Camacho wanted to join West Brom for the money
Ignacio Camacho has been speaking about his proposed move to West Brom, a move which fell through on transfer deadline day, and has been quite forthright in saying that he would have joined the Baggies for the financial benefits. The Spaniard, who was linked with a move to Liverpool over the summer, says that he’d be lying if he said the move was purely football related.
He told AS:
In the end, a footballer can only be a professional for 10 to 15 years. Then you need to live and have a family. Many people forget this. Of course, there’s an affinity for a club and affection for the people, but that doesn’t put food on the table for you and your children. England has a far superior pulling power. I’d like for people to understand what it meant for me and how good it was. In the end, football is a short-term career, and there are many things we want to live through. Football wise, [West Brom] was a long term project where they wanted to sign players. To say I would only have gone for the project would be lying to you.
Another interesting tidbit from the AS piece was the insistence from Malaga’s owner Sheikh Abdullah who says that he pulled the plug on the deal because West Brom didn’t want to meet Camacho’s release fee of €18m.
West Brom insisted that it was them who canceled the deal because Tony Pulis decided that he no longer wanted the player, so one of the two parties is telling lies!
Either way, Camacho looks set to sign a new deal at Malaga, one that will see him get a pay rise and will also increase his release clause.
It’s interesting that his salary is still likely to be less that what West Brom were willing to pay him.