Jonathan Viera passes medical

Jonathan Viera passed the medical exam today and officially became a Valencia CF players. He signed a contract that would have him stay at Valencia CF for 5 years.

He said that he always wanted to play for some of the big clubs in Spain and that his wish had been fulfilled by coming to Valencia CF.
He said that its going to be hard for him here with all the competition to play, but that he came here to improve and become even better player.
He mentioned that he talked to David Silva as he helped him to make the decision to join Valencia, and that Silva has some good advice for him on how to succeed in Valencia.

Poll Results for Mauricio Pellegrino

So I have the results for our latest poll, about Mauricio Pellegrino. Overwhelmingly with 51% of the vote "Risky choice" was the answer, out of a total of 72 votes.

 

Mauricio Pellegrino?

Good choice  30.56%  (22 votes)  

 

Bad choice  5.56%  (4 votes)  

 

Risky choice  54.17%  (39 votes)  

 

Don't know  9.72%  (7 votes)  

 

 

Total Votes: 72

Dealbert, Bruno and others leaving Valencia CF

The season is over and its time for the usual summer transfers and moves. In Valencia CF we have few players that will be leaving this summer as free agents and these are Angel Dealbert, Bruno Saltor, Miguel Brito and very likely Hedwiges Maduro, while Aritz Aduriz is looking likely to be sold and Jordi Alba is a mystery and will depend if Barcelona get Gareth Bale.

So right now Valencia CF is looking for a new right back and has been looking for some time now with the choice between Mathieu Debuchy and Joao Pereira. Since Dealbert has confirmed he is leaving this season, we are looking at additional center back to replace him with Alberto Botia from Sporting Gijon the prime target as his team has been relegated and he would be the perfect replacement as a young and talented player, but that can sit on the bench.

Miguel Brito is most certainly a done deal, although we haven't heard much about it from the club or anything from the player, and then here is Maduro who would like to get more first team football and will probably be moving back to Holland. Most likely we are going to bring in a replacement for Maduro who can compete for first team football and that player is Bruno Soriano from Villarreal who have now been relegated and are going to be selling some of their best players this season due to the relegation, but from financial reasons as well.

Aritz Aduriz has said that he will talk to the club about his future, but it is known that the team is looking to replace Aduriz, but only if they find a suitable replacement. If Aduriz leaves he will most likely go to Atletico Bilbao or in the Premier League.
The name mentioned to replace Aduriz is Oliver Giroud, but he is likely to cost too much and has offers from other clubs as well ans his price can only skyrocket after the Euro 2012, unless of course France embarrass themselves once again, which is highly unlikely.

Villarreal relegated, Bruno on target to become Valencia CF player

And this is it. The Spanish Premiera Division is officially over and we are literally minute or two away from the crowning of the deserved winners Real Madrid.

The good news of some are devastating news for others and Atletico Madrid winning over Villarreal 1-0 and going to the Europa League for a chance to defend their title is devastating news for Villarreal as they are being relegated, after they were fighting for top 6 spots last year. How things can change in one year and so drastically.

This opens up the door for Valencia CF to come in and swoop Bruno Soriano on the cheap and as a very good replacement to Maduro as well, who is going to be on his way out this summer.

Premier League fantasy Valencia CF fans group

The Premier League is over and here is the Valencia CF group that I've started.Congratulations to Night Elf who managed River Plate on winning the first season of valencia cf fans fantasy premier league group.

I finished 8th and its a decent result, I especially started off very strong, but fizzled out because of my bad choices for captains.

Johnnie Walker with Drunken Bastards finished dead last in what was a close call battle with Siva's CSK.

#	Team	Manager	GW	TOT
	1	River Plate		0	2,005
	2	AmuntLosche		0	2,002
	3	Aimar's Assassins		0	1,897
	4	Anfield Soldiers		0	1,857
	5	AMUNT VALENCIA!		0	1,811
	6	LosChé77		0	1,765
	7	Pickup's Team		0	1,729
	8	Valencia CF		0	1,723
	9	Weird_Fishes		0	1,713
	10	BK Bollrullers		0	1,687
	11	Syriansk Valencia		0	1,641
	12	FC Chopsticks		0	1,638
	13	Валенсия C.F.		0	1,621
	14	Valencia CF		0	1,618
	15	PWND FC		0	1,597
	16	LA Reds		0	1,596
	17	AmuntValencia		0	1,547
	18	Beating Chastards		0	1,535
	19	CSK		0	1,336
	20	Drunken Basterds FC		0	1,334

Real Sociedad 1-0 Valencia CF - Player Ratings

Diego 6 - Had 2 good saves, but couldn't do much about the goal. Didn't have too much to do.
Bruno 5.5 - Wasn't troubled at the back at all, but he still failed to go forward often and when he did, wasn't at all threatening.
Costa 6 - Solid defensively and dealt with everything Sociedad could throw at him. Not at fault for the goal.
Dealbert 5.5 - Was slow to react for the goal and could have made a difference if he was more reactive. Did well with few challenges.
Alba 6 - Mixed bag performance, in some cases he did very well and in others rather poor.
Maduro 6 - Had one crucial intervention in defense and generally dealt with Sociedad's midfield, but nothing to brag home about.
Tino 5.5 - Not too influential, mixed bag with the corners, one decent free kick towards the end and rather uninventive passing sums up Tino's performance.
Feghuoli 7.5 (MofM) - Best performer of the night, before being substituted by Emery early on in the second half. Had some nice accurate crosses, linked up play with Bernat and Pablo and popped up in dangerous positions.
Bernat 6 - Was quite good for his time on the pitch and caused Sociedad quite a few problems. Made few amateur mistakes, but that's just the process of learning. Good overall showing.
Pablo 5 (FotM) - Started really bad, missing passes, loosing the ball, making the wrong decisions. Improved a bit in the second half, but ultimately a failed performance.
Aduriz 5 - Missed a sitter in the first half where he could have sit, order coffee, drink it and decide where to shoot, he decided to lob and utterly failed at that with the ball going out. Had two decent headers, but quite ineffective.
Subs:
Jonas 5 - Wasn't too involved, had two shots that did nothing. Poor performance.
Piatti 5.5 - More involved than Jonas and had few nice plays and sort of one-twos, ran at Sociedad's defense, but ultimately didn't achieve much.
Paco N/A - Not enough time, although if he was introduced sooner or even started instead of Aduriz, I feel like he would have probably scored a goal, as his running was pretty intelligent and dangerous.

I was right about Barcelona and La Liga

Before the start of the 2011/12 season I wrote an article titled "Valencia CF will destroy FC Barcelona"and while this was to gain attention more than anything, I was right about the premise about Barcelona's fall this season and everything happened exactly as I wrote. David Villa got to a really bad start and then got injured long term, Xavi started well, but finished bad, Puyol was riddled with injuries and wasn't at full form even when fit, Inesita predictably didn't perform to his best when without Xavi, Pedro turned out to be a flop just like Bojan Krkic and the arrival of Cesc Fabregas actually turned out to hurt Barcelona more than help.

I know many are now probably wondering what in the hell am I talking about? How has Cesc arrival been bad for Barcelona?

Well thing is I knew about Cesc possible arrival before I wrote the article and I knew it is a high possibility, but I knew that ultimately it won't make a difference, because I knew about Guardiola's wish to play "total football" or have the whole team be basically midfielders, but I knew that this will also be his downfall as it would only crowd the midfield and hinder Barcelona's own play and style. I knew it Guardiola would play Cesc alongside Xavi and Iniesta and Busquets and I knew that he will be playing the 3-4-3 often this season and this is why I wrote the article confident about it, whether Cesc arrived or not.

I also predicted that Valencia CF would come closer to Barcelona and Real Madrid and this was actually the case in the first half of the season. What exactly happened in the second half I am still not exactly sure, but point is this was still a more successful season that last year for example as we went further in the Copa and Europa League, than in recent years. While Valencia did not destroy Barcelona, it did come out as equal on 3 occasions and some may argue even better in at least one.

I also predicted that Real Madrid would win La Liga and that is now confirmed.

Stay tuned for end of season awards and choosing of our best player this season, best newcomers and worst player of the season.