Reported Aston Villa and Sheffield United target Ante Budimir is fast becoming an unpopular figure at Real Mallorca, with coach Luis Garcia Plaza hitting out at the wantaway striker’s attitude while speaking to Diario de Mallorca.
Not long ago, the classy Croatian was the best hope Mallorca had of escaping the La Liga drop zone.
In the end, his 13 goals were not enough to keep Los Bermellones in the top flight, and it seems that Budimir has little interest in staying around to help his side secure a return to the top-flight of Spanish football at the first time of asking.
Marca reported last week that Aston Villa and Sheffield United are both interested, although it remains to be seen whether the Premier League duo are willing to pay £13 million for a journeyman striker who will be 30 this time next year.
Budimir was left out of the matchday squad for the second game in a row this weekend, with Mallorca coach Garcia Plaza far from impressed with how the situation is developing.
“My opinion is that Budimir is not doing things well. It’s something I’ve already told him. If Budimir tomorrow tells me that he is 100 per cent (focused), he will return to training and then I will be the one to decide whether to play him,” Garcia Plaza says.
“But right now I am not the one who chooses, the decision is in their hands and we are in those hands..
“His situation has not evolved. I am waiting for him and it is a situation that we have to solve because our aim was to keep him.
“It is an issue that is weighing us down and that I hope will be solved as soon as possible.”
Despite spending a club-record fee for Ollie Watkins, Dean Smith’s Aston Villa still have room for another striker and 6ft 3ins Budimir would, on paper at least, represent an immediate upgrade on the departed Mbwana Samatta.
Sheffield United, meanwhile, have lost all of their last six Premier League games – scoring once in Chris Wilder’s worst run at Bramall Lane.
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