Another summer of uncertainty awaits Getafe

For the Spanish of a more traditional generation, choosing where to go on holiday is a fairly simple business. It's either the village or the beach.

None of your Guardian-reading fannying around with oyster-tickling trips to Tahiti. Oh no.

Come August, it's sedate the aggressive granny, stuff her into the boot and take the 17-hour car journey to the chosen destination to spend three weeks sitting about, eating ham and pondering whether switching the A/C off would cause the moaning matriarch to finally pop her clogs.

Angel Torres dreams of such distractions. That's because, every summer, the Getafe president has to d*ck around trying to rebuild his squad from scratch.

Over recent years, Torres has been forced to spend the off-season with mobile clamped to his ear trying to recruit replacements for the likes of Quique Sanchez Flores and Bernd Schuster. This year, he is going to have to do the same with Michael Laudrup.

The great Dane's agent, Bayrum Tutumlu has been in the press this week informing all and sundry - and hopefully Torres - that his client's time in the Spanish capital is well and truly over and that they are both pondering on what action to take next.

"There's no hurry," sighed Bayrum to a radio show on Tuesday, "if necessary he'll take a year off." However, out of all of the potential jobs available come June, the one that Laudrup would really like is the one at the Sánchez Pizjuán.

"An offer from Sevilla is the best option," declared Tutumlu, adding weight to the accusation from a Scandinavian scribe that La Liga Loca spoke to this weekend that Laudrup is a bit of a sod behind closed doors - a far cry from his happy, clappy public persona.

Laudrup: On his way to Seville... if they want him 

The Levante strike is looking more and more likely with the press in Spain reporting that the club board have admitted that they are not going to be able to rustle up 13 million euros before the weekend's deadline. Instead, they have given themselves the target of July 31 to sort themselves out.

On Wednesday, AS ran an interview with Mustapha Riga - the day after the striker was fined by his club for a fist pump aimed towards the home supporters against Valencia.

"The club that fines but cannot pay," chin-strokes El Pais on Levante laying down the law.

"Over the last two years I've been paid only 40,000 Euros," confessed Riga to the paper. "A few months ago I said that Villarroel was treating me like a slave and now it seems that the board want to do the same."

By coincidence, AS reported that as the interview was being conducted in Riga's house, some court order-armed officials came to his door to take away some of his possessions.

The paper also reports that Real Madrid are attempting to line up either Spurs, Benfica or Porto for Sunday's game should Levante do a no-show in what will be be a pre-season friendly, even more the current campaign is over.



Riga (left): Fined by Levante despite not being paid by club