Why Atletico Madrid’s Rafael Santos Borre Can Star During Villarreal Loan Spell

There are two distinctly different types of loan spells.

In many cases, loan moves become the only viable option for clubs looking to trim both their squads and their wage bills, with players departing for stints that they know they are never truly going to come back from.

Sure, they’ll probably return to their parent club one day, but the changes that will have gone on in their absence will mean that they are no longer needed, and if a club wants to buy them outright then they’ll be off soon. If not, another loan awaits.

That is the less attractive side of the coin, though.

Fans of the bigger clubs want to believe that the loan spells that their exciting young players embark upon are for everyone’s benefit.

The player gets game-time, his parent club gets to watch him develop and the club he has gone to might well end up inflicting damage on some of their rivals over the course of the season. After all, it is easier to sit in front of the television and cheer for another team if they’ve got one of your players playing for them.

Which brings us to Rafael Santos Borre, Atletico Madrid and Villarreal.

As Diego Simeone takes stock of the squad that are going to lead Atletico into battle in the 2016/17 season, the Colombian forward completed a loan switch to El Madrigal last week—where they were more than happy to welcome a player with a “tremendous eye for goal in the opposing penalty area” and who is “strong, skilful and has a great right-footed strike,” all via the club’s official website.

They are delighted to have him in the Valencian Community, then, and this feels like a lot more than just your average loan move.

The 20-year-old might be being forced to continue his football education elsewhere for while, but it isn’t as if Santos Borre is making that much of a leap. He has moved one place down last season’s La Liga table, and Atletico fans will be keeping a close eye on how he gets on in this campaign, and it won’t just be them who are doing that.

It seems as though Simeone just wasn’t ready to rely on him on a weekly basis right now, but after keeping a close eye on him in training he’ll now be able to study how he gets on over the course of the …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com