Malaga able to register all new signings in time after selling José Recio to Leganés

The summer transfer window came to a satisfactory conclusion for Malaga on Friday as the club tied up the sale of midfielder José Recio to Leganés, allowing them to register five players who couldnt pull on the blue and white shirt due to La Ligas wage cap limits.

Mehdi Lacen, Badr Boulahroud, Sead Hak¨abanovi, Dani Pacheco and Mamadou Koné have now completed their registrations, as well as veteran Polish goalkeeper Pawel Kieszek, who signed on Friday after agreeing to have his contract with Cordoba terminated.

An unexpected departure

With a surplus of players in the squad, it was expected that Cenk Gönen, Adnane Tighadouini, Miguel Torres and Juanpi would be the ones to make way. However, the latter two will remain in the squad, despite not being needed by coach Juan Ramón Muñiz, with Gönen set to be released and Tighadouini joining Danish first-division side Esbjerg on loan.

This meant, however, that Malaga had to release veteran midfielder Manuel Iturra to balance the books. Though not in the plans of the coach, his departure was nonetheless unexpected.

Ten million euros from sales

The summer was a lucrative one for Malaga who raised some ten million euros from player sales. More than half of that sum came from Leganés as part of deals for Recio (two million euros) and Youssef En-Nesyri (five million, one of which must go to the Moroccan academy from which he was signed).

This influx of cash now sees Malaga have a competitive and balanced squad, as well as complying with wage cap limitations.

We are very satisfied, said coach Muñiz. You look at the [training] sessions and you can see that we are balanced. Now the windows shut and everyone knows clearly what their role is. We can now get down to work and believe.

Asked about the loss of two holding players in the shape of Recio and Iturra, Muñiz was unconcerned:The squad is balanced. We wont have any problems this year because we have lots of players from the youth team that can come in and help us forget about those who were here before.

Once such player is Albanian midfielder Keidi Bare, who signed this summer from Atlético Madrid B, primarily for the reserves, but will train with the first team.

A way back

Though Miguel Torres and Juanpi have so far been frozen out, Muñiz explained that there is always a way back into the reckoning:When they are in physical, technical and mental shape to be able to bring something to the group, they will be back in.