Real Valladolid have boosted their squad by confirming that Enes Unal will stay at the club on loan for another season while Italian defender, Federico Barba has also joined for a season.
This will be Unal's second season on loan from Villarreal while Barba joins from Chievo who were relegated from Serie A last season. With a limited transfer budget, loans are key for the team that are owned by Brazilian legend, Ronaldo.
Unal scored six goals and got three assists last season as Valladolid managed to avoid relegation to the Segunda. The Turkish international is 22 years old but he has never quite managed to live up to the expectations many had of him when he first broke into senior football.
Youngest goalscorer
Unal debuted for his hometown club, Bursaspor, as a 16-year-old and scored against Galatasaray to become the Super Lig's youngest goalscorer. That early form drew a lot of attention and Manchester City signed him for over €4 million.
He never managed to reach the City first team and was instead loaned out to Genk, NAC Breda and Twente before Villarreal snapped him up for €14 million. He scored five goals in 31 games for them before being loaned out to Levante and then Valladolid last summer.
Barba began his career with Roma where he came through the academy before Grosseto bought half of his registration. He did manage some games for Grosseto before Roma bought his full registration back and then sold him to Empoli.
La Liga experience
The 25-year-old, who won Italian caps at underage level, has got La Liga experience. He spent a season with Sporting Gijon before returning to Italy with Chievo last summer. He played 30 times for Chievo last season and although he is better known as a centre-back he played as many games as a left-back.
With Valladolid on a tight budget, they will most likely be in the battle to maintain top-flight status again. They have already spent €1 million on Pablo Hervias from Eibar and loaned Sandro Ramirez from Everton and Jorge de Frutas from Real Madrid.
There are no guarantees in La Liga but so far those loan signings look like good additions and Ronaldo will be hoping to solidify the foundations this season before moving forward in the coming years.