Transfer speculation: Taiwo and Capdevilla coming to Valencia?

Spanish press report how in the next period Valencia would sign two new players. The first name is Nigerian player Taye Taiwo from France club Marseille. Few other big blubs are reported to be interested in this layer.

The other player is said to be Villareal left back and Spanish international Joan Capdevila. His contract ends in the summer and reportedly Valencia will jump to the opportunity to sign him for free.

Bogus or not bogus?
Its reasonable that Valencia could be tracking these two players, they are both great players and Capdevila has great reputation and the fact that his contract ends in less than a year makes him a prime candidate, but at 32 years old I don't think Valencia will make a move.
Reasonably how many years can he be a good player, one year, more than one, less than one? Its a risky signing.

Taye Taiwo on the other side is 25 years old, he is a left back also and has been playing for Marseille from 2004 and has 169 appearances for them. Taye is a more likely candidate, considering we only have one natural left back, with Jordi Alba a makeshift left back and Del Horno not fitting with Unai Emery plans.
Its a position Unai Emery has to figure out what to do, either play Alba as secondary left back or buy a new left back and play Alba as left wing, but then again the Taye won't settle as a reserve and there is a lot of competition for left wing and Jordi would have to be loaned out, unless Vicente is not given contract extension.

Anyways these transfer rumors don't seem very likely, everything is possible but there is much left of the current season and transfer plans would be made closer to its end.

Defender Miguel Brito rank so far - Player Ratings

Miguel Brito battling for the ball with Joan Verdu

Its time to evaluate Valencia CF defender Miguel Brito. He has had very good games this season and he is obviously working harder than ever. I expect to see full commitment from him in matches and in training.

Player Rank:
vs Man. Utd.; Miguel 7
vs Hercules; Miguel 6
vs Racing Santander; Miguel 7
vs Malaga; Miguel 6.5
Overall score:6.6
Miguel has had very good matches so far, although he hasn't been starting most regularly, Unai Emery has been rotating most of the players so there is nothing strange about that. While his performances have been very good as I've said, Bruno has actually been also playing very well and there will surely be more battles for a starting place over the season arc.

David Villa speaks about Valencia

Barcelona striker David Villa payed tribute to former club Valencia for making him the footballer that he is today and helping him develop as a player.
David Villa has been Valencia's best goalscorer for five consecutive seasons, always scoring more than 20 goals and even having something like 14 assists in the 2007 campaign where he was La Liga top assistant.

David Villa and Barcelona will face Valencia in two weeks time at the Camp Nou. David Villa said: "I took my first steps at Sporting, then Zaragoza, but everything I have achieved in football, Valencia have given me. In the five years I played with them, I played in the Champions League, I fought for many titles, and there is no doubt that those years were the most important of my life. Thanks to them, I’m now with this club [Barcelona].


I will try to score against Valencia when we face them, because I am a professional, like I did against Sporting. But I have much love for Valencia and respect for all the people who have made me better, so I would not celebrate.

“Their team is doing fine. They are a big team that does not suffer when it loses one or two players. Their signings have been very good, and already the players are at a high level.”

Valencia CF goalkeeper Cezar rank so far - Player Ratings

Valencia CF Goalkeeper Cezar being unbeatable as always

This is just for fun while we wait two weeks for the next match against Barcelona. I'll do an overall ranking for all players that have started and played more than 3 games. I'll start with Cezar first and probably do one ranking each day. Note that I did not watch the game against Athletico Madrid and have no rating for that game, so I'll just skip it.
I'll also do an overall rank of all players when the first half of the season ends and see which player has performed the best, this will also serve to see if players have played better in the first half of the season or the second and show us which players need to go and what positions need strengthening.

Player rank:
vs Bilbao; Cezar 6
vs Man. Utd.; Cezar 8
vs Sporting Gijon; Cezar 7
vs Hercules; Cezar 8.5
vs Bursaspot; Cezar 6
vs Racing Santander; Cezar 9
vs Malaga; Cezar 8
Overall score: 7.5
Cezar gets an overall score of 7.5 and will probably be one of the highest scores of any player after 7 rated games. He has been great so far, with only the last game making one big error that let Bilbao score a late goal from freekick, otherwise a great display from the veteran in all games.

Juan Mata to sign a contract extension

Valencia winger Juan Mata is set to receive a contract extension with increased salary and bonuses. The contract extension was originally planned for last year, but with the grim financial situation and loss of form for Mata the negotiations stopped, but they have now resumed and a contract extension is surely to happen in few days.
Juan Mata manager is his father Juan senior who has been very vocal about improving Mata's current contract, but president Llorente has stood firm that the contract can only be improved in Q3 2010.

Reports suggest that Mata will receive 4 million euros per season, more than 300% increase over his previous contract. I expect a more realistic salary, considering our sporting and financial situation of around 3 million euros per season.

Mata has been up and down since the season started and I have been very critical of some of his performances. Here are my ratings of Mata since the beginning of the season:
vs Atletico Bilbao; Mata 6
vs Man. United; Mata 2
vs Sporting Gijon; Mata 6
vs Hercules; Mata 6
vs Bursaspor; Mata 6
vs Racing Santander; Mata 6.5
vs Malaga; Mata 5
Overall mark: 5.3

Pablo and Aduriz called to Spain squad for Euro 2012 qualifiers

Well something had to give after my explosion why we only have 1 international. Torres and Pedro got injured in their last matches, that coupled with the injuries of Xavi, Fabregas and Jesus Navas has forced Vicente Del Bosque to make last minute additions and call Aduriz and Pablo to the Spanish squad for the Euro 2012 qualifications.

Del Bosque has added Villarreal CF midfielders Bruno Soriano and Borja Valero, who is uncapped, to his squad while Valencia CF's Pablo Hernández and Aritz Aduriz – another yet to make his senior debut – have also received calls. Spain began the defence of their UEFA European Football Championship crown with a 4-0 victory in Liechtenstein last month.

Vicente said in his press conference that Soldado is baked for international duty also and he will surely play in some of the future matches.

Maduro is supposed to be injured, but he was listed in the Holland squad, so maybe he recovered or maybe the Holland coach will make last minute change, we'll see.

Valencia players called(not called)for international duty

Valencia has had a superb start this season, leading the table with 16 points and only loosing 2 points in the draw vs Atletico Madrid. With the great results and form the players have been, you'd think we'll see more players called for international duty, but no. Valencia has only 1 player called for international duty, okay technically two and that is Maduro for Holland and Mata for Spain U21 squad.
Miguel Brito has retired from the Portugal national team as he wanted to focus on Valencia and Ever Banega was injured for almost 4 weeks and was not called up for Argentina.

Ricardo Costa has not been called for Portugal, even after showing some good performances for Valencia and players such as Mathieu, Fernandes, Topal and Pablo who have played great have also not been called up.

I think that France coach Laurent needs to call Mathieu and give him a chance and Pablo certainly deserves to be in the Spanish squad, especially since Xavi and Fabregas are injured, so there is a place for him.
Mata is also out of Spain squad as he plays for the Spain U21 squad now.