It has been hard to write anything about Valencia recently as the team seems stuck in a downward spiral which won't change until the current owner goes.
I was tempted to put up a post saying "Valencia's transfer window so far" and leave the text blank. 😏
Generally, our recent summer transfer windows have followed a predictable pattern.
1) We get linked with every man and his dog. Often it's ex-players.
2) Anyone interesting from those linked gets bought by Sevilla, Villarreal or Sociedad instead.
3) Constant rumours about who's leaving and stories the club won't budge from its asking price.
4) August comes and we do budge and sell people way under value, as news stories about us rarely avoid mentioning "our difficult financial position." Other clubs take notice, wait us out them lowball us.
5) The additions are usually people we hadn't heard of, who emerge very late in the market. Often, we're scrambling around in the last hour or two trying to close signings.
6) The signings are almost always loans with possible buy options.
7) Exceptions to the above are when a Mendes client is involved and then suddenly we do have money.
So finally we can report a first signing. It's Samu Castillejo, formerly of Malaga and Villarreal, who joins us on a free with Milan reserving a percentage of a future sale plus some performance related bonuses (qualification for Europe etc.)
He is, inevitably, a less exciting signing than he would have been a few years ago when Milan bought him for nearly 25 million. Since then his star has fallen. He was seriously out of favour last season and played a grand total of 124 minutes! Let's hope he can recover. He usually plays as a winger but can be used as a second striker. His goalscoring rate is unimpressive, but then again, it's Valencia.
In other transfer news, the club is still trying to get offers for Guedes and Soler, with the fate of others like Gaya, Guillamon and Diakhaby up in the air. Surprisingly, there's been little news about Cillessen moving out.
The club was linked with Edison Cavani (hugely unlikely) and, more realistically with Mario Balotelli. The latter as a "past-it" star in the mould of people like Negredo or Nani seems realistic. It's hard to get exicted about it as his last 2 seasons have been in Serie B and the Turkish league, where he did at least score 18 times last season.