Real Betis, who have lost four of their last five games, have seven matches left in La Liga this season. That recent poor run has seen them overtaken by Real Sociedad, and Betis are now out of the places to qualify for European football next season.
They’re five points from a place which would seem them in Europa Conference qualifiers and 12 points away from the Europa League. Manuel Pelligrini doesn’t look like he’s going to achieve his objectives for this season, and it will all obviously have a big impact on the summer budget.
That could present a problem for Leeds United.
Marc Roca has been on loan at Betis for the season, and for much of the first half of the campaign, even around Christmas and a little beyond, there was assumption the Seville club would work out a deal with Leeds.
Either they’d keep Roca on loan from Elland Road if Leeds didn’t clinch promotion, or a deal would be worked out if they did. The player himself even went house hunting for a longer stay.
Then things started to go wrong, first he had a virus at the beginning of the year and more recently he’s been struggling with ankle problems.
The first of Betis’ last seven games comes against Valencia on Saturday, and ABC Sevilla say they’ve found out that Roca is now training with a ball again and may be able to take part.
Pelligrini has “we’ll see how it evolves” with regards to Roca, and he’s not yet in full training.
Roca hasn’t appeared since March 10th, and since then Betis’ local media have been casting some doubt on a summer switch. That was partly motivated by them having a glance at the Championship table a while ago and seeing promotion was a very real possibility.
That prospect of another loan would have been ideal. Should that not happen then you can be sure Betis will try every trick in the book to get a deal at below market cost… and they will undoubtedly used Roca’s problems in 2024 to their advantage.
Leeds United can only hope they get promoted, so hold the power, and their player excels without any further injury issues for the rest of the season.
