Real Betis are unlikely to sign Sokratis Papastathopoulos in January, as the club insist they don’t have the money for transfers right now.

Estadio Deportivo write that Real Betis manager Manuel Pellegrini has ruled out any signings before February 1st, due to their current lack of financial resources. Instead, they’re purely trying to offload players this month.

Arsenal outcast Sokratis Papastathopoulos was reportedly willing to sign a deal with Betis to 2023, after rejecting offers from elsewhere, but he’ll now have to consider whether he’s willing to wait until the summer window to make the move.

Fenerbahce were another club recently linked to Sokratis, but Chris Wheatley wrote that it was ‘never on’ as the club never even made an approach to sign the Arsenal defender. However, Wheatley added there’s genuine interest from teams in Spain and Italy.

Betis were seemingly leading the race, with Goal claiming earlier this week that the 32-year-old defender is keen to move to Spain. But with the financial difficulties facing the La Liga club, it’s no longer looking very likely.

I have to say, I’m not exactly surprised. I wrote about this very possibility earlier this week, pointing out that it’s not the first time Sokratis has waited for a team that can’t afford him without selling first. It was the same story with Napoli in the summer.

Hopefully, he’s learned from that experience and his representatives now have a back-up plan to secure him an alternative move.