Mathew Ryan leaves Valencia

Mathew Ryan is the third confirmed exit of the late season. He joins newly promoted Brighton on a fee rumoured to be in the €5.5 million range. Ryan seemed a reasonable signing at the time, covering for the long term injury of Diego Alves. Luck, however, would intervene. His time at Valencia was fatally undermined by a knee injury a fee weeks into the season which sidelined him for a month. In that time, Jaume took his opportunity, and Ryan's 1-month absence became 3 months, returning in late November 2015 to play in Nuno's last game against Sevilla. With Alves returning and regaining the number one spot, Ryan's chances would be limited. He played in 21 games in 2015/16 and the first two games of 2016/17, leaving, coincedentally, at the same time as Alcacer and Mustafi.

It has to be said, there were many bad signings of the Lim era, but, while he was never a Buffon, he wasn't a bad signing either. The killer is that he seemed to be third in line and was insisting on being first choice. An understandable request for someone who wants to maintain his position as number 1 for the Australia national team, but not a realistic one for the current Valencia squad. He will likely not be the first goalkeeping casuality. Marcelino apparently doesn't count on Alves and it's not hard to see why. While Alves still proved himself to be the penalty king last season, his overall performances weren't top class and the club is now said to be trying to get his wages off the books. Speaking of Buffon, his deputy, Neto, is rumoured to be joining Valencia on loan with a buy option.

In other news, Valencia have confirmed another pre-season friendly playing Werder Bremen on 5 August. As with Bournemouth, this is an unspiring match-up against a familiar foe. Valencia played friendlies against Werder in July 2015 and July 2009 and played them in Europe in March 2010 and late 2004.

West Bromwich Albion wants Negredo

West Bromwich Albion wants Alvaro Negredo which allows Valencia CF a sigh of relief as the club is keen to get rid of the expensive flop and cut his huge salary from the bill. Alvaro Negredo has also stated that he wants to stay in England and play in the Premier league and that going somewhere like China, Russia or Turkey is a no go for him.

So Valencia CF is limited in their ability to whom they can sell him, so having interest at all from England is good, as Negredo has not had a good season for the past 3 years, while his salary is quite huge and the transfer fee would be relatively high in order for Valencia CF to recoup some of the losses on this player.

Unfortunately I think the club went for the wrong target back then, the club could have bought Soldado back from Tottenham for less than 10 million euros, something which Villarreal did and it was a great decision for them.

Roberto Soldado was proven in Valencia CF, so it wouldn't have been tough for him to adapt once again here and provide even better performance than he did at Villarreal. 

Galatasaray sends an offer for Aymen Abdennour

Turkish club Galatasaray SK have sent an offer of 6 million euros for Valencia CF central defender Aymen Abdennour as Valencia CF want to offload the player in order to reduce the wage bill and free up space for a new defender, possibly Raul Albiol, but other names are floating around as well.

Aymen Abdennour hasn't celebrated himself at Valencia CF, he came in as a big reinforcement, but failed to live up to the expectations and his high transfer fee. He is the kind of player that will play a solid game for 89 minutes, but then have the worst blunder and ruin his whole performance with that.

He essentially extremely error prone that costs us goals and points in many cases, so he has been deemed surplus to requirements by Marcelino and his high salary make his departure from Valencia CF absolute. The question now is who will offer the right amount, which for Valencia CF is in the region of 13-16 million euros.

Mario Lemina on Valencia CF radar

Juventus FC midfielder Mario Lemina is on Valencia CF radar as the club is looking to change up and reinforce the squad, which means wanting to sell Enzo Perez due to his high salary and bringing in a cheaper alternative.

Mario Lemina was a wanted prospect two years ago with Juventus activating his release clause of 9 million euros to purchase him after a successful loan spell there. Since then he's found things more difficult though and hasn't featured as extensively for Juventus FC, coming in mostly as a sub for the team.

Valencia CF is looking to pounce on this fact and attract the player with the prospect of regular first team football, while the player should not cost more than 9 million euros transfer fee on the upper limit.

Raul Albiol on Valencia CF wish list

Valencia CF have been after Raul Albiol since last year with the club coming really close to getting the player, as they agreed personal details with Albiol, but Napoli were relentless and did not back down from their high transfer fee, ultimately forcing Valencia CF to look elsewhere, which it found in Ezequiel Garay.

Ultimately Valencia CF paid an even bigger transfer fee for Ezequiel Garay, coming in at about 25 million euros, but at the time he was valued higher than Albiol and it's only after we sold Mustafi and got close to 50 million euros for him.

Valencia CF new coach Marcelino has asked the club to bring in Raul Albiol as one of his top reinforcements, as he looks to build a very strong back line and build the team from the back onwards. Marcelino wants to have a very strong back line that rarely concedes goals as a means to become competitive again.

I think Raul Albiol will be a great signing, he is kind of similar in style with Garay, so there might be a little bit of overlap here, a somewhat faster CD is usually the prefered option to an experienced and positional CD like Garay, but if Marcelino wants him and thinks it can work, then I'm all for it.

Luciano Vietto to join Valencia CF?

Luciano Vietto is another possibility for Valencia CF as the club is looking to reinforce and strengthen the squad before the start of the next season and the club is looking at talented players that may be surplus to requirements elsewhere and would come cheap.

One such player is Luciano Vietto who hasn't found his footing at Atletico Madrid and as such he is seen as surplus to requirements there and therein lies the chance for Valencia CF to swoop in and acquire the player. Valencia's new coach Marcelino Garcia Toral is a fan of his as the player did great when playing for Villarreal under the tutelage of Marcelino.

He is also going to come at a cheaper price and his salary is also manageable for Valencia CF, once the club offloads the big earners like Negredo, Enzo, Aymen and others. Two more bigger earners are Garay and Zaza, but those are key players for us, and were bought very recently, so they are staying at the club and with Mangala gone as well, that is additional 3 million euros that can go towards a new salary. 

Valencia CF interested in Marcelo Diaz

Valencia CF are interested in Chilean football player Marcelo Diaz who currently plays for Celta Vigo as a defensive midfielder and has a contract with them till 2019. Valencia CF were interested in acquiring Camacho, but the club can't meet his high 18 million fee, so the club is looking at alternatives and Vicente Rodriguez and the top brass think that Marcelo Diaz is a suitable alternative, especially since he is going to come very cheap, as his current market value is estimated at about 2.5 million euros.

Valencia CF also have an advantage over Celta as they can give him a big higher salary and of course we now have an experienced and successful coach that can also help in getting players to join as they can have more confidence in the project.

As I already reported the club only has 93 million euros available for the next season, so sales of our highest earners are in order and that includes Negredo, Enzo Perez, Aymen Abdennour and possibly even Nani, even though reports suggest Valencia's new coach Marcelino wants to keep Nani and has him in his plans for next season.

Do you think Marcelo Diaz is a proper defensive midfielder for Valencia CF and what are some of your wishes for this position?

Financial realities to force sales at Valencia CF

Valencia CF budget next season would be 93 million euros, which is lower than last years small budget, which was massively lower from the season before that. In fact Valencia CF went from somewhere around 140 million budget, to a mere 90 million for the next season, a reduction of over 50 million euros in less than two years.

This means that Valencia CF will be forced to sell this season as well, especially the big earners like Enzo Perez, Nani, Aymen Abdenour as well as find a permanent home for Alvaro Negredo who will be returning from loan by the end of June.

Even though Valencia CF got themselves a shirt sponsor finally, the amount is estimated at about 3 million euros per season, a far cry from the search for a 8-10 million euros sponsor two years ago and a significant far cry from Atletico Madrid who earn over 16 million euros per season.

Another news is that Mangala won't be coming to Valencia CF, as Manchester City don't want to sell him cheaper than 18 million euros, but even if they did sell him lower, his wage is way too big for Valencia CF to take on now, somewhere in excess of 6 million pounds, so close to 7 million euros per season.

In terms of transfer money Valencia CF can spend up to 15 million euros, anything more would put the team in the red, which would be unacceptable in the position the club is in right now. So all in all Valencia CF has a tough season ahead, too little money, high earners that no one wants like Enzo Perez and Alvaro Negredo, with Marcelino being one of the few positive things.

I can't wait for him to start full on work, hopefully there'll be videos of the training sessions, it would be interesting to see his training methods and I can't wait for the friendlies to see how the team will stack up. I'm excited, but also worried and cautious about the possibilities.