Fábio Coentrão Hands In Transfer Request

The rumblings were true. The Portuguese left-back indeed wants a move away from Real Madrid. Fábio Coentrão was not selected for the squad that will take on Real Betis on Sunday to kick off the 2013/14 La Liga campaign. Manager Carlo Ancelotti had this to say about Coentrão's absence from the team sheet:

Coentrão has requested to leave, so he will not play tomorrow. The rest of the players are happy to be here.

About a month ago, I wrote on the importance of keeping Coentrão in the team. When a player wants to get away, however, there's not much that can be done. And Fábio clearly wants out.

There has not been a shortage of names linked for the Portuguese's services next season. His name has often come up in the ongoing Gareth Bale transfer storylines as a potential trading piece for Tottenham. Whether he will be held onto as a piece in the Bale transfer puzzle or whether he'll go elsewhere is yet to be seen.

Real Madrid is now left with only Marcelo as a true left-back while Nacho and Arbeloa have been known to be able to occupy the position temporarily. Perhaps the official news of Coentrão's plan to leave will get the wheels in motion on the rumored moves for AC Milan's Mattia de Sciglio or Granada CF's Guilherme Siqueira.

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