Former Real Madrid midfielder Esteban Granero has rejoined Real Sociedad, having spent the last year on loan at the La Liga side. Granero, 27, put pen to paper on a four-year deal which will tie him to the club until June 2018 with his transfer fee from Queen's Park Rangers totalling around €4million following some disagreement between the two clubs.
Granero moved to San Sebastian last August but went on to make only six appearances for the club over the course of a season in which Sociedad finished seventh, qualifying for the Europa League qualifying round, where they will face Aberdeen later this week. He was signed in 2012 as QPR spent big, looking to make an impression on the Premier League, but their hastily-assembled squad of has-beens and could-have-beens failed to stave off relegation with big earners such as Granero needing to be jettisoned from the wage bill.
Having come through the ranks at Getafe, his dream move to Real Madrid in 2009 looked to have signalled that Granero would be one of the key members of what was still a young Spain team, but his star has waned in recent years and his transfer is unlikely to cause much of a stir in the world of football. Instead, Sociedad's loss of star man Antoine Griezmann is likely to take the headlines - Granero will have his work cut out trying to fill the sizeable shoes of the departed French flyer.
Granero could feature in Sociedad's first leg against Aberdeen on Thursday, but it will depend on whether or not he can make it back to London from Leipzig, Germany - where he was unused by QPR in a recent friendly - before making his way on to San Sebastian. Having spent last season at the club, resettling into the squad should not be an issue for the Madrid-born man.