With the need to balance the accounts as of June 30 to meet the commitments made, the idea of Sevilla FC was to wait for the evolution of the team in this month of January before making the decision to go to the market. The … Two consecutive defeats against Levante and Celta at the beginning of 2026 have darkened the outlook. Three points from the relegation zone, the alarms are beginning to be activated, which also has an impact on sports planning. The need to make a transfer before signing is still valid, although The football director, Antonio Cordón, moves his pieces to find the possibility of undertaking some reinforcement to help Matías Almeyda until the end of the championship.
The Extremaduran does not have an easy task, with this first mandate from the leaders to comply with the economy, as he already did last summer. So, Sevilla barely spent 250,000 euros on seven reinforcements, whose costs, furthermore, did not exceed the salary of some of the players who left in the summer. Now the situation is similar. Without any relevant output –In this market, goalkeeper Álvaro Fernández has already left the entity, which represents savings for the future, and Ramón Martínez–, LaLiga does not allow Sevilla to register a new footballer. The Nervión club must generate more salary space, which could only use a minimal part of what it earned with a possible sale to pay the cost of the salary and transfer of its new arrival.
Within that bobbin lace, in addition, comes into play which player would leave the team. Replacing a player who left a good amount of money in the coffers with another with a much lower cost would almost certainly imply another drop in the team’s level. You only have to go back to the summer when the departures of Dodi Lukebakio and Loïc Badé, two top-level players, were replaced with Alexis Sánchez, César Azpilicueta and Fabio Cardoso. Yes, the club’s economy improved with the income from the transfers of the Belgian and the Frenchman, but the decrease in quality in the squad has been evident, hence now, in a more complicated market, any movement has to be looked at with special care.
The club is alert to the high possibility that the market will activate in its final stretch with a possible transfer that would open the door to signing
Almeyda himself already hinted at the press conference prior to the duel against Celta that not all players have the same importance in his plans. Without giving names, The Argentine pointed out that if that moment comes, it would be the club that would have the final say, but he has already made his preferences clear behind closed doors.. Precisely, one of those untouchable names for the Argentine was Rubén Vargas. The injury to the Swiss, for whom 12 million fixed euros plus three in variables were rejected at the end of August, has meant a double setback for the entity. On the sporting level, Almeyda has been left without one of his indisputable players, while on the economic level, the Swiss represented a value that was trading on the rise.
Another name that clubs have asked about is Lucien Agoumé. The Frenchman, with his youth and projection, is on the radar of those scouts who regularly go to the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, but his possible departure also has aspects, between the cost it entailed for the entity, which in the summer paid another four million euros to acquire up to 90% of the rights, as well as the importance it has in Almeyda’s plans, who would like to have a guaranteed substitute, something difficult to achieve with the money that would be left to find him. These coach preferences are also taken into account by the football director, who moves between the need to continue improving the economy –The club still lacks added income from transfers to meet the budget– and find some reinforcement without weakening the squad with the necessary prior transfer.
The sporting situation
This whole puzzle also finds support in the results, hence from the club, with the president, José María del Nido Carrasco at the head, and with Cordón at the hand, confidence is transmitted to the coach, despite the poor dynamics of results. Nobody wants to swerve in the middle of the season and it is trusted that Almeyda will find solutions to reverse the situation. Return to the positive path with points that add to the scoreboard and once again move the team away from the relegation zone. The two defeats at home have left the locker room shaken, although the image presented against Celta was a positive point to cling to for what lies ahead. Sevilla recovered part of the hallmarks that it showed in its best version, although it missed more access to the rival goal, an aspect in which the coach is working and for which he is also waiting like May rain for the returns of Akor Adams and Chidera Ejuke. Winning again or, at least scoring, would restore some tranquility to the club’s atmospherebefore entering the final stretch of the market, when movements are expected to occur that make the arrival of some reinforcement possible.
The future plan
Sevilla’s sports management not only works for the short term. If Cordón manages a list of alternatives to act in case of sale before February 2, the Extremaduran also looks to the future. With Juan Iglesias tied up, being free on June 30, other names such as Patrik Mercado also appear well placed on Cordón’s agenda. Sevilla’s idea involves a better economic situation for the next campaign that allows it to go to the market with greater availability than in the last two and there arise players like this 22-year-old Ecuadorian midfielder about whom there are excellent reports. Tightening the belt in this campaign is allowing the budget to be adjusted after five years of losses and in that puzzle Cordón moves. Although the most urgent thing is to reverse the dynamics of the first team’s results, the club does not leave behind that look at the market.
