Valencia CF is headed towards relegation

Valencia's last win came on March 11th and it was only enough to push us 1 point over the relegation zone, since then Valencia CF has lost 3 matches and drawn one. In the past the team has been able to muster up enough determination to stick it to our direct rivals in the past like Sevilla, Atletico Madrid, Bilbao, etc.... but this season we've not seen any of that, and how could we? Our current Valencia CF consists of loanees who are going to be out of the club next season and don't care what happens to this club at all or are players who are here for the first year, many have options to just jump ship if it goes overboard, so why should they care?

I've been saying this for years now, probably good 5-6 years that all of our "rebuilding" has been detrimental to our club. Each year Valencia CF is rebuilding, and all that means is we sell our top players and bring in 4-5 cheap replacements, which we don't even give a chance anyways and then sell those replacements next year for even worse ones and lose money in the process. 

Which player in our squad has been with the team for more than 3 years? Jaume has been here for a longer period, and he is our youth product, but he's never been a key player, he's always been a reserve, but okay its still important to have veterans at the club, even if they are second or third fiddle. Diakhaby, Paulista, Gaya, Correia and Lato are more than 3 years with the club, then in terms of midfielders none have been with the team for 3 or more years! Well only Hugo technically, but he was first in the B team and only joined the first team in 2020. 

None of our attackers have been with the team for 3 years, so out of about 26 or 27 players we only have 7 players who've been at the club for 3 or more years who would give a damn slightly about the club. The rest of the players are all new players who've been the at the club for barely a year or two or loan players who will leave us the next season anyways! 

Our team doesn't have a CORE of players to build around, we've been selling all of our top players year after year, bringing in weaker and cheaper alternatives and we're at the point where we can't even bring cheap alternatives, we are bringing loan players who literally don't care about the club. Why would they? 

Its hard for me a fan of over 20 years to care these days, how would a loan player who's been at Valencia for barely 6-7 months care about the future of the club? Why would he give his utter maximum on the pitch, why would he risk injury? 

And those who do give everything I'm afraid are not good enough! This is why we are in a relegation battle with a real possibility of dropping to the B division! At this point even if Lim is to magically disappear from the club and the best and brightest people take it over to lead it, it still won't change anything, at least not in the short term. The damage has already been done to the club, we don't have a playing core at Valencia CF, we don't have a Valencian technical team, we don't have people who love and care about the club anymore! They've all left or been let go and we have a bunch of mercenaries running and working for the club. 

Unfortunately, we seem to truly be headed towards relegation and I'm not seeing anything that is going to reassure me we are not headed towards relegation! Valencia's one of the oldest and most prestigious clubs in Spain, has been for a century and all it took was a lunatic owner to bring it on its knees in only a decade! 

Valencia appoint Rubén Baraja

Valencia have announced that Rubén Baraja has taken over as manager. He has a contract until  the end of the season, with no option to extend, even if he does well. Yet again, we've had 3 people in charge in a month and he's the 10th permanent manager, not counting Voro, in 9 and a half years of Meriton mismanagement.

Not for the first time, Meriton seem to be making it up as they go along. The idea was that Voro would take over till the end of the season. However, he failed to produce a spark in results and so the panic button was pressed once more.

Unlike some of the obscure choices foisted on us from Singapore, Baraja, of course, needs no introduction. His status as a club legend as a player is assured. He was the top scorer, albeit with a mere 7 goals, when we won the league in 2002. The problem comes when you look at his managerial career. Underwhelming is not the word. Poor is.

He's failed to last even a year in his 5 permanent jobs. In two of them, he lasted just 3 months. Is he the man to bring about a reversal in fortunes? It's hard to have confidence he will. Overall, as well, the experiment of having club legends manage us has usually gone badly rather than well this century. Only Quique Sanchez Flores had any reasonable level of results. Pellegrino and Dukic failed. The spell of Pizzi (hardly a club legend anyway) is probably better remembered by fans than it was. He did get us to a European semi-final, but league results were poor. 

Where Baraja may help is in motivating a mentally fragile squad as someone who has "walked the walk" at Mestalla. He also has credit in the bank with fans, meaning he'll be given more time. Indeed, some would say his appointment is a cynical effort by Meriton to quieten fans. Really at this point, even if Lim appointed Guardiola and signed Haaland and Mbappe, the relationship with fans is irreparably damaged. 

Sad to say, my hopes are low and my confidence is shattered. The Almeria game was the last one I watched and I'm sorry to admit that I haven't regretted skipping the games, for the sake of my nerves. Even if Baraja somehow manages to save this season, we're looking at a placing of 15th or below. The rot and the decline is clear and we all know why. In the very best case scenario that I see, we escape relegation this season but sell players like Mamardashvili and Musah in the summer, replace them with loan players from Barcelona or Atletico Madrid's b-teams and then get relegated next season instead. Fans who naively hope that may improve things will be disappointed. Relegation will make a poor financial situation much worse, as the cases of Malaga, Zaragoza and Depor show. It would not remotely surprise me to see Lim hang on after relegation and even in the miraculous event he sells, there are plenty more "Lims" out there. We are screwed and I don't see a way out.

Gattuso sacked

 And so the Meriton managerial merry-go-round continues. Valencia announced earlier today that Gattuso has left the club "by mutual consent." 

This just sounds like a polite way of saying that he was fired. Since a win at Osasuna in early October, Valencia have played 14 games and won just 3. Two of those were against lower league opposition in the Copa, so don't really count. In the league the numbers were becoming awful: 1 win, 4 draws and 5 defeats. 

The squad planning has been poor with big gaps. The midfield has been increasingly weak and easily overrun. As the season has gone on, players who showed promise early in the season like Comert, Cenk, Guillamon, Almeida and Musah have all regressed. The coach has to shoulder responsibility for that.

Another issue is that the team has been mentally fragile. In no fewer than 5 games this season (Espanyol and Villarreal away; Elche, Mallorca and Almeria at home) Valencia led. The points tally from those games? 3. We lost 2 and drew 3. That's 12 points squandered as a result of poor game management, in games where we would mostly be expected to win in any case. 

The late goals conceded also point to that. 83rd minute against Espanyol and Mallorca, 86th against Sevilla, 88th against Villarreal, 90th against Valladolid, 93rd against Barcelona = 8 points thrown away. 

Gattuso and his style of play was broadly welcomed as a breath of fresh air after the stodgy, hard-to-watch, anti-football of the Bordalas era. Sadly, his inexperience showed in the end and he should have done much better with this group of players. In the end, only Ayestaran and Prandelli have had shorter stints in the Lim era, while Gattuso's percentage of games won sees him below even Gary Neville. Caveats about squad strength aside, the results were simply not good enough.

Of course, all of us will know the wider picture of Meriton chaos and mismanagement and it is they, not Gattuso, who have to take the lion's share of the blame for all this. Unfortunately, we are now in the all too familiar situation of hoping Voro can somehow conjure some magic to save us, but this is totally not sustainable.

Valencia gets Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey

Valencia CF will face Athletic Bilbao in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey. This was the best outcome Valencia CF could have hoped for as all other opponents, except for maybe Osasuna were much better. We avoided Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Sevilla and got an opponents that we have good chances of beating and continuing in the semifinals of the cup.

The match is scheduled for 25th of January, only two days after Valencia's league match against Almeria on the 23rd of January. 

Here are all of the draws for the Spanish Copa del Rey:

Real Madrid - Atlético de Madrid

Osasuna - Sevilla FC

Valencia CF - Athletic Bilbao

Real Sociedad - Barcelona FC

Valencia CF target midfielder Sergi Canos

Valencia CF have inquired about Brentford midfielder Sergi Canos. Valencia CF are willing to purchase the player for a sum of 1 million euros. Brentford will be okay with such a low sum because his contract expires this summer and getting any sum over losing his for free is a benefit. 

Canos transferred to Brentford in 2017, for whom he had previously played on loan from Liverpool during the 2015–16 season. He's made over 200 appearances for Brentford, but has struggled for playing time this season and with his contract running out this summer he could be on his way out. He's scored over 30 goals for Brentford and has played various positions from central midfielder to attacker. 

He is 25 years of age and has a lot more playing time in him, he is at that age where his prime is just beginning, so maybe he could return to form at Valencia CF. He is a versatile player and can cover multiple positions. 

Goncalo Guedes wants a return to Valencia CF

Goncalo Guedes is another option for Valencia CF to take on loan as Wolves have listed the player on the transfer market. They want to sell the player and recuperate some of the money they spent on him, but bidders are in short supply this transfer window as clubs have tightened their purses and are looking at cheaper options with Wolves wanting somewhere in the region of 25 to 30 million euros for Goncalo Guedes.

Another option would be for them to loan out the player in order for him to regain some of his market value and what better destination than Valencia CF where the player got his recognition from. Goncalo Guedes also wants a return to Valencia CF and Gattuso wants a winger to strengthen Valencia's attack and provide more cover for the position.

In case you haven't been following Guedes after his departure from Valencia CF, he hasn't celebrated himself at his new club, in fact it's been going really downhill for him. He started good enough for Wolves and he was a starter at the start of the season, but they weren't getting a lot of good results and Guedes had failed to provide many goals or assists and slowly but surely, he went out of favor with his initial coach. Bruno Lage was then fired due to a string of poor results, but this didn't change Guedes's fortune, he didn’t feature all that much under interim manager Steve Davis either. 

Things have become even worse under new manager Julen Lopetegui, with Guedes being substituted half time against Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup.  Guedes was left out of the squad for the matchday squad against West Ham United.

Adnan Januzaj to join Valencia CF?

Valencia CF are negotiating the loan of Sevilla winger Adnan Januzaj. Adnan Januzaj joined Sevilla in 2022 as one of the many reinforcements that was supposed to create a new era of success at the club, but it's been nothing short of disaster. Now they are cleaning house and one of the targets is Adnan Januzaj who's barely featured at all since his arrival at Sevilla FC.

Adnan Januzaj had the most success at Real Sociedad where he featured over 130 times and managed to score 15 goals for them. He's also played 15 times for the Belgium representation and scored one goal for them! 

Gennaro Gattuso want the club to bring him another winger and even though central midfielder Nico was injured and will be out for 3 months, Gattuso still thinks the team lacks offensive options and wants another winger to join the team. 

Certainly not the most exciting option that has been rumored, he's also barely played in an official match since joining Sevilla and there are questions about his fitness and form. What do you think about Adnan Januzaj joining Valencia CF on loan?

Valencia CF after Facundo Pellestri

Valencia CF are going after Manchester United winger Facundo Pellestri. The offer is an initial loan deal for the rest of the season with an option to purchase the player at the end of the season. It's highly unlikely that Manchester United are going to agree with a buyout clause, though they might loan the player to Valencia CF in the hopes that he gets more play time. 

Facundo Pellestri joined Manchester United in 2020 from Uruguayan side Penarol, though was immediately loaned out Alaves for the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Only recently did he make his competitive debut in their victory over Charlton Athletic in the Carabao Cup. 

The player is very talented and has huge potential for the future, no wonder why Manchester United got him, but he is still young and inexperienced and has ways to go before he reaches his potential. Valencia CF is after him because they can get him for free on a loan deal, while other options would cost money, something Valencia CF wants to avoid in the winter transfer market! 

RCD Espanyol to purchase Dimitri Foulquier

RCD Espanyol have offered Valencia CF 2 million euros for the purchase of Dimitri Foulquier, an offer Valencia CF deemed too low to accept, though they have shown willingness to listen for an improved offer. 

Dimitri Foulquier has not featured too much under Gennaro Gattuso and has been relegated as a backup to Thierry Correia, with Foulquier featuring 10 times, but mostly as a sub with only 289 minutes played so far in the season. 

Valencia CF isn't particularly interested in selling the player, certainly not for just 2 million euros when we lack cover the right back position and we have a mini-injury crisis with Nico and Samu both out of the squad for at least one month and longer, positions that Foulquier can cover as he can play central defense, right back, right winger and as a defensive midfielder. 

We'll have to wait and see if RCD Espanyol come back with an improved offer, 3 million euros seems to be the amount where Valencia CF might think about parting ways with Dimitry Foulquier. 

Liverpool and Chelsea FC going after Yunus Musah

The competition to acquire Yunus Musah is heating up with Liverpool FC the latest premier league club to show interest in the player. Jurgen Klopp is a fan of the player personally and is requiring Liverpool FC go after the player. 

That is not going be as easy for Liverpool FC as perhaps they would have hoped, as Chelsea FC have also shown interest in the player and are looking to add him to their squad. In fact, I wrote about this two weeks ago with Chelsea FC being one of the most serious contenders for the player, along with Fulham who were willing to offer up to 35 million euros to acquire the player. Valencia CF is demanding 40 million euros and with several premier league clubs vying for his signature there is no reason for Valencia CF to negotiate for the price. 

Whoever reaches that number is going to acquire the player, though if he is to be sold, it's unclear how Valencia CF is going to cover his absence, considering Nico got injured recently and will be out for at least 3 months and additionally Samu Castillejo also got injured during last match and will be out for at least a month. 

Yunus Musah has become more of a central midfielder, so we do sort of have cover for him, but he is very versatile and can cover multiple positions, which is part of his appeal, so it's going to be very hard to replace him, though maybe Valencia CF is waiting for exactly that to sell the player for 40 million euros and then purchase reinforcements! 

Either way there are several premier league clubs interested in the player with Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC being closely linked to the player, though as I reported previously, we might even see Fulham and other teams come in the spotlight. 

For 40 million euros I'd sell him, he is a solid player and has big potential, he's shown he can be very effective defensively, has a lot of speed as well, but for 40 million euros I think that is a fair price for him as of right now. There is no guarantee that he is going to become the next Silva or Aimar or Baraja for Valencia CF, so for 40 million euros I'd sell him. 

Valencia CF to sign Luis Gerardo Chávez

Luis Gerardo Chávez

Valencia CF are interested in Pachuca midfielder Luis Chavez as they look to cover for the injured Nico Gonzales who suffered a serious injury that is going to have him absent for at least 3 months. Valencia CF were looking to bring in another winger but are now turning their attention to a central type of midfielder in order to cover for Nico's absence. 

He joined CF Pachuca in 2019 from FC Tinuana for 1.2 million euros and has helped them win the league title in 2022. His current market value stands at 8 million euros.

Luis Chávez is 26 years old, plays as a defensive midfielder, stands at 1.78m height and has so far featured in 16 matches for CF Pachuca and has scored 2 goals and provided 1 assist. 

With decent negotiations Valencia CF can sign the player for less than his market value, realistically 5 million euros should be enough to sign the player, since Luis has showed interest in continuing his career abroad and Europe is his preferred destination. Spain would be an excellent fit for him and Valencia CF a great club to continue his career at.

Football legend Pele dies

Football legend Pele is dead at 82 years old. He has been suffering health problems since November and unfortunately at his age has succumbed to the illness.

He is three times world champion and has scored 77 goals for his national team. He played for Santos for most of his career, featuring in 636 games and scoring 618 goals!

He is considered one of the best players of all time along with Maradona. RIP Pele.

Nahitan Nández on Valencia CF wish list

Cagliari midfielder Nahitan Nández is on Valencia CF new year's wish list. According to reports from Italy Valencia CF has inquired Cagliari about securing the services of Nahitan Nández. He is valued at about 5 million euros, though Valencia CF could offer them a player exchange type of deal with Diakhaby moving to Cagliari and Nahitan Nández to Valencia CF. 

Diakhaby has been offered a new deal with Valencia CF, but he has yet to sign it and Valencia CF will be looking to sell him off this transfer window, rather than losing him in the summer for free. Both players market value is around the 5-6 million euro mark and this is going to be a one for one deal with no other options added.

Gennaro Gattuso is said to be a big fan of Nahitan Nández and would love to bring the player to Valencia CF.

Fulham, Chealsea interested in Yunus Musah

Yunus Musah has had his fortunes turned around under Gennaro Gattuso as he's been entrusted by the coach on many occasions this season and has solidified himself as a first team player. He's also been one of the breakout players of the world cup and has impressed people with his speed, passing and eagerness to play.

His market value has risen accordingly at currently stands at around 25 to 30 million euros, which is only likely to grow through the rest of the season. Valencia CF has already put a price on him, but its reasonably above market value as to save face when they do sell him. Right now, Valencia CF is demanding 40 million euros for Yunus Musah and won't be listening to offers lower than that!

There are several English clubs already interested in Yunus Muash, one of the clubs that has shown the most interest in Fulham and they are willing to possibly shell out 35 million euros for the player or maybe sweeten the deal with money plus player if Valencia CF doesn't budge from their 40 million euros demand.

Valencia CF has no reason to lower the asking price though as Chelsea, Liverpool and Everton are all interested about the player and are inquiring about a possible purchase. There is big interest for the player right now and this means that Valencia CF are going to sell him by the summer, if not even sooner. 

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. 

News update

 The World cup was, overall, not a happy one for Valencia players. Gaya was sent home due to a minor injury while other players from the top clubs who had similar injuries stayed on. The only positive is that now that Enrique has gone we may see less favouritism. Musah was the stand-out player though, as usual, pride in seeing him do well is balanced with the realisation that it just makes it more likely this will be his last season here. Guillamon got no minutes and Comert only limited game time. Cavani did play, but it's probably better he didn't. After not having a penalty appeal go in his favour he and other Uruguay players lost the plot a bit, with Cavani kicking over a plinth at the end. I have to say that I think the referee was right, it was a soft call and didn't look a penalty to me. Now, as a result, FIFA are planning disciplinary action with a ban of 10-15 matches for him being discussed. Possibly the only positive is that Valencia players may have enjoyed more rest.

There have been recent developments on the new stadium. The city council finally published the conditions which it should meet. This includes a 70,000 capacity to allow it to be included in a World Cup bid, allowance for an athletics track around the stadium, solar cover to provide shade and an attached sporting complex which would cost 10 million. The club has until 11 January to respond and the issue needs to be legally settled by August.

Valencia extended the contract of Jaume Domenech until 2024.

Domenech broke into the first team in 2015 after the injuries to Alves and Mat Ryan and has played 116 times since then. Some of us do have concerns about his weakness to shots from outside the area, on the other hand, he's been a Valencia loyalist, who's been happy to be a back-up player and numerous managers have spoken positively about his leadership in the dressing room so it's probably a good thing.

The club has also made a contract offer to Diakhaby whose contract ends in the summer but haven't received a reply. He looks gone to me. The club are still looking for a midfielder and a winger in the transfer market, almost certainly on loan. Jesus Vazquez has been linked with Torino and it's unclear if it will be a simple loan, a loan with a purchase option or repurchase option. This seems a huge loss as he's shown potential, but instead we're developing Lino, good as he is, for another team.

Lastly, Valencia learnt their Copa Del Rey last 32 opponents yesterday.

 
It's La Nucia of the 3rd level. By pure chance, I attended the Copa Del Rey first round game of La Nucia when they won at Hercules Alicante in controversial circumstances. I didn't see anything that we couldn't handle, their defence looks shaky, but we'll find out soon enough when we play them on 3 January.

La Liga back on track

The world cup is over with Argentina the new world champions, so now it's time for club football again. La Liga starts at the 29th of December with Valencia's next match on the 31st of December against Villarreal at the Estadio de la Cerámica. Their stadium was going through a renovation and the grand opening will be on the 31st of Devember against Valencia CF.

After the match with Villarreal CF, Valencia CF will host Cadiz CF at the Mestalla and the next matches after that yet to be scheduled at precise dates.

Valencia CF played 4 friendly matches during the world cup, the first one against Leeds United which the team won eight to zero, the second against Clermont Foot which the team won 4 to 2 and then two losses against Nottingham Forest and Az Alkmaar. Losing 1-2 to Nottingham Forest and then losing 1-3 against Az Alkmaar with severe defensive mistakes in both our losses. 

Take what you will from these friendly matches, but it's clear that the team is still not functioning at a high level, and it would be hard to achieve good results in La Liga. It looks like we are likely going to be fighting for the middle table position once again. 

Gattuso has been calling for reinforcements to improve the team but considering Valencia's irrational sales and purchases in the past 5 years it's hard to expect success in that field. The best we can hope for is few reinforcements that do not worsen the team and actually keep the status quo. 

I'm hardly excited about the restart of the league and have low hopes of Valencia CF improving and playing for European football, but I'd love to be wrong about it.

Gaya renews until 2027

So following the disappointment of the late drama at Sevilla comes better news. Gaya has renewed until 2027. His contract was up next summer and a lack of renewal could have led to a painful exit for free. 

                                   

In his statement, Gaya admitted that he'd had offers from other clubs including some for more money but only wanted to play at Valencia. In particular, Barcelona have had a long interest in signing Gaya as long term replacement to Jordi Alba and Gaya always had good relations with Mateu Alemany.

The club's video (here) announcing the renewal was very good, with Valencia legends Pep Claramunt, Ricardo Arias and Fernando Gomez symbolically passing on the captain's armband to Gaya.

The 10th anniversary of his senior debut in the Copa del Rey will be on 30th October. He is currently 26th in terms of league appearances for Valencia

He's quite a way to go to match Fernando and Arias but could get into the top 10 next year. The club is also interested in renewing Diakhaby and Lato but those will be more difficult. Diakhaby is understandably evaluating offers from other clubs. As for Lato, the renewal of Gaya and continued competition from Vazquez makes his role questionable. Gattuso has been trying him as a Wass-style utility player but it hasn't worked so I would be surprised if her or Diakhaby were still with us next season.

Mamardashvili renewed until 2027

In welcome news, Valencia today finished the contract renewal and upgrade of Giorgi Mamardashvili. He renews until 2027 with his release clause increased from 20 million to 100 million euros.

He joined us on loan lasy year from Dinamo Tbilisi with a buy option of 800,000 and was expected to play for Valencia Mestalla while we assessed him. However, injuries to both Cillessen and Jaume, with Rivero already being loaned out, threw him in at the deep end and he did well enough in the early games to keep his place when Cillessen returned. That prompted Valencia to exercise the buy clause.

However, doubts crept it with a few errors and after a horror show against Sevilla he was dropped. He was benched for over 4 months, during which time he became disgruntled and sought a loan out at one point. He returned to the team at the start of February and played most games after that in La Liga and unusually, the Copa del Rey as well. By the end of the season he had clearly established himself as first choice so no one complained when Cillessen was moved out. The low release clause remained a worry but having retained him this window, we now have space to play with.

The question is now about the other renewals. Guillamon, Gaya, Diakhaby, Jaume and Lato all finish contract next summer and all should be renewed in that order.

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?