Are Espanyol drilling for gold right now? Not likely as he’s due at the Montjuic for the summer, but striker Dario Cvitanich, the Argentinian-Croatian who plays for Banfield, “El Taladro (or The Drill), is on the Espanyol radar. Some reports have Paco Herrera already having signed him for some help up front, I guess it means he’s ignoring the black hole we have in the back, and as usual the player and both clubs have denied any deal. Rather than do the legwork myself on this story I went with someone who has actually seen him play. I asked Tim Vickery of the BBC World Service about Cvitanich.

” (He’s) just coming up 24, with around 25 goals in 80ish league games. Interesting striker and worth a look. No Olympic sprinter, but quick enough, can combine outside the area and finish first time in it. Have to say, though, that the standard there in Argentina is not great. He’ll find it a step up. Argentine football has plenty of strikers who couldn’t quite make the grade in Europe.”

Big thanks to Tim for coming through. Let’s see who I can get to chime in next week. What do I think on Cvitanich though? I think if he were 17 and not 24, then maybe he’d be able to grow into the standard of play in Spain, but this is a guy that may be another in a long line of forwards that stayed a little long in South America before leaving for Europe. Depor are also in for him as are of course Boca Juniors who are set to lose Rodrigo Palacio to Chelsea if you believe the rumors. He says he’d rather go to Europe, Banfield would rather do that deal than let him sign for los xeneises. In the end, I think Espanyol would be better served to look to Eastern Europe or Africa for bargain-basement help in the summer.