Valencia CF shouldn't sell its best and most senior players

Valencia CF wallpaper

Warning: Long wall of text!

There is a lot of talk these days and pretty much every season toward the end of it about selling players and rebuilding the squad and this and that, but while selling players way past their prime or just flops is perfectly fine and should be done, in fact its probably a necessity, Valencia CF should not sell its best and most senior players.

I see articles and comments on various sites how people wouldn't mind Valencia selling Jose Luis Gaya or Carlos Soler or Goncalo Guedes, etc... after all these players will bring the most amount of money, with one sale Valencia CF can balance the books and have a little bit left over for 1 replacement, but if we want sporting success, if we want Valencia CF to be competitive again we should not sell our best and most senior players! Players like Soler, Gaya, Guedes, Paulista, Jaume, etc... should not be sold at any circumstances. 

I understand people can become frustrated with some of the players poorer performances and are willing to sell those players momentarily, but just as we are seeing with Guedes now, he can be extremely valuable if played at the right position and with the right tactics. Allow him roaming freedom and play him as a forward and he excels in that position. We see how big of a difference just a position change can make, so if Gaya or Soler has poor form or even a bad season, we've seen these players perform very good, if they are underperforming the solution isn't to sell them, its to build a team around them, its to fit the formation and tactics TO the players, not the other way around! 

Clubs most senior players should also not be sold, a team is a combination of its players, but players who play for long in their respective clubs become synonymous with that club, they become the face of that club, people love and respect those players. Valencia CF used to have a ton of those players in the past, in fact we kept senior players for as long as we could, players who either retired at VCF or went on to play a season or two at a lower level before retiring. 

Who would Valencia CF be without Gaya, Soler, Paulista and even Guedes? You can not have a team of completely new players every few seasons, fans will lose interest in the team, fans want to see their favorite players play, if all of the players are new, they don't have favorites anymore, it takes time for fans to accept new players as favorites, they have to represent the club well for few seasons for that to happen, a team of nobodies and unknowns is not fun to watch or follow, a team of unknowns doesn't fill the stadiums, doesn't bring people to the screens, doesn't even keep existing fans! 

Because of Kang-In Lee for example Valencia CF probably for the first time in its history had some South Korean fans, in fact even this site has gotten some visits from South Korea. Now imagine if we had kept Kang-In Lee, played him a bit more in order to sway him to sign the new contract, then play him less again if that is the proper thing, but imagine if we build him up little by little and 2 years from now he is an amazing star for VCF, there would be a ton more Korean fans, Valencia CF would have a significant South Korean fanbase. That is how you build a team, a club! 

We gave away Parejo who was the VCF captain, one of our most senior players and one of our best players, we gave away Garay one of the most experienced players and a player we spent 20 million euros on, just to have him leave just like that, because Peter Lim has the emotions of a 5yo and can't control his emotions, so Garay speaking publicly against the sacking of Marcelino was too much for Peter Lim to bear. Then we basically gave away Kondogbia to Sevilla who was one of our best players in recent history, he came back from injury and was of course not as good, but players need time to get back in form, get all those football instincts working again.

We see the outcome because of these massive giveaways, these were not even sales, we essentially gave half our squad away for pennies or for literally nothing. Now we are 16th position or whatever, not even secure from relegation with only 6 matches to go until the season ends. 

So no, I don't think we should sell any of our best and most senior players, nor do I ever think its a good idea to do that! Just look at Real Madrid, they still have the same core of players from like 5-6 years ago of Ramos, Marcelo, Modric, Kroos, Benzema, etc... They kept Ronaldo for such a long time, it was basically towards the later parts of his career and requiring an absurd salary that they decided to sell him and pocket 100 million euros. Real Madrid keeps its best players, keeps its veterans. 

If we looks at Barcelona they also keep their players for extremely long time, they still have Pique, Alba, Sergi, Messi, only in the past few seasons they've sold some of their other top players like Rakitic, Luiz Suarez, etc... otherwise they keep the same core of players for a long period and that is why they are successful. 

If we take a look at the most successful clubs, they usually keep a core base of players for a very long time, that should tell us something. If we want success we have to keep our core players, we have to build a team around them! 

I remember in the past where we kept players like Baraja, Albelda for such a long time, even if they didn't contribute as much on the field, they contribute immensely on the training field, in the dressing room with their prestige and experience, they create a certain level of confidence, certain level of security, it lifts every single player! 

So yeah, if Valencia CF want to become successful, competitive and respected it has to keep its core players, it has to keep its senior players who've benefited this club, it has to be smarted on who to sell and keep, it has to look at all of the top clubs and see that each and every one of them keeps their core players for a very long time. So build a team around Gaya, Soler, Guedes, Paulista, we also have some talented players with big potentials, give them opportunities in order to improve them, try to help them reach their potential. 

I think Correia has a bright future, he's shown that is a very capable defender, at first he was more error prone, made more mistakes, but has improved immensely and has become a better player since arriving. Kang-In Lee has huge potential, but unfortunately our terrible management lost another great player, we are forced to sell him now in the summer. Lato has shown glimpses of talent, etc...