SD Huesca 0-0 Valencia CF Match Report

So a bit of a surprise with the starting eleven, I was expecting Voro to give some of the peripheral players some run out in the last match of the season, but Voro has always been very conservative and he decided to pretty much field mostly the strongest starting eleven (Maxi's inclusion aside), with Gaya being out of the starting eleven as well, with Toni Lato being given a chance here and Wass also being given a rest with Racic starting in his position. 

It was the same setup he's used as well with a back line of 3 players with Correia and Lato acting as both wingers and wide defenders depending if the team is attacking or defending, in the mid we have the trio of Racic, soler and Kang-In Lee and up front Guedes and Maxi Gomez. 

SD Huesca needed a win to stay in the first division, but unfortunate for them they only managed a draw with Valencia CF, while their relegation rival Elche won their match by two goals to zero against Atletic Bilbao.

SD Huesca vs Valencia CF Match Preview

SD Huesca

Valencia CF

Date 2021-05-22 18:00 CET

Final match of the season is upon us, Valencia CF has given us some good games at the very end to make the season a bit more positive after the uncertainty of relegation and just all round terrible play and poor leadership by the management and Lim at the helm.

Voro has made this team a lot more competitive, a lot more efficient and generally a pleasant team to watch, where you aren't biting your nails every time the opposition gets the ball, where you wonder who will make the next blunder, who will screw up next and how will Valencia CF throw this game!

With the match against SD Huesca being the last I think Voro is going to give some of the less used players some time, I think this is probably going to be the biggest change in starting lineup by Voro and probably most of the season with chances being given to Yunus, Vallejo, Jason, Jaume and probably even Oliva being given some minutes.

Goncalo Guedes will play for Portugal

Goncalo Guedes has impressed with his performances these past few months and has gathered the eye of Portugal selector Fernando Santos who has called Goncalo Guedes to join the Portuguese team for the Euro competition.

The extension of 23 to 26 players also helped obviously, allowing for more players to be called and for Guedes to find his place back in the squad. We've also reported recently about serious interest from Sevilla FC about the player, with other clubs waiting in the wing and pondering their next move. His great performances towards the end of the season are paying off for the player and if Lim sells him, it will bring in big money.

José Bordalás the next Valencia CF coach?

Spanish media are reporting that current Getafe CF coach Jose Bordalas is the favorite to become Valencia CF next coach. He is 57 years of age and a very experienced Spanish coach, but his experience mostly comes from coaching smaller club in the second Spanish division, the biggest club he's coached is Getafe CF and he's been with them for over 5 years now. 

I don't know much about him, he's done fairly well with Getafe CF, nothing major really and looking at his numbers a 39% percentage win rate with Getafe CF doesn't make me confident about his skills. Before Getafe he coached Alaves from 2015 to 2016 and has a 50% win rate with them, but overall his win rate is 47% percent and he's not really an established coach. 

Right now he seems to be the favorite and he doesn't seem to mind coming here, he's done an interview in which he calls Valencia CF a big club and historically it is, its probably still the 3rd best club in Spain and 3rd biggest, but under Peter Lim I think the club has taken a beating and has lost a lot of its prestige and sporting power. 

What do you guys and gals think? Good choice or nay?

Sevilla FC interested in Goncalo Guedes

Goncalo Guedes headed to Sevilla FC?

Valencia's Goncalo Guedes amazing performances these past few months haven't gone unnoticed with big clubs like Wolves, Liverpool FC and now Sevilla FC all interested in the player. Sevilla with their new found success are aiming high, they want to buy one of the best players in the league and a true magician when in full form, but Valencia CF are determined that if they are to lose Goncalo Guedes it has to be for a huge amount of money and not just some cash with players added. Valencia CF need 31 million just to balance the book for this year, not to mention additional money if they are to replace Guedes with another player.

Personally I would not sell Guedes for anything, well, maybe if a team decided to pay something like 80 million euros I'd be swayed, but only if I know VCF will bring in two very high quality reinforcements to strengthen the team. 

With his recent performances being so good there is no doubt Guedes new value is somewhere over 40 million euros, probably closer to 50 million euros. Again we know what Guedes is capable of, he showed us the first season, second season he started slow, there were an awful injury, etc... he hasn't always performed at his best, but I'd say the past 3 months he's reached and probably even surpassed the level he had in that first season for VCF. 

Valencia CF can build a team around Guedes, Gaya, Soler, Correia. These are the players to keep at all cost, we need a CL team, not a small selling club that is going to pay off Lim's terrible gambles with the club. 

Valencia CF 4-1 SD Eibar Match Report

Valencia CF trashed SD Eibar 4-1 in what was a goal fest for VCF fans. Its been a while since Valencia CF won by more than one goal difference and with such a convincing scoreline. Even though we won by a lot, it was still a fairly competitive match, SD Eibar did have more control of the ball, they did have the initiative as well, but Valencia CF defended well and hit them hard on the counter attack. This formation and system is basically designed to absorb attacks and then hit them back on the counter, relying on our fast paced players to do some damage. 

As soon as the match started Valencia CF scored a goal. Soler moving towards Eibar box, releases a powerful through ball that reaches Guedes and he is precise and scores.

Eibar would try and return the favor as they gained the initiative and started looking for a goal, they would have few longer range efforts, but nothing would come out of it. Valencia CF would basically defend mostly and have a few tries on the flanks. Then in the 19th minute Carlos Soler would score the second goal for Valencia CF.

The third goal would come in the 30th minute, once again Carlos Soler with the goal to essentially seal the match. SD Eibar would not have it though and got one back in the 38th minute after a tap in from Bryan

Valencia CF vs SD Eibar Match Preview

Valencia CF

SD Eibar

Date 2021-05-16 18:30 CET

Valencia CF is going to welcome SD Eibar the last placed team on the table at the Mestalla in what is going to be a relegation contenders battle. Yeah Valencia CF is technically safe from relegation at this point, but the team still has to prove that it is a level above these teams and the next two matches are a chance to prove that.

Even though Valencia CF lost last match against Sevilla FC the team played some really good football, defending very well and it was just one individual mistake that allowed for the goal to happen, with Ferro losing his mark and allowing him to setup and score the goal. Considering this was his first match in a very long time and against a very solid Sevilla side that is competing for the title this season it was an otherwise good performance except for that 1 mistake. Valencia CF also had chances to score, but none of the chances were converted into goals.

ESPN acquires La Liga rights with 8 year agreement

ESPN will take over English- and Spanish-language rights. La Liga, which features Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia CF, Sevilla FC has been televised by BeIN Sport since the 2012-13 season. Bein sports had 3 years remaining of their deal, but La Liga bought back the rights and approached ESPN to sell them the rights. 

ESPN+ will stream all 380 La Liga matches next season, and some will be televised on ESPN’s networks. The twice-a-season El Clásicos between Barcelona and Real Madrid are the most-viewed domestic league games worldwide and are likely to be on ABC.

Gartner said the league would work with ESPN to find an optimal match time if El Clásico were to end up on broadcast television. For most if the year, Spain is six hours ahead of New York, meaning a 9 p.m. start in Spain would be 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific.

Some LaLiga programming will start appearing on ESPN+ on Saturday. The deal runs through the 2028-29 season and also includes select second-division games as well as the promotion playoffs.

Gerard Lopez wants to buy Valencia CF

Former Lille owner Gerard Lopez seeks to purchase a  new club, with Valencia CF being the primary target so far. He already owns Mouscron and Boavista, but wants a bigger club to be able to play for Champions league and maybe even some silverware. 

Interestingly he tried to acquire Southampton from Chinese owner Jisheng who owns 80% of the shares of the club with an initial offer of 130 million euros, but that hasn't materialized, so either his offer was rejected privately or he changed his target and started focusing on Valencia CF with all of the reports at that time about Valencia CF being sold and the prince of Johor, etc... 

Even though Peter Lim has stated that he has no intention of selling, I think with the big loss of merchandise sales this season, with the complete loss of season ticket sales due to Covid19, with the looming threat from the Valencian government of big penalties for Meriton for not fulfilling the contract about the new Mestalla and the Pavilion in its surroundings, with bigger and bigger calls from fans to boycott Valencia CF products and Meriton's properties I think he is going to have a hard time fighting off offers even if he is set on not selling. I think he probably wants to sell, he knows he is hated in Valencia by all of its fans by now, he knows he is going to be losing money with he club for at least the next 2-3 years, so publicly he is telling he doesn't plan to sale as a way to boost the clubs price or at the least maintain it, because if he announces he wants to sell the price will likely go down. 

Mestalla opens its doors on Sunday

Valencia CF will open the doors to the Mestalla after the Spanish government allowed for a limited opening of stadiums, with 5000 seats being available for the match against SD Eibar. There has to be 1.5 meters of space around each person and no food, drinks or smokes will be allowed. In addition to that every attendee must wear some sort of mark the government has deemed 'special' and everyones temperature will be taken at the entrance, which I'm sure at temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius these days won't affect the people's temperature at all. 

Its better than being closed that's for sure, but only 5000 fans in a stadium with a capacity of 55k is very low. Question is how many fans will attend? There are ongoing calls for boycotting Valencia CF merchandise as well as Meriton's businesses and properties, on top of that a lot of people might be too afraid because of covid19 to attend, so it will be interesting to see if all of the available tickets are purchased. 

Sevilla FC 1-0 Valencia CF Match Report

Unfortunately second shift at work again and these midweek games are really hard for me to watch, work gets in the way. From the play by play, reports and highlights from the match it seemed like a really close match, with both teams having chances to score, but Sevilla FC just barely managing to edge out Valencia CF. Again it seems as if Valencia CF did compete really well with Sevilla and if the team had been a bit more lucky the result might have been different, a draw would have been a fair result, but Sevilla FC is riding their luck and tempo this season. 

Mistake from Ferro for Sevilla's goal, he was the ones marking the player and he allowed his mark to get away and receive the ball in a great position, even have time to setup and shoot wherever he wanted, Cillessen had no chance. I'm not going to be too hard on him though, he's barely played and all of a sudden put in such a big game against a very good Sevilla side. Plus anyone can make that mistake, VCF were setup to mostly defend, and hit them on the counter, and it mostly worked except for their one goal.

If Valencia CF can maintain a similar level against every opponent I think the team has solid chances to think about Europa league. I won't overstate things after two games and we know Voro is going to be at the helm for these matches and next season would be a new coach and we might even see a big sellout again, so it might even be a different team.

I'm just hoping we get to keep Gaya, Paulista, Soler, Correia and Guedes, I think these are the players we need to build a successful team around. Maxi is very replacable, Cheryshev, Gameiro, Diakhaby, Jason, etc.. are all replaceable, but they are also the ones who can bring the least amount of money to the team from their sales and that is where the issue lies. 

What did you think of the match, did Valencia CF deserve a draw here?

Sevilla FC vs Valencia CF Match Preview

Sevilla FC

Valencia CF

Date 2021-05-12 19:00 CET

Voro's first game in charge of Valencia CF was a huge success, he's always brought in a temporary boost to the team and done well in his short coaching stints. While some people may want to see him take a permanent coaching role, he's distanced himself from such an option, saying that his mandate is 4 matches and that's it. After all he is not a coach, he's never really dabbled in it other than when he's had to lead the team when called upon. 

Valencia CF match against Real Valladolid was complex, even though the score would make it seem like it was an easy win for the team, it really wasn't. In fact I'd say in the first 30 minutes of the match Real Valladolid were the better team, not by much, but had more ball possession, had more chances and were pushing for a goal with commitment and drive. In fact in the match report when I describe the match I said that VCF has to improve or even a draw would be a hard result to obtain. 

Thankfully Maxi Gomez decided to show up, one of the very rare things this season and scored two goals from two chances to put Valencia CF in a comfortable position. Both teams had chances, though again in a long time I think our defense did quite good, even Diakhaby who's been very error prone had a good game and did not make even one mistake. 

Valencia CF 3-0 Real Valladolid Match Report

Valencia CF with a convincing win over a combative and really solid Real Valladolid team. If you'd ask me in the first 30 minutes of the match if Valencia CF would win, I would have doubt it and even a draw would have been fine with me, but two solid goals from Gomez changed the whole game. Its been at least 3 months I think since Maxi Gomez last scored a goal and in this match he scored two and from two. He had two chances and scored from both, amazing performance, where was this guy the whole season?

I didn't expect too many changes from Voro, but I was surprised by the changes. It wasn't numerically many changes, but the concept was different. He started with 3 central defenders, 5 players in midfield with Correia and Gaya also serving as defenders when Real Valladolid attacked, but serving as wingers when Valencia CF was in attack. Wass and Soler completed the midfield with a forward 3 of Kang-In Lee on the right flank, Guedes on the left and Gomez in a central forward position. 

Real Valladolid started well, better than Valencia and had few quick chances. Valencia CF would counter and mount few chances of their own, but noting would come out of them. The match sort of slowed down a bit from the 25th minute, with Real Valladolid having control of the ball and trying to create something, but all of their efforts were stopped and they did not have any serious chances.

Valencia CF vs Real Valladolid Match Preview

Valencia CF

Real Valladolid

Date 2021-05-09 16:15 GMT+1

What an eventful week it has been for Valencia CF. It started off with the loss at home to FC Barcelona and the consequential sacking of Javi Gracia who as I've reported had been on this ice and was going to be sacked in the summer to avoid paying him damages, but with the club so close to relegation he was sacked with just 4 matches to go and Voro was put in charge of the team. This is Voro's 7th takeover of the team, 5 of which are under Peter Lim's era, so a defeating number right there.

Today as I'm writing this match preview there is a huge protest going on in Valencia against Peter Lim and his company Meriton, this isn't the first protest that has happened against Lim's leadership of the club and it certainly won't be the last. With Lim's brazen and stupid character he won't sell the club and I'm afraid with more of his terrible leadership people will do more to force him to leave and this includes not buying any of the merch, not buying season tickets, not even buying individual match tickets, all in order to force Peter Lim out. The bad things is that in the process of trying to remove Lim, its the club itself that is being hurt. 

I think the best decision would be to form an investment group by the fans, everyone chips in $20 or $40 or $100 or even $500 if they have, and we are at the very least 200k fans around the world. I know a lot of inactive fans who would activate if they have the chance to invest in Valencia CF and oust Peter Lim as a consequence! So if say 100k people all chip in on average $40 dollars and it gets coupled with few bigger investors we could be seeing a real takeover possibility and if Lim doesn't want to sell, then force him through the government to sell. Fine and tax his company to hell, fine him tens of million of euros for the unfinished Mestalla construction, sue his company in court and demand even more, work the the banks to force a payout on all of the clubs loans, force his company Meriton be have to pay tens and tens of millions and go into a huge loss if he wants to continue owning Valencia CF. 

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... 

Protest planned against Peter Lim

Wrote an article about Peter Lim's terrible management of Valencia CF just yesterday and these types of articles have been common in the 7 years since Lim's arrival. You can miscount several mishaps that happened due to lack of experience in owning and managing a club, due to wanting to make the club successful quick, due to not being familiar with Spanish football, etc... But you'd think one would learn from their mistakes, you'd think Lim would do things better over time, but no he's done things worse over time, he's become more stubborn in his ways and more arrogant than ever! 

When he sacked Marcelino and soon after Alemany I think it was the last straw for many people, there was no defending such an illogical, purely stupid move! Since then Valencia CF has been on a steep decline, and last season giving away most of the club's core players for barely nothing or free was just the peak of his terrible management of this club. No foresight to predict how failing to qualify for the Champions league can negatively affect the team, how the move itself is going to be seen, how it will negatively affect the players to sack in such a manner such a bellowed and respected coach.

He could have been the arrogant hot head that he is and fired him in the summer, without ALL of the negative consequences firing him at the beginning of the season for no reason, and who knows the team might have even failed to qualify for the Champions league even with Marcelino, so Lim would have the perfect excuse. Again it doesn't take too much to know this, its not rocket science. 

Anyways people are sick of it and are planning a massive protest against Peter Lim and Meriton on May 8th. There's been several protests over the past 2 years against Meriton, each one becoming bigger and more serious.

Peter Lim inadequate leadership strikes again

Peter Lim - Valencia CF

Javi Gracia was a defeated man as early as his arrival, he was promised several reinforcements, but all he got was a mass giveaway of established and core players. It wasn't even a sellout, few players actually got sold for decent sums, most of them were literally given away or released from their contracts, Valencia CF barely got any money out of big exodus. 

So as soon as Javi Gracia arrived, as soon as Meriton's promises were broken. In fact he did come out at the start of the season to talk about the lack of signings and that he was informed there would be signings to cover for some of the players that left, but there weren't any. He downplayed it all and talked about how great some of the younger players are, how the team can build a team from scratch with youth players, but he was clearly downplaying the severity of the situation and trying to appease his new employer.

Javi Gracia sacked, Voro takes over

Valencia have just announced that Javi Gracia has been sacked. 

Javi Gracia sacked

Voro will take over for the final four games as Valencia stares at a relegation battle.

Gracia leaves with the fourth worst win record in La Liga

Koeman: 18% (4 of 22) Neville: 19% (3 of 16) Valdez: 23% (5 of 22) 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗮: 𝟮𝟰% (𝟴 of 𝟯𝟰) Miljanic: 25% (5 of 20)
His numbers probably aren't quite as bad as Neville's or the king of mediocrity Koeman, as they had better squads.

Gracia does have some mitigating factors in his defence. He was lied to from the beginning by Lim and Murthy who promised him signings then undermined him by not only failing to provide them, but also gifting one of the few quality midfielders, Kondogbia, to a rival club after the season had started. Gracia did offer his resignation but this was refused due to the compensation needed. Valencia would have been able to fire him in the summer without compensation but as usual, the club's indecisiveness has made a hash of things. Despite all that, with the squad we have, we should be fighting for top 7, not viewing the end of the season with such trepidation.

Valencia CF 2-3 FC Barcelona Match Report

Valencia CF plan against FC Barcelona was to sit back and defend with numbers, park the bus type of strategy and hit FC Barcelona on the counter, all good, but you need to have a solid defense for that and Valencia CF doesn't! The team did hold out for about 55 to 60 minutes truth be told, but then the flood gates opened and Barca scored three goals in succession. 

Valencia CF wasn't without its chances, Gaya had an early chance which he blew, Guedes had a good chance later on, Racic, Guedes in the second half, etc... We had our chances, there were good chances as well, but we didn't manage to score from them! Its also shameful when our defenders seem to have more goals than our attackers, though our defense is with its own set of issues!

It was a fairly close game all and all, yeah Barca had a little bit more chances and complete ball control, but Valencia CF was with its own serious chances and the result could have easily been 3-3 or 2-2 or 4-4 or whatever had Valencia CF took at least one of its early chances! 

Valencia CF vs FC Barcelona Match Preview

Valencia CF

FC Barcelona

Date 2021-05-02 21:00 GMT+1

Valencia CF is facing FC Barcelona this Sunday in what has the potential to be a very exciting match. Valencia CF desperately need the three points to avoid relegation, while FC Barcelona desperately need the three points to stay in the title race. Historically FC Barcelona have done very well against Valencia CF in the Mestalla, but Valencia CF have been a tricky opponent in recent years, winning at times when no one though possible, ruining Barca's plans.

FC Barcelona had a home match in midweek against Granada CF in which they lost 2-1, which shows that there are weaknesses in their play and they are not so unbeatable. Most of their top players featured in that match as well, so they are likely going to be slightly tired, though considering most of their players have been playing a very dense week for years, they are used to it, but still I'd give slight fitness advantage to Valencia CF, though that hasn't helped us at all this season judging by our results. 

Valencia's coach Javi Gracia days at the club are numbered, once the season is over he is going to be sacked and a search for a new coach will begin. There have been a lot of rumors about possible replacements, from old school Claudio Ranieri to Jose Mourinho and recently Roberto Moreno being linked to Valencia CF. Can Javi Gracia leave on a positive note though? No coach wants to leave with terrible results, their career can suffer so Javi Gracia has to work his magic, he needs to pull a rabbit our of a hat, if not I doubt any serious team would want to hire him for the foreseeable future! 

FC Barcelona interested in Jose Luis Gaya

FC Barcelona interested in Gaya

FC Barcelona are keep on signing Jose Luis Gaya as a long term replacement for Jordi Alba who is in his last years of his career, and are trying to find a proper replacement. FC Barcelona have identified Jose Luis Gaya as the best possible replacement for Jordi Alba and are keep to make a move if Jose Luis Gaya does not extend his contract this year. We have some reports that Jose Luis Gaya has either already signed a contract extension with Valencia CF or is about to in the summer, but we'll have to wait and see how trustworthy this information is.

Valencia CF has been churning out high quality left backs for over a decade now, with Jordi Alba, Juan Bernat, Jose Luis Gaya, Toni Lato, etc... FC Barcelona are looking to repeat the success with Jordi Alba by signing Gaya at his prime and have him establish himself at Barcelona. At Barcelona Gaya's salary is going to go up over 50% percent, and even though he is in the top level of highest paid players at Valencia CF, barely behind the likes of Guedes and Maxi Gomez, he would earn at least 2 million euros more at FC Barcelona.

There are other clubs also following Gaya's contract development, clubs like Bayern Munich, Manchester City and others.

Roberto Moreno Valencia CF new coach?

Roberto Moreno new Valencia 
CF coach?

Spanish media are reporting that former Spanish and Monaco coach Roberto Moreno has been contacted by Peter Lim and is one of the favorites to become the next Valencia CF manager! As I've reported couple dozen times now, Javi Gracia is set to be sacked in the summer, Valencia CF has put a clause in his contract that they can rescind the contract within 2 weeks after the season finishes and they won't have to pay Javi Gracia any damages.

Other coaching names that have been recently linked to Valencia CF are Jose Mourniho, Claudio Ranieri and few other Spanish coaches that have been mentioned for quite a while now. 

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! 

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.

Valencia CF 1-1 CD Alaves Match Report

Classic Valencia CF! We can't seem to be able to win a straight match, today was an overall good performance, Valencia CF had most of the possession and was a lot more dangerous with that possession as well, creating dozen of chances mostly through Guedes who was really on fire in this match, but Valencia players were really wasteful in front of goal. 

Guedes provided several good passes to Gameiro and Maxi Gomez who failed to score time and time again. We had at least 4 solid chances in the first half to get ahead, had we converted some of those chances the team could easily have been up by two goals, possibly even more, but again we were very wasteful in front of goal and failed to score. 

The second half was similar to the first in that Valencia CF had the initiative, had opportunities, but again very wasteful and casual in front of goal. Gameiro would score in the 56th minute what was in my opinion a legitimate goal, but for some reason it got checked by VAR and they decide it wasn't a goal, how, why, I have no clue! It wasn't an offside, literally millimeters to decide, I don't think a human can really make that decision that its offside based on millimeters, and even if it was, it wasn't reflective on the play, meaning the offside didn't affect the goal at all. I don't understand why was the goal even being checked? Why even have referees on the field if every goal and every things is going to be checked by VAR? 

Valencia CF vs Deportivo Alaves Match Preview

Valencia

CD Alaves

Date 2021-04-24 GMT+1 18:30

Valencia CF suffered an embarrassing loss in midweek against an Osasuna side that made us look like Division 2 team. Sure Valencia CF had slightly more possession and through Guedes we mustered up several chances, but Osasuna played like a team, they defended all together and did it really well and move up the field together. 

The two goals Osasuna scored in the first half were the usual blunders that Valencia CF players do in defense, or the minimal pressure they do when they track a player. Valencia CF as usual went down 1-0, then bounced back with a goal and again through a defensive blunder gave away Osasuna a second goal. 

You just can't win games when opponents don't even have to outplay you to score, when you just give them goals for free, that is what is happening every match with Valencia CF, our players are giving away goals for free. Doesn't matter that we score more than Osasuna, doesn't matter that we have more ball possession than Osasuna, doesn't matter if we have more overall shots, etc... Osasuna doesn't gift their opponents free goals that they can't overcome later and lose the matches. 

Jose Mourinho in talks with Valencia CF

Jose Mourinho to Valencia CF?

Jose Mourinho has begun talks with Valencia CF about his arrival to the Mestalla in what appears to be a big friendly push by Jorge Mendes to setup Jose Mourinho with a new job as quickly as possibly, and hookup his friend and business partner Peter Lim with a solid manager.

Jose Mourinho's salary at Tottenham was huge, much more than Valencia CF can afford, but because he was sacked he is set to receive a huge compensation which would leave him extremely well of financially, so he will be looking for an ambitious sporting project and of course doing a favor to his agent and friend Jorge Mendes. Peter Lim is also looking at the possibility of using some of the summer player sales money to increase the budget for the coach and make available 4 million euros for a seasonal salary, with big bonuses if Valencia CF qualify for the Champions league, in the region of additional 1.5 million euros.

Kang-In Lee for Rafa Mir swap

Kang-In Lee will not renew his contract and thus Valencia CF will be looking to sell him in the summer when the transfer window opens! I've written in previous article about some of the reasons Kang-In Lee isn't renewing his contract, but the main reason is the lack of playing time he's gotten under Gracia. Since he didn't want to renew his contract without improved playing time, the team saw it fit to punish Kang-In Lee by instructing Gracia to never play him until he renews, but that just put things into a never ending negative circle and basically cemented Lee's wishes to continue elsewhere. 

With Kang-In Lee's contract expiring next year, Valencia CF must sell him this year and get as much possible for him, otherwise he would just leave for free next season. Valencia CF been asking around about Rafa Mir and showing interest in our former player, so that gives Valencia CF the option to offer Kang-In Lee for Rafa Mir. The current Valencia CF player is valued higher, but he also has much less playing time this season, while Rafa Mir has been featuring regularly and scoring goals, increasing his market value slowly but surely, with his value surely to reach 15 million euros in the summer. 

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! 

Osasuna vs Valencia CF Match Preview

Osasuna

Valencia

Date 2021-04-21 GMT+1 19:00

Valencia CF managed to break the away curse last match against Real Betis, managing a 2-2 draw, and now they have a chance to  get a win away from home. During the last match there were several players who got injured, so Correia will be out for a month, for him this season has basically ended, while Soler is doubtful and will likely not feature for this match.

Osasuna and Valencia CF are fighting for the same spots on the table, both teams have similar amount of points and if Valencia CF win today it would jump over Osasuna, anything else and we fall further behind. A win against Osasuna would actually put us temporarily in 9/10th place.

Osasuna are a team that doesn't score too many goals, but they are also solid defensively and they rely on scoring a goal and then defending their lead for most of the matches, so we are going to see them attacking, especially at home, but I actually expect a bit more counter attacks, rather than direct attacks, while they try and don't concede. 

Thierry Correia out for a month, Cillessen back

Valencia CF managed to break the away 'curse'  and get a draw against Real Betis, but in doing so 3 players limped off the field and had to be replaced as they all got injured. 

The first one who got injured was Thierry Correia, he jumped to block a possible cross from an opposition player, but dropped down awkwardly, with his feet and knee at an awkward angle. He was diagnosed today with a sprained lateral ligament from the knee and will be out for a whole month. 

Good thing that we just got Piccini back from injury, so we have a replacement now, even though it would have been fine if Wass played there as well. 

Carlos Soler limped off in the second half, he suffered some sort of thigh injury and its been confirmed that he still has discomfort, so he is most likely going to miss our next match in midweek, though should be healed by the weekend for our second match this week.

Finally we hace Uros Racic who also suffered an injury, but from the looks of it was just muscle cramps, even with that sometimes it can damage the muscle and you'd need at least 3-5 days to recover, but from what we know so far it looks like he is going to be okay and is likely to feature in the next match.

Now for some good news in the injury department, Jasper Cillessen trained with the group and has been recovering well, so apart from his fitness level he should be otherwise ready for our next match.

Super league will destroy football

 I'm sure everyone will have seen the plans for a European Super League, with 15 fixed members: three to be decided, 6 English, the Milans, Juventus and the Spanish Big Three. That latter group would once have included Valencia but it's a sign of how far we've fallen in the last decade that no one questions us being absent and no one even has to ask who the big three in Spain are.

The plan is to have those 15, plus 5 extra teams each year. Whether they would qualify or just be invited is unclear. The clubs involved don't intend this to be a breakaway: they plan to participate in this as well as playing in the national leagues, gambling on the fact that the national leagues won't kick them out. They also promise a solidarity fund greater than there is at the minute for other clubs. 

The Super League idea has been around for ages. "Footballer of the year" a game I played on the MSX computer back in the 1980s included a European Super League, as did later games and it was the idea of it that caused UEFA to bring a group stage into the European Cup in the 1990s.  Ultimately, their attempts at concessions to big clubs have clearly failed. Pandering to greed has just produced more greed.

All the 15 clubs participating would get 350 million euro a year just for taking part, with prize money of around 50 million. That compares to the current situation where a team winning the English Premier and Champions league double would get 230 million. Needless to say, for clubs like Arsenal and Milan, who have frequently been absent, it's a considerable windfall.

Real Betis 2-2 Valencia CF Match Report

The game played out as expected, Real Betis was considered the favorite coming into this match and they affirmed that position by playing slightly better. They had more possession and a little bit more attacks, though overall Valencia CF was pairing them fairly well.

Valencia's troubles started due to terrible defending once again, Real Betis with a throw in to a player, this one finds Joaquin alone and unmarked on the left flank and passes the ball to him, Joaquin runs forward and towards the goal, gets a cross and finds Fekir who is also unmarked for some reason, gets a shot in and the ball goes into the net. 

Valencia CF would fire back through Guedes who's thankfully playing some solid football, really impressive stuff and has scored or provided an assist in the last 5 matches in a row I believe. He got the ball from Uros Racic, ran past his marker and as he was being pulled to be brought down on the ground he managed to fire a shot and scored. It was a very impressive goal. 

Real Betis vs Valencia CF Match Preview

Real Betis

Valencia

Date 2021-04-18 18:30 GMT+1

Valencia CF had an unusual and frustrating game last weekend with the team going down 2-0 in the first half against Real Sociedad, with Soler missing a penalty in the middle of the first half to put Valencia CF up, then Real Sociedad punishing Valencia CF twice, due to some poor defending and passing by Valencia players. 

With the way Valencia CF played it didn't seem like there is a chance to comebak at all, in fact with the silly mistakes players were making in the back it was a scare if we'd concede more goals and be embraced by Real Sociedad. Fortunately luck was on Valencia's side and the referee awarded Valencia CF another penalty, it was a soft penalty, the referee might have not given it and no one would have though anything of it, but as it so happen he did give the penalty and that time Daniel Wass was precise from the penalty spot. I was thinking 'okay we got one back, but its 1 goal from two penalties, how can we score from play' and then the unexpected happened, Gabriel Paulista who was at fault for the second goal scored the equalizer for Valencia CF with a powerful header. 

Valencia CF offers a new plan for Nou Mestalla

Valencia CF has recently been in trouble with the local government as the previous contract was breached by Valencia CF by not finishing the new stadium and developing the surrounding place as a result of the government giving them the space.

There were threats that Valencia CF would have to pay penalties and these would have been further costs to the club, which is already under big financial pressure. Basically they offered an explanation of the situation with the stadium, how they were complying with the ATE and future plans and promises.

In the new application for changes to the ATE the club is moving the competition date for the stadium and its surroundings to 2026 and offers up a "concrete" plan on how it would go about its business to finish it. 

Claudio Ranieri to return to Valencia CF?

Reports from Italy are suggesting that Valencia CF want to bring back Claudio Ranieri for the third time in a bid to rebuild the squad and improve our younger players. Claudio Ranieri is well known for taking weak teams and building them up to become serious competitors ever since the start of his career. He is known as the tinker because he is always trying new stuff, new tactics and formation, so he'll rebuild a team and make them much better competitors, but will continue tinkering to the point where at some point they regress to a serious degree and then he is sacked.

Ranieri was the coach of Cagliari between 1988 and 1991, taking the Casteddu from Serie C to Serie A in three years, so its not wonder that they are also interested in bringing Ranieri to their side. Ranieri's contract expires this season with Sampdoria and his contract still hasn't been extended, which means he is most likely going to be a free agent in the summer. 

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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 CF to reacquire Rafa Mir?

Valencia CF sold Rafa Mir in 2018 to Premier League club Wolves who incidentally also have former Valencia CF coach Nuno Santo managing them. On 24 November 2015, Mir was called up to the main squad by manager Nuno Espírito Santo. So no wonder Wolves purchased Rafa Mir, although he was instantly loaned out and has been loaned out each consecutive season.

Wolves last loaned Rafa mir to Huesca, and he's broken through with them and scored 15 goals in all competitions, also providing several assists. He has scored in each of their last six matches and of course with that he brought big attention on to himself.

Samu Costa to join Valencia CF?

Samu Costa to join Valencia CF this summer? Valencia CF is supposedly interested in Almeria's midfielder Samu Costa who has joined them on a loan for the 2020/21 season and has featured 11 times for them so far. Samuel Costa is a Portuguese footballer who is a youth product of Braga football club, he joined Braga's B team in 2019 and the following year was promoted to the first team, but shorty after loaned out of UD Almeria. 

His agent is Jorge Mendes and according to reports his price tag is 6 million euros for 60% of the players rights. Very steep price tag for a player who's barely featured 11 times for UD Almeria and who only played one match for Braga before being loaned out, but we all know Jorge Mendese's players are usually overpriced flops or one season wonders. Considering Peter Lim and Jorge Mendes are close friends though, it wouldn't surprise me if Valencia CF slashed 6 million euros for this player. 

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. 

Wolves going after Goncalo Guedes

Premier League side Wolves are considering a possible player-plus-cash deal for Valencia winger Goncalo Guedes ahead of the 2021/22 season. Wolves are managed by non other than former Valencia CF coach Nuno Santo and he has been closely following Valencia CF since his sacking, and he has identified Goncalo Guedes as this summers target for his team. 

Italian midfielder Patrick Cutrone joined Valencia CF on a six-month loan from Wolves in January and even though he hasn't featured enough, Wolves are hoping that a decent 20 million euros offer plus the player will entice Valencia CF enough to sell Goncalo Guedes.