The deal will go through because Ruud, although has had a serious knee injury recently, has passed all the medical exams and is not part of Pellegrini's plans.

If you remember, I was against selling Huntelaar and keeping Van Nistelrooy because I was thinking long-term, and as you know, Perez' didn't think short-term let alone long term. He opted to keep a 33 year old "unhealthy" Van Nistelrooy and sold a young, talented and healthy Huntelaar who was a Huntelaarperfect replacement for his Dutch teammate. Not only that, Perez also sold Negredo to Sevilla and we are now left with two healthy strikers in Benzema and Raùl with an injured Higuain.

There is no doubt that Nistelrooy is one of the best strikers in the world, but it was crystal clear that he was not going to give us more. We signed him from Manchester United in 2006 and has had a wonderful career with us winning EL Pichichi award and La Liga in his first year at the club. He contributed a lot to the club but we shouldn't have sacrificed young and healthy players for him.

The deal is a good one for all parties. His contract ends June this year, so by selling him now we bring in some money. I'm not sure how much Hamburg paid for him, but I doubt they forked out a lot of money for him.

In terms of a replacement, it is not a good time to look for one now and it is not very urgent for the time being (especially with Ronaldo playing upfront), but I would like Real to look into the possibility of bringing Villa because the door is open for him now. Forget about Raùl, he wouldn't mind having Villa on the squad because he knows that even If we don't sign anyone and he keeps performing inconsistently, he will still sit on the bench.