Victor Ruiz transfers to Valencia CF

Valencia CF and Napoli have reached an agreement for Victor Ruiz and apart from few formalities Victor Ruiz is officially a Valencia CF player.

There is still no word on what the amount was to sign Ruiz, but reports have suggested as much as 8 million euros to persuade Napoli to sell him.

Valencia CF has agreed terms with the player and he will stay for 5 years at Valencia until the year 2016. He is also said to be a low earner with no more than 1.2 million euros per season. His young age also makes him a possible long term solution in defense, depending on how he turns out of course.

Ruiz arrived in RCD Espanyol's youth system in 2006 at the age of 17, from Catalonia neighbours FC Barcelona. In 2008–09 he made his senior debuts, helping the reserve side win its Tercera División group, and subsequently promote in the playoffs. On 6 December 2009, Ruiz made his debut with Espanyol's first team, starting and being booked in a 0–4 home loss against Racing de Santander. Coach Mauricio Pochettino, however, fielded him in a further 21 La Liga games that season, with the team finally ranking in 11th position.

Valencia CF close to signing Gonul Gokhan

There are reports coming from Turkey that the deal between Fenerbahce and Valencia CF for the transfer of right back Gonul Gokhan is almost done and the turning point has been that PSG signed Diego Lugano from them and not Gokhan Gonul as it was reported.

This means Valencia CF has no competition and with Fenerbahce very likely to be moved to the Turkish second league due to bribery scandals they are looking to sell and reports have it that the fee that is in the final stages of negotiation is 8 million euros.

It would be fantastic if Gonul Gokhan transfers to Valencia CF, as he is probably the best right back in Turkey right now.

Valencia CF 4-3 Racing Santander - Match Report

What an amazing first match, full of happiness, rage and then happiness again. It was a match that no one probably predicted would turn out the way it did.

Valencia CF started the match brilliantly and scored in the very first minute of the match, courtesy of Roberto Soldado. After the positive start to the match it would all soon turn into doom and gloom with Racing equalizing just 5 minutes later courtesy of Soldado again, who now scored an own goal.

Then again just several minutes later, Racing would score again to make it 2-1 and their goal would come from Acosta.

Valencia CF was quite bad after that with not so many chances and failing to penetrate the Racing defense who really went out all on the defense.

At half time Unai Emery would remove Ricardo Costa and replace him with Tino Costa in a bid to control the match better and add some urgency to the midfield. Mehmet Topal then placed as a center back and Tino and Banega were in the defensive midfield positions.
He would also remove Bernat who was actually decent in what I managed to saw from the first half, but anyways he replaced him with Canales.

But this would back fire on us as Racing counter attack would caught our defense with their pants down and score once again in the 56th minute to make it 3-1 for Racing, Luckily though in a bid to save our defense's face Adil Rami would score a goal back for Valencia CF just a minute later and this would put as back in the game.

Valencia CF pushed really hard for the equalizer once again with tons of possession, lots of passes and crosses but nothing really substantial. There was some half chances and stuff, but nothing really solid.

In a bid to save his face Emery brought on Jonas for Pablo Piatti, who up to then played really well, although he didn't really change anything.

The Jonas move would pay off huge dividends as Jonas would manage an incredible assist to Soldado who would score and make it 3-3. That was really amazing that Valencia CF equalized after such a long battle, but as we had the initiative at that point in time Valencia CF would score another goal, once again by Soldado, this time setup by Jordi Alba from a cross from the left side.

After watching a match of frustration for so long, it felt so good that we didn't even draw, but win.

Technical Details:
Valencia CF (4): Guaita; Bruno, Rami, Costa, Alba; Banega, Topal, Pablo, Piatti, Bernat, Soldado. Subs: Tino Costa(45), Canales(45), Jonas(67)

Racing Santander (3): Tono; Cisma, Osmar, Alvaro, Jose; Arana, Adrian, Pepe, Kennedy; Munitis, Acosta. Subs: Edu(64), Borga(69), Jairo(78).

Goals: 1-0 Soldado, 1min; 1-1 Soldado(o.g), 7min; 1-2 Acosta, 14min; 1-3 Adrian, 56min; 2-3 Rami, 67min; 3-3 Soldado, 88min; 4-3 Soldado, 90min.

Player Ratings:
Guita 4 - He can't organise his defence and doesn't come off his line anymore
Bruno 5 - Not that bad but badly out of position at times as were all the defence
Rami 5.5 - A bid of presence yet again at times badly out of position
R Costa 4 - I am not sure if the substitution was tactical or an injury but he was all over the place at times
Alba 6.5 - 2 great stops,though one ended up in the net quite soon anyway. Also a great cross leading to the winner
Pablo 5 - Nice set piece crosses, passing gradually got worse as game on though
Topal 5 - Heading for a higher mark before moved to central defence
Ever 5.5 - Some got stuff but a lot of silly long shots that never got close and gave the ball back to Racing
Bernat 4 - not that visible, not his fault, he is an impact sub at this age- why did he start ?
Piatti 6 - promising debut, caused problems but final product not always that good
Soldado 8 - missed 4 good chances and a difficult one but scored 3 and sadly one 'og' (very unlucky) but this was a great start to his season, looked very dangerous and will be one of La Ligas top scorers this year. Soldado has the habit of being where he should be and you can't teach that !
Subs:
T Costa 6 - nothing special but very lively
Jonas 7.5 - should have started, class performance
Canales 7 - great debut some lovely passing

http://loscheuk.loscheuk.com/#post7
Thanks Gavin for the rankings. Unfortunately I won't be making them official on the ratings page, because I just don't agree with some of them.

Valencia CF vs Racing Santander - Match Preview

Well after a week of players strikes, an agreement was reached between the football and player association and now finally we'll be able to see some matches.

This is going to be sort of first fixture in a way and knowing the LFP they are going to cram up the previous, real first fixture in a mid week at some point, possibly November or January, but who knows.
What is important is that the Spanish league is finally going to start after a long and eventful summer and we are going to see Valencia CF play its official match and start the fight for better placement than last year and coming close to Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Valencia CF preseason has been quite good, with a mixture of results, but overall good showing, certainly way better than last season and we are coming in with a lot of new players into this season, as well as a lot of players having left Valencia CF.

Some of the more notable players that have left us are Joaquin Sanchez, Isco, Vicente Rodriguez and Juan Mata, but we've brought in young and very talented players to replace them with the likes of Daniel Parejo, Pablo Piatti, Sergio Canales and Adil Rami.

The team has trained well for the past week and hasn't dropped the fitness level, furthermore there are no reports of injury and lets hope it stays that way for as long as possible. There is also good news on the transfer front with reports saying Valencia CF has signed Victor Ruiz, although its still transfer speculation and anything can happen till the transfer deadline.

Past results:

Season 2010-11	Racing	Valencia	1-1
Season 2010-11	Valencia	Racing	1-0
Season 2009-10	Valencia	Racing	0-0
Season 2009-10	Racing	Valencia	0-1
Season 2008-09	Racing	Valencia	0-1

Valencia CF squad: not available...

Racing Santander squad:
Goalkeepers: Mario Fernández, Toño
Defense: Álvaro González, Cisma,José Picón, Ósmar, Christian, Fernández, Francis, Torrejón.
Midfield: Kennedy, Arana, Colsa, Edu Bedia, Adrián, Brian Sarmiento, Serrano, Pape Diop.
Attackers: Ariel, Munitis

Technical Details:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Guaita; Miguel, Rami, Dealbert, Alba; Topal, Tino; Pablo, Jonas, Piatti; Soldado.
Tactics: mixed passing, high opposing field pressure, 3-way attack and positional changes from the wings, interchanging with the CM and AM

Result prediction:
Valencia CF 2-0 Racing Santander
Its likely to be a tough match and our history with Racing shows that these matches always end with only 1 goal, at least in the last 3 years, but this time I think Valencia CF is much better prepared and packs bigger punch in offense. Valencia CF should win this two to zero.

Valencia CF signs Victor Ruiz from Napoli

Valencia CF has signed Napoli central defender Victor Ruiz, Spanish Radio Nou reports. Valencia CF and Napoli negotiated for about a week, with the last days Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente meeting with Napoli officials and they seemed to have reached an agreement about the transfer of Ruiz.

The Italian side were originally against selling after an injury to Miguel Britos, but Llorente seems to have changed their minds.

Valencia CF had already reached an agreement with the player and his his contract would keep him at Valencia CF for 5 years.

Champions League groups, Valencia in group E

The Champions League draw just ended in Monte Carlo where all the groups were selected for the Champions League. Valencia CF found itself in group E with high quality opposition.

Group A is the group of death with the likes of Bayern Munich, Villarreal, Manchester City and Napoli in it.

Luckily Valencia CF avoided that group. Its also great that Valencia CF avoided its Spanish competitors, Real Madrid and Valencia CF. I think Valencia CF has good chance of coming out of group E.



All groups:
Group A: Bayern Munchen, Villarreal, Manchester City, Napoli

Group B: Inter, CSKA Moskva, Lille, Trabzonspor

Group C: Manchester United, Benfica, Basel, Otelul Galati

Group D: Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb

Group E: Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Genk

Group F: Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiacos, Borussia Dortmund

Group G: Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St. Petersburg, APOEL

Group H: Barcelona, Milan, BATE Borisov, Viktoria Plzen

Valencia CF search for defenders

Every hour there is less time remaining to 31.08, the day the summer football market. will cease to be active at midnight

The time that passes by is in no means in favor of Valencia, so by the end of transfer market the team wants to step up and find yet another defensive football player, and one right-side player.

When it comes to defensive reinforcements the first on Valencia's wish list  is Raul Albiol who currently plays for Real Madrid, Valencia could, if Madrid agreed to sell pay for him 10 million euros.

However, as things are at Real they will not accept the offer as Mourinho request that the team has four tested defenders.

Second on the wish list of Valencia when it comes to defensive reinforcements is the Argentine Nicolas Pareja who currently performs for Spartak Moscow, but by all accounts his transfer to Valencia will not be coming to fruition because the Russian team for is seeking damages of 15 million euros for him, and this is an amount that Valencia is not ready to pay.

Besides the already mentioned Albiol and Pareja, others on Valencia's list are: Vertonghen (Ajax), Alderweireld (Ajax), Botia (Sporting Gijon), S. Coates (M. Nacional) and Angel Ogabonn (Torino).

According to media reports from Italy Valencia showed great interest in Italy's national team player, the 23-year-old Ogabonna in their ranks who in their ranks want to see Milan, Arsenal, Barcelona, ​​Juventus and Fiorentina.

Valencia has reportedly bid for him an amount of 7.5 million euros, but this same offer Torino rejected because they do not want their first star to be let below ten million euros.

Today it also emerged that Valencia's sporting director assistant was in the French league watching the match between Montpellier and Rennes (4-0) and looking for new possible reinforcements.

French media are reporting that Braulio Vazquez arrived in Montpellier in order to monitor performance Kane Biyik ,22-year-old Rennes defender from Cameroon origin.

In addition to Kane Biyik, Braulio has on the list Kevin Théophile-Catherine, also Rennes defender who is 21 years old and is currently a member of the French youth team.

Braulio Vazquez at the same time is looking for reinforcements in the form of the right back. When it comes to this position in Braulio's list there are a few famous names like Beck (Hofenheim), Azpilicueta (Marsellile), Maxi Pereira (Benfica) and Gonul (Fenerbache).

In addition to the aforementioned players to the list of possible reinforcements on the right side for Valencia, Braulio during his stay in France included the name of 23-year-old footballer Garry Bocalya from Montpellier.

In an interview with Valencia CF president Llorente, Valencia CF coach Unai Emery, Valencia CF sporting director said his optimism when it comes to new signings, and he expects all the work around the reinforcements would soon be resolved.

Braulio also confirmed that he has not rejected any possibility for Valencia to bring  one player on loan, which he did last season when he got Stankevicius from Sampdoria on loan.

Source: valencia-balkan.net