players closes tonight, 00:00, and Oviedo has neither open negotiations nor urgency to sign. However, and this is very common on the last day of transfers, stay tuned in case there is any appetizing operation that serves to strengthen the lead.

“We are happy with how the squad is,” Roberto Suárez, sports director of Carbayón, defended yesterday after the presentation of Manu Vallejo, the fourth and it seems that the last signing of this January. But then he introduced a nuance: “Between today and tomorrow (yesterday and today for the reader) interesting situations may arise.”

Oviedo’s approach is clear in the face of the last few hours, frantic elsewhere: they will only sign if a very juicy operation is within range. One that has not yet been given. The club has enough margin in the salary cap since between departures and arrivals the balance is very similar to when the term opened. However, the idea is not to waste the entire salary limit and that the team can take advantage of the savings next season.

The difficulty to incorporate in the last days does not help either. Oviedo would be willing to incorporate a striker who offered a different record than Enrich and Bastón now give. Obeng’s departure was not foreseen and it is an inconvenience for Cervera since he was a footballer who had a certain role. But it is understood from the sports management that his profile is more than covered with the two remaining forwards.

Oviedo would only go for one last signing if the possibility of signing a different striker arose and at a price that fits the parameters that the club manages. It is difficult for such a concrete option to emerge, but the last hours of marketing tend to be unpredictable. Last year, Oviedo closed Hugo Rama almost on the horn because Rubén Reyes considered it a “market opportunity.”

The feeling in the offices is that Cervera will keep what he has so far. The coach is satisfied with the configuration of the squad and the sports management shares that idea. “The coach continues to have variables in all positions. I hope there are no injuries because we would be talking about a very balanced squad. If there are no more signings, with the arrival of Manu (Vallejo) plus the recovery of other players we can be balanced. And the coach is also happy”, explained Roberto Suárez.

As for the possible exits, there is only one clear case on the table, that of Marcelo Flores. The Mexican has known his situation in the team for weeks, relegated to the background. The arrival of Moro and Vallejo have made things even more difficult for him and both the footballer and Oviedo have the door open to a way out. But that change of scenery depends in any case on Arsenal, a club that has its rights. And the English club wants to keep him in Spain for the whole season and yet he cannot find any destination that satisfies him. For this reason, it is not ruled out that Flores will continue wearing blue until June.

As for the other cases, there are no more solutions on the table. “No other player has asked us to leave,” Suárez explained concisely yesterday.

Oviedo has completed eight operations in the market to date. He has released Aceves (who will predictably return to Pachuca after breaking his loan attempt to Barça B), Miguelón (arrived on loan to Cartagena), Sangalli (committed to Racing) and Obeng (on loan from the Blues in Huesca). In exchange, he has signed Leo Sequeira (from Querétaro, from the Mexican Primera), Juanfran Moreno (Málaga), Raúl Moro (on loan from Lazio) and Manu Vallejo (on loan from Girona).

Has the squad improved with the eight movements? Suárez responds: “Actually, our objective was not to do without players who did not give the level, because they all gave it, but to get players who did not fit the coach’s game profile and incorporate boys who did marry that concept. Those who come out have some characteristics that made them unable to participate with the coach”.

In the absence of what happens today, Cervera has a large squad of 25 men at his disposal. 23 of them with a first team record, two of them (Mángel and Moro) with a subsidiary number. All of them count in the plans of the coach, who sees all the positions doubled and who has at his disposal, after the changes, a squad more in line with the counter-attacking style that he wants to integrate into his Oviedo.

With the play-off so far away, ten points, no one wants to set themselves ambitious goals, but they also don’t want to rule out any goal in such an indecipherable competition. For now, it’s about improving the numbers from the first round, which doesn’t seem complicated. At midnight today it will be known if the current ones are the 25 men called to fight in the second round or if some last minute movement is included.

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