Valencia CF unlikely to bring in reinforcements

Valencia CF are unlikely to bring in reinforcements this winter transfer window as the club is saving up money for salaries and the possible restart of construction of the new Mestalla. As you all know the club sold most of its key players this summer and kept a small core of players. This brought a decent amount of needed cash and lowered the salary bill significantly, but it also meant rebuilding the team yet again anew with a new coach on top of it.

Valencia CF brought in new mostly loan players and older players in order to fill up the team and tasked Gennaro Gattuso with forging this new team. The team is likely self-sufficient right now as in it probably brings in enough revenue and has low enough expenditures that its likely making small profits at the end of the season, though that is without actual transfers. 

In order for the club to bring in new players it would have to first sell players and then use that money to bring new players. So, you can see how the club is unwilling to spend any money in this transfer window and is keeping its options for summer. 

There has also been limited speculation, with few reports suggesting that Valencia CF might bring in a midfielder and one winger, but even in the speculation department it's been fairly quiet, this just goes to show how unlikely it is for Valencia to bring in any new players.

I think the current squad can improve slightly and bring in somewhat better results, but it's going to take very hard work and a serious dedication by the players to want to do much better. 

Official: Anil Murthy sacked

Valencia CF confirmed today that Anil Murthy will no longer serve as president of the club. The statement comes after the audio clips that were made public, from which the club is now distancing itself claiming that they do not reflect the opinions of anyone but himself.

Anil Murthy is a top contender for worst president of the club. He has made a habit of disrespecting fans and the club, shirking responsibility, and blaming everyone else for the misfortunes of the club. The sporting aspect of the club often took a backseat to the antics and mishaps brought about under his management. Of course, that's what he's been hired to do, otherwise why would Lim keep him for this long? The club has replaced coaches left and right, yet the president has stayed despite his shortcomings and failures. In the end, it took some leaks to get rid of him, not the consecutive years of poor performance, or the disrespect, or that coaches and players alike had disputes with him. That in itself says something.

Better late than never, yes, but if his behavior was condoned by the owner for this long, the root of the problem still remains. The club is currently in search of a replacement and you can't help but fear that it will be more of the same. Ever since Lim took over, the club has been falling into the same mistakes over and over, with little learned. Why would this be any different?

Why is Valencia CF underprerforming?

Why is Valencia CF underperforming or is this the maximum this squad can give? I was shocked when Valencia CF lost last match against Deportivo Alaves the second worst team in La Liga currently. A team that has conceded 38 goals and can't even score 1 goal per game, but against Valencia CF they scored two goals and made Valencia CF look like the relegation team. 

I was very pleased with the way Valencia played against Athletic Bilbao in the cup, it was a scrappy match for big parts, but we saw an attacking Valencia CF side that seemed capable of scoring goals at any given moment and we gave Bilbao a big scare, losing at home to a Valencia side that is struggling in the league, when they beat Real Madrid and Barcelona before us to reach the semi final. 

Little did I know none of that fighting spirit and attacking quality would transfer over to the league match. Jose Bordalas fielded a very strong team, we had Guedes in attack, Soler in midfield, Thierry in defense, Yunus had done well in central midfield in the previous matches he started, so it was all good, this was 95% the strongest team, we missed Bryan Gil, Hugo Duro and Gaya, but apart from Gil who is world class, I don't see how Hugo or Gaya would have made a difference and truth is they didn't when they were introduced on half time. In fact it took a penalty for Valencia CF to equalize the score, but then Alaves were awarded one as well and they clinched the match. 

Time to go back to basics!

Valencia's disastrous loss against Real Betis has rung the alarm bells as the team has played 7 matches without a win. It all started with a string of injuries to our key players, Soler, Gaya, Correia, Cheryshev, all injured for an extended period of time and unfortunately we could not properly replace them as none of the options proved capable! 

The team has been slowly getting back together, but its clear that we lack team cohesion and team work. Real Betis really showed us how the game is meant to be played and that is with team work and coordination, something which Valencia CF woefully lack! Jose Bordalas needs to go back to basics and start from scratch! The team needs to gel together, to form cohesion, to learn each other's movements and anticipate where players are going to play!

We need serious tactical training, in fact I think the team needs to just play as many short matches as possible, each player has to learn where the others are going to be at any given point and anticipate how others are going to play! When Valencia CF plays it all feels disjointed, it all feels disorganized and we seem to be relying too much on individual skill and luck to get us through games! 

Pepe Bordalas has his work cut out for him, luckily we have an easier match on October 30th against Villarreal CF and a chance to steer the ship at the proper course! We've faced Villarreal CF already in the preseason and we won 3-2 against them, they are also not doing much better than us. 

Once again Jose Bordalas has to start to build the team from the ground up, focus on gameplay, focus on cohesion, focus on ball control. Yeah the players can be physically ready to play for say 120 minutes, but it doesn't help if they just get outplayed! We also need a playmaker, I mean after Baraja we fortunately had Aimar for a while, then we had Banega, but since then we've not had a real playmaker. Parejo has served that role on most occasions, but he was not a real play maker, we need someone with vision in the center midfield to organize the play, to carry the ball forward with confidence. We need a Baraja basically! Soler is a work horse, he is a busy body, he does a lot of stuff, but he is not a play maker. Daniel Wass kind of has the same defensive role as Hugo, but I think the overlap might be a bit too big for both of them to play in the same team, especially when its not bearing any fruit! 

In fact I think Guedes is probably our biggest play maker as he is the only one who can realistically carry the ball forward and who often needs to come back to get the ball so an attack can happen! I think Bordalas needs to think about ditching one of Wass or Hugo, they are both defensive midfielders and where are the results? Maybe try Foulqier in central midfield, maybe Helder Costa, idk figure out who has the chops to be a play maker and try it out. 

Valencia versus Real Madrid and Barcelona in La Liga since year 2000

 It's that time again. Valencia, after an impressive start to the season, face Real Madrid, who have had a similarly good start. If history tells us anything it's that these games are filled with drama. A dubious injury time penalty in early 2004 when both Valencia and RM were battling for the title denied us 3 points at the Bernabeu. Another controversial penalty was awarded against Abdennour at home to Barca to steal a morale boosting point at one of our lowest ebbs.

Valencia's performances against the El Clasico two usually seem to defy form and logic. In one of our better periods, when we were constantly finishing third, we lost all 4 games each season. Conversely, in one of the worst seasons this century, 2015-16, Neville's Valencia was a last minute Negredo miss away from beating Real Madrid, while Neville's successor, the otherwise inept Pako Ayestaran, beat Barcelona at the Nou Camp. (Ayestaran's account of how he did it is worth a watch.) So here's the table since the year 2000 in La Liga

From that, it's clear that our best years against the big two were the first half of the 2000s. The 2005-6 season remains the only one where we were unbeaten by both of them, taking 8 points from 12. That along with the title winning seasons were the only ones when we managed to beat both the big two in the same season.

Our worst period was 2009-2013, much of that coinciding with Unai Emery's tenure. In fact Emery's poor record against the big two, despite having a squad which contained peak-level Villa, Silva and Mata, was one of the main reasons why the Mestalla faithful turned against him. 

Our overall record against both is similar: 36 points from a possible 126 against Barcelona and 37 points against Real Madrid, but this is markedly different depending on where we play. Against Barcelona, weirdly we've done as well in the Nou Camp as we do in Mestalla: 4-6-11 is our record in both stadiums. Against La Real however, there's a marked difference. In Mestalla we're 7-4-10 while in Madrid it's been mostly barren ground: 2-6-13. We've also done quite a bit better against Madrid in recent times: our home record is 4-2-1 over the last seven seasons. On the other hand, our last win in the Bernabeu was in 2007-8.

Sunday will continue the journey and the hope is we can continue our recent home streak against them.

Valencia CF transfer window has been a disaster

Valencia CF went into the summer with a clear plan on which players to sell, recoup 40 million euros, balance the budget and with the leftovers and some clever maneuvering sign few reinforcements, but all that changed when half the players who were going on international duty tested positive for covid19 and in the case of Cillessen was completely left out of the squad. 

Valencia CF was planning on selling Cillessen, Diakhaby, Kang-In Lee and either Maxi Gomez or Guedes depending which one got a better offer, but it soon became obvious that no one wanted Maxi Gomez, why would they when he barely scored any goals and was a spectator for the whole season, while Cillessen was supposed to go far with Holland, but that didn't work out so no offers came for him either.

Most people know how the football market is these days, with most clubs going for cheap deals, loans or player swaps, with the bigger clubs going for some big money player, but only of the biggest names or biggest upcoming talents, so spending 40 million euros on a hot and cold player like Guedes isn't realistic in this market. Football stadiums have been closed for over a year and a half and that has caused tremendous financial damage to football clubs, but most businesses have been hurt, especially small local businesses all over the world being forced to close down for weeks and months and some even years now on end. Its been a financial tragedy in which only the biggest corporations like Amazon, Apple, Google and the sort have made billions more that even before the pandemic, while most small businesses have bankrupted and closed down! 

Valencia CF transfer season on hold!

Valencia CF transfer season has been put on hold as the club's plans were all shattered once the season ended. I've written many times before, but I'll do it again, Valencia CF needed 31 million euros before the season ended, once the season ended with some previous transfers like De Paul and Kondogbia the club received an additional 7-8 million euros, so the total needed to balance the budget as of right now is about 24 million euros. The issue is that ALL of the plans before the end of the season failed. Players who were supposed to be at the Euro 2020 missed out, some due to covid19 at the last minute, others weren't called up at all and even those called up haven't featured much, if at all at the Euro 2020. 

The only player to regularly feature at the Euro 2020 has been Wass, though even he due to not feeling well missed the last match against Wales in which Denmark won 4-0. As such the sales of many of the players Valencia CF were counting on did not materialize and won't materialize. So the club has to look in another direction to make money. Even players like Diakhaby who Valencia CF want to sell and who they thought can get 10 million euros for in the French of English leagues has not panned out. 

These last few days the rumor mill has been going on strong in Spain, with reports of Valencia CF planning on selling Jose Luis Gaya. Valencia CF have reportedly been approached by FC Barcelona and are they are inquiring how much they will have to pay to secure the services of the player. FC Barcelona are supposedly ready to offer 30 million euros plus a player to Valencia CF, while Valencia CF want 40+ million euros. 

I've been adamant that we should not sell Gaya, Soler, Guedes, Correia and Paulista and we should build a team around them, I believe that is the only way forward for Valencia CF to be competitive again. Valencia CF can still make those 24 million euros if they sell Kang-In Lee for 15 million euros and then basically any other player for about 10 million or so, Maxi, Cillessen, Diakhaby, etc... Truth be told we have few very highly rated players and then all the rest of them are dirt cheap and not rated highly at all. 

Euro 2020 has not been positive for Valencia CF

Peter Lim and the management team at Valencia CF put a lot of hope in the Euro 2021 as a way to get exposure for players and increase their value in the hopes that they can sell them at a higher fee in order to balance the budget for this year. Valencia CF initially needed 32 million euros for that, but since then due to Valencia's previous sales of players and their clauses the club has been able to get an additional 7-8 million euros.

So now Valencia CF only needs around 24 million euros to balance the budget, but as I've reported previously Meriton and Peter Lim want to settle the loans they gave to the club several years back for the purchase of some players. Unless this changes and Lim settles to extend the loan payment, VCF will be forced to pay them around 50 million euros or give Meriton players worth 50 million euros.

The Euro 2021 was the perfect opportunity to get players value to rise, especially the likes of Cillessen, Cheryshev, Guedes, Wass and even Gaya and others, but due to contacting covid19 Cillessen was removed from his national squad, while other players who contacted it as well still kept their place, but did arrive late to their national teams and therefore have not featured even once. Even Gaya who's featured a lot more for Spain has been an unused reserve this Euro and Cheryshev was used as a substitute, but substituted himself after just around 50 minutes or so.

Only Daniel Wass has been used by Denmark in both their matches, but at 32 years of age and only one year left in his contract with Valencia CF he is not going to fetch good money, especially as Denmark have lost both their games. Guedes also arrived a bit later and as such he wasn't even called up for their first match and was an unused sub in their second match. 

So yeah, even though Goncalo Guedes has raised rumors about wanting to leave, without playing at the Euro he is not going to be worth anything near what the club would have hoped and wanted. Valued by transfermarkt at 25 million euros, possibly 30 million euros a more realistic number, but still short 10 million of his value when he arrived at Valencia CF and short of what Valencia CF would need to balance the budget and bring in reinforcements. 

Jose Bordalas is a step up over Javi Gracia

Jose Bordalas wasn't my first choice, but I think out of the pool that Valencia CF was realistically looking at he was probably the best choice. He is experienced Spanish coach who's experience is exclusively in Spain and while Javi Gracia is also an experienced coach, he did not have the same drive and ambition. Javi Gracia was the typical mid table coach that you hire to maintain your position if you are scared of doing worse. 

Jose Bordalas on the other hand is much more ambitious and is always looking to improve his team and himself, he is constantly pushing his players and himself to do better and that is very important in a coach. He's shown with Getafe CF that he can take a weak team and significantly improve them over time, instill new tactics and instill a fighting mentality in his players. I think what Javi Gracia lacked the most was instilling drive and fighting mentality in the players, I saw it every time Valencia CF was defending, all of our players were marking the opposition players very loosely, giving them so much space and time to work with. There was no urgency in our play, even when we were relegation threatened there was no urgency in the play at all and it showed in the results. 

Valencia CF to rely on loans to get players

Valencia CF made it official that they have appointed Jose Bordalas as new coach on a two year deal with an option to extend for a third. So congratulations to him and hope that it will be a fruitful match.

Two players have already left the club in Kevin Gameiro and Mangala, so essentially Valencia CF is a central defender short and an attacker short. Don't forget that Valencia CF has to get 30 million euros to balance the budget so that means more players leaving. 

Since Valencia CF doesn't have any money for player transfers unless they sell big and the only player worth more than 30 million euros right now is Goncalo Guedes which I believe would be a mistake to sell. This leaves the club with the only other option available and that is loan deals. Peter Lim and the club management plan to add replacements and fill up the squad with loan players who have cheap purchase options at the end of their loan deals.

My prediction and the most likely case would be Maxi Gomez and Kang-In Lee leaving for a combined 35 million euros. Now we cut one of the biggest salaries in the club, that basically frees up over 15 million euros, so Valencia CF could make a discovery in the second division and search for bargain players. But even at bargain prices we are looking at at least 5 million euros for players, possibly more if they've had an excellent season. 

Valencia CF next coach

Rafa Benitez to coach Valencia CF again?

The most important decision in the following weeks is what coach to appoint to lead Valencia CF. We know it can't be a relatively new coach, we've tried that many times even before the Lim era and it hasn't worked. We've done it with former Valencia CF players like Pellegrino, Djukic, we've done it with British stars like Gary Neville, we've done it a lot of times and in the past decade its never worked. You could say it worked with Benitez, but that was 2 decades ago and when he came to Valencia CF he was coaching a first division club. So he wasn't really that new and again that was over a decade ago, these days it would be harder to succeed for an inexperienced coach as he has to develop new younger players and improve the team he has, Benitez when he arrived had a solid team that just needed the right method to make it work.

Coincidently though Rafael Benitez is free and his last few stints haven't been a great success, his Real Madrid stint was a failure, he then went to New Castle and failed to rescue them from relegation, but did bring them to the premier league the next season before being sacked, and ultimately he went to China for a big money deal, but he had no offers from any big European clubs. 

Valencia vs Leeds in 2001 UEFA Champions League semi-final

With Lim running the club into the ground and now not even being shy about the fact that he doesn't care (see his Financial Times interview where he says the club is a "trophy asset that is incredibly good for networking) it's hard to believe that Valencia was one of the top clubs in Europe. Today is the 20th anniversary of our last UEFA Champions League semi-final versus Leeds United. (It is, incidentally, also Leeds' last Champions League game.)

Valencia had of course reached the previous final, suffering a disappointing 0-3 reversal against Real Madrid. The result was also a let down in Zaragoza, since Madrid had finished 5th and it therefore deprived Zaragoza of a Champs league place. In the summer, in a reminder that we were always a selling club, we lost Piojo Lopez to Lazio for €35m (€49m in today's money.) Gerard to Barcelona for €24m and Farinos to Inter for €16m. We did at least use part of that money wisely, bringing in players who would be the mainstay of the team in the following years: Aimar from River Plate, John Carew from Rosenberg, Vicente from Levante and Ayala from Milan.

Under Hector Cuper, Valencia was fired up and ready to go one better. With only the top two Spanish teams qualifying automatically for the group stage, we had to enter a play-off versus Tirol Innsbruck. After a goalless draw in Austria, Valencia easily brushed them aside 4-1 at Mestalla, with a brace from Mendieta and Diego Alonso.

Fire Anil Murthy, bring Manual Llorente

Valencia CF should bring Manuel Llorente back

Manuel Llorente former Valencia CF president

Valencia CF should fire its president Anil Murthy and try to bring in Manuel Llorente as president of the club. Remember that Valencia CF had some of its best years under Manuel Llorente, he fixed some of the economic mess left from before, sure he had to sell players, but never on a whim, never for less than their value, he always oversold and put some of the money into economic recovery and the other into bringing in adequate replacements. 

He also started the process of selling Valencia CF and brought in a ton of investors in his time, he didn't finish the process, but was instrumental in it and positioning Valencia CF good enough financially and sporting wise to be sold for a solid amount. 

I think he was the best Valencia CF president in recent history, and really helped Valencia CF back when it was the most difficult, crushing debts looming, players whos contract are close to running out, falling apart New Mestalla with no plan to ever finish it, etc... 

Valencia CF season 2021/22 plans

Valencia CF wallpaper

There are a dozen of things that will 100% happen in the next season. First of all Valencia CF will have to sell players in order to earn around 40 million euros, about 30 million euros to balance the books and an additional 10 million euros for replacements, mostly players from second division clubs.

Second Valencia CF will need to reduce its wage bill, so that means not only will the sold players have to bring in a lot of money, but they have to be one of the highest earners in the club in order to reduce the wage bill, that means at least one of Guedes, Maxi, Cillessen, and/or Gaya will have to be sold.

Diakhaby shouldn't play anymore

I couldn't watch the match against Osasuna as I was working second shift, but I watched the highlights, looked at the stats, the match reports and our comment section and its the same old story, the same issues week after week since the start of this season. Last season if you remember Valencia CF sacked Albert Celades essentially with 6 games to go, though quite a bit later as there was a big pause due to Covid19, but essentially in a normal season it would have been around this time he would have been sacked and Valencia CF was actually eight place when he was sacked. Valencia CF now is at 14th place, let that sink in, we are 14th place right now, when we were 8th place last season and Celades was sacked due to poor results! 

Javi Gracia has not only not improved the team, but he has regressed it and even though some players keep on making the same mistakes game after game and keep causing the same issues, he neither changes the players, nor the system to better protect them and cover for the weaker players! 

How many big mistakes should Diakhaby make in order to lose his starting spot in this team? I can count at least 6 big mistakes in each of the last 6 matches he's played, in each match he essentially makes at least one big mistake, not to mention all the smaller mistakes he keep on making that thankfully get dealt with or don't result in goals! 

Is Maxi Gomez sale the fix for Valencia CF financial issues?

There has been a lot of reports lately about players being sold and bought by Valencia CF, with one of the most mentioned names being Goncalo Guedes. I reported about Valencia CF planning to sell Goncalo Guedes quite a while ago and if you go and read that article you'll see that Valencia CF has financial pressure from multiple sides, including the Valencian government who are planning to impose certain penalties as the club has done met its obligations to build the new Mestalla in the timeframe agreed with the city and actually renegotiated few times as well. 

Either way Valencia CF have to acquire about 30 million euros to balance the books for this year and the easiest target seemed to be Guedes as he hasn't really justified his high price tag, but with his performances improving significantly the past couple of matches, his sale has become more complicated. He's shown that he can be an asset to Valencia CF and overall this season he's been one of the better performing players overall, though he's had his ups and downs like all of the rest of our players. 

To make matters even more complicated Wolves has now entered the picture and want to purchase Guedes, their initial plan was about 20 million euros plus Patrick Cutrone, though Valencia CF have recently been interested in Rafa Mir who is also a Wolves player, though realistically I doubt Rafa Mir would want to join Valencia CF as he didn't leave on the best of terms and there are clubs like Sevilla and Atletico Madrid interested in him. 

Valencia Mestalla in shambles

Miss this guy yet?

You thought Valencia CF has issues, think again! Valencia Mestalla or Valencia's B team is doing terribly, so much so that the team is last position in segunda B relegation group, after being last in their previous group. There is 4 if I may call them "divisions" above the one VCF Mestalla is playing right now, so its not like they were just too highly positioned and are now going back to their real level, no the division the team is right now is quite low, there is still a bit lower than that, but at those levels its teams C level or lower teams playing.

Peter Lim and Anil Murthy love to mention the word "youth", but how can Valencia CF draw from its youth pool, when these players are so bad they can't even sustain in second division group 3 or whatever. This is just another example of the bad management under Peter Lim, there is literally no long term planning, no long term stability, no real management and staff that have a clue how to run a club. Its all makeshift, put duck tape on it and leave it be like that. 

Valencia CF needs to find a winning path

The focus since the Cadiz match has been on racism and rightly so, the relevant institutions need to deal with that, setup protocols and of course lay out punishments if there is evidence. With that said the team should be 100% focused on getting better and winning. We can't lose focus and engage in racism hunting and all of a sudden Valencia CF is going to magically end racism, no, the club as an institution can work on that, but our players, our sporting staff should be 100% focused on getting better. Valencia CF has not strung more than 1 win this whole season, its one of the worse seasons in terms of being able to win and our away form this season has been the worst in all of Valencia's history! 

Club football resumes

International football has concluded and club football will resume this weekend. Valencia CF has dozen players represent their countries, Yunus Musah, Jose Gaya, Daniel Wass, Cutrone, Cillessen. 

Cillessen is the only casualty, with him getting injured at a practice match, his recovery is estimated to be 3 weeks, so he should be technically available next week. 

Jose Gaya only featured in one of the matches, a 1-1 draw with Greece and in the two other games Jordi Alba was preferred. 

Daniel Wass featured in two of the three matches for Denmark, he played as a right back in both match and Denmark won its matches in pretty dominant fashion. 

Cutrone played for Italy's U21's and score two goals in the last match, though he featured in all three matches. 

Yunus Musah played in both friendly matches for the USA, being replaced at half time in the second match. 

Jasper Cillessen to be sold in the summer?

 As I've reported previously Valencia CF will need to come up 30 million euros the following summer in order to balance its books. As such players with high wages are being planned for sale, as not only will their transfer fee be decent, but the savings on their salaries will be huge. 

Valencia CF is planning on selling Goncalo Guedes and the club would save something like 5 million a year on wages, so in 4 years that is 20 million euros saved solely on wages on one players. Another big earner is Jasper Cillessen and with the fact that he has been quite injury prone and getting injured yet again with Netherlands on a practice match, means that he is likely the other player who is going to be sold this summer.