Football
9y

Malaga sporting director says Guillermo Ochoa staying put

Malaga sporting director Mario Armando Husillos said on Wednesday that the club have no plans to shop Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo "Memo" Ochoa in this transfer window.

"[Memo] is going to stay in Malaga, there is only a little time left [in the transfer window] and I just don't see us getting any kind of great offer nor do I see us contemplating it," Husillos told ESPN. "I think he will be here, we are not going to get into any problems. In football, what you have leftover from today is never enough for tomorrow, things can change radically."

Husillos said Ochoa has been a consummate professional and that the 2014 World Cup star has never once complained about his scarce playing time. Malaga signed Ochoa on a free transfer after the World Cup.

Rumours began last month that Ochoa was struggling under Javi Gracia's leadership at Malaga, with reports out of Mexico that coach Miguel Herrera wanted him to have more playing time to remain as an El Tri starter.

"I am pleased that 'Memo' is with us," said Husillos. "He is a professional and I like the way he handles himself as well as his behaviour in the dressing room. People idolise him even though he has not played. He has never, not once, come to me with a problem. Not one day has he come and said, 'Mario, this or that has happened to me.'"

Gracia has opted to use Cameroon in-form goalkeeper Carlos Kameni instead of Ochoa in all La Liga fixtures, with Ochoa limited to participating in Copa del Rey matches. Cameroon coach Volker Finke did not call up Kameni for the African Nations Cup in progress. 

On Tuesday, Gracia blasted recent comments made by Herrera about Ochoa's lack of playing time.

"I have no time for the opinions of outsiders who do not play," Gracia said. "In the league in which he is playing [Ochoa] we are advancing and he is doing a good job.

The outspoken Herrera, however, expressed reservations to ESPN this week and said he plans a trip to Europe in February to evaluate potential players for Gold Cup and Copa America.

"I think it the coach [Gracia] is being stubborn because here we see Memo has participated in matches and has kept up his fitness level just as he was with the national team," said Herrera. "You can see that in his Copa del Rey matches."

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