Valencia CF in negotiations with Ernesto Valverde

Superdeporte is reporting that Valencia CF is negotiating with former Athletico Bilbao and Villarreal coach Ernesto Valverde.

Previous reports were that Luis Aragones was the hot favorite to take Pellegrino's place, followed closely by Mauricio Pochetino.

Ernesto Valverde has most recently coached Olympiacos with which he won the Greek league two times, but resigned in 2012 citing family reasons for the resignation.

I got to say he is very experienced coach and did well with the clubs he's coached, but I'm not sure he is a top class manager for a top class club and certainly did a poor job with Villarreal following Manuel Pellegrini's move to Real Madrid.

Valencia CF sack Mauricio Pellegrino

And its official, Mauricio Pellegrino has been sacked as coach of Valencia CF. After the heavy defeat from Real Sociedad in an emergency meeting with Valencia CF officials it was decided that he is going to be sacked after a rather poor season and more recently 2 terrible results, loosing 4-0 to Malaga and now loosing 5-2 at home against Real Sociedad.

So far its not clear who is going to replace Mauricio Pellegrino, though Valencia CF have few names they've been in contact with and who can take over. In the meantime I guess Voro is going to be the interim coach for the next several days, maybe even week.

It was pretty obvious after this match that it was the end, even Pellegrino's face said it all. It was a balsy move to give him the position in the first place, everyone hoped it would work out, but I guess the lack of coaching experience was too much for him to be able to overcome.

Valencia CF 2-5 Real Sociedad

Time for Mauricio Pellegrino to go and I believe he knows it. I mean looking at his face when the camera panned on him, he looked like a defeated men as he probably realized this is most likely going to be his last game in charge of Valencia CF.

I know it, Pellegrino knows it and most of the fans on the stands know it as they drew out the white napkins, clearly showing their dissatisfaction over Pellegrino and wanting him to go.

What to write about this match, it was a ridiculous showing once again, in fact I'd say we are regressing instead of progressing. We got lucky in the second minute and after a chance Soldado scored.

Then it was a fairly equal match, though instead of having the upper hand Valencia CF were barely keeping up and the tipping point would be in the 41st minute when Jonas would be given a red card for supposed elbow, which I didn't see and strongly believe it was simulation.

The equalizer would come soon after and we would go into the half time with the score level at 1-1.

Second half Pellegrino decided to keep the same formation and players on the pitch as if Valencia CF were so much better that we could magically compete with Real Sociedad and the punishment came soon enough, first in the 57th minute when Gonzalez scored and then in the 64th minute with a goal by Ifran.

Valencia CF would score one more in the 73rd minute after a good play by Feghuoli finding Soldado and this one finding the net. This would give the team a small boost, but all would be for nothing as our defense will gave way again and Real Sociedad would score again to put the match to rest.

The final result ended up 2-5 for Real Sociedad as Feghuoli fouled one of their players in the penalty area and Vela scored from a penalty.

Overall it was a disaster and even before Jonas red card we were playing bad and would have probably lost or draw anyways, so its not an excuse for the humiliating 2-5 loss at home terrain. I blame Pellegrino as he hasn't got any ideas, hasn't improved the team in any way and he had all the time in the world and support from staff and supporters alike. Now its time for Llorente to sack him and bring in an experienced coach that can guide Valencia CF to at least a 4th place position, since at this time that is the only thing we are likely to get, if at all.

Valencia CF  (2): Alves; Joao (Valdez, min.75), R. Costa, V. Ruiz, Cissokho (Guardado, min.65); Gago, Éver; Feghouli, Jonas, Bernat (Viera, min.65); Soldado.
Real Sociedad (5): Bravo; C.Martínez, Mikel, Iñigo, De la Bella; Zurutuza (Chory Castro, min 72), Pardo; Prieto, Vela, Griezmann (Ros, min.73); Ifrán (Aguirretxe, min. 76) .
Goals: 1-0 Min 2, Soldado. 1-1 Min 43 De la Bella. 1-2 Min 56, Mikel. 1-3 Min 63, Ifrán. 2-3 Min 73, Soldado. 2-4 Min 84, Agirretxe. 2-5 Min 90, Vela.

Player Ratings:
Diego 3.5 - Had few good saves, but stood still for pretty much all the goal and should have done much much better. Even a poor goalkeeper would have done better to at least 2 of the goals.
Joao Pereira 5 - Clearly lacking fitness and match form, it showed today as he left some gaps in the defense, although he wasn't directly at fault for any of the goals.
R. Costa 4.5 - No where to be found on any of the goals, nonexistent relationship with Ruiz and both were like headless chickens.
Ruiz 4.5 - Same as Costa, no understanding of his central partner, it was like they were playing first time together in a local after beer match or something.
Cissokho 4 - Terrible match from Cissokho, failed to cover for the first goal and was often times beat.
Gago 4 - Complete lack of shielding for the defense, he was quick to go forward, but slow to fall back and keep his position. Most certainly isn't a defensive midfielder, more like a busy man.
Banega 6 - Rather good showing even though most around him sucked, kept the ball well and spread it around pretty well, having several missed passes though, but overall lively showing.
Feghuoli 4 - Nowhere to be found before his assist and that was his only contribution. Caused a penalty late in the match to embarrass Valencia with the result.
Jonas 4 - I don't think he hit whoever it was for Sociedad, though he should have been smarter and didn't have any reason swinging his arm around so high. Wasn't good even before the expulsion.
Bernat 6.5 - Nice assist and generally played good, some good link-up play with Banega and was dangerous  on his side, it was Feghuoli that should have been subbed out and not him, but clearly Pellegrino lacks any sort of critical thinking skills.
Soldado 7 - Two goals from two chances, pretty good goal conversion ratio in this match for him. You can't blame him as he did what he is supposed to do and scored two goals.
Subs:
Guardado 5 - Pretty much same as Cissokho. Failed to bring something more going forward, which was obviously why he was put on.
Viera 5 - Had few combinations, mostly with Banega, but failed to exert much influence.
Valdez N/A - didn't have time to do much.

Juan Bernat loan out, Javi Fuego in?

Javi Fuego, Rayo Vallecano

Juan Bernat will most likely be send on loan this winter transfer season. Valencia CF coach Mauricio Pellegrino announced in the summer that he would seriously count on Juna Bernat and he would be important to the team, but it was just words as Juan Bernat has barely featured in Valencia CF in now 3 months.

Valencia CF sporting director Braulio is considering loaning out Juan Bernat to Rayo Vallecano and possibly making a deal for Javi Fuego to come to Valencia CF. He is hoping such a deal for be acceptable for Rayo Vallecano, though Rayo president Felipe Miñambres denied such a possibility.

Either way its pretty much set that Bernat will be send on loan, if not in Rayo Vallecano than somewhere else and apart from Javi Fuego Valencia CF are also looking at other players for the defensive midfielder position as well as other positions like right wing and central defenders.

Mario Alvarado deal turning out too good to be true

So it seems someone leaked the supposed deal Mario Alvarado was doing with Bankia and his proposal was to buy 220 million euros of the debt owned by Bankia, but was itself based on a loan deal done with HSBC bank.

This just confirms many people's suspicions that he doesn't have any capital and this whole operation is based on more debt and more fake promises. He proposed a 3 phase deal and the first one was the purchase of the debt of up to 220 million and then have additional investments.

Problem with this is that there is no capital, there is no real money, its all based on further debt which Valencia CF has too much of. In fact the problems right now are too much debt and the inability to liquidate debt and start fresh, which is the only way to get growth again, it doesn't take a rocket scientists to get to understand that.

So I'd say this deal is likely to be rejected and is not going to go through. We even had reports that Llorente is in Dubai and other Asian countries searching for investors.

We'll see what happens, but I'm calling this early based on these new information that the deal will not go through, because there is no deal as there is no capital and/or money, its just more debt that if surprisingly done would just move the ball to another court.

Mario Alvarado plans to buy Valencia CF

Costa Rican energy and mining magnate Mario Alvarado has been making the news lately with his public offer to purchase Valencia CF. In fact after he announced his plan to purchase Valencia CF on a radio network, he went on to meet with Valencia's officials and discuss such a possibility.

Valencia CF debt is currently at 370 million euros, down from the 550 million euros dept it had 4 years ago. After coming in current Valencia CF president stabilized the ship and with the sales of David Villa, David Silva, Juan Mata and others was able to reduce the debt by over 150 million euros.

Our intention is firm, with the aim of being able to resolve the club's economic situation and thus give it financial stability for the coming decades," Alvarado Orozco said in a statement.

We have been preparing the offer for months and with absolute discretion and professionalism so as not to put the viability of the operation in jeopardy."

Our intention is firm, and our desire is to straighten out the club's economic situation and thereby provide it with financial stability for the coming decades", Alvarado's statement reads.

Alvarado plans to invest 500 million euros in Valencia CF, this would mean wiping out the 370 million debt and continuing construction on the Nou Mestalla. He also said he would likely keep Manuel Llorente as president to keep things running smoothly and won't be making any big changes.

He met with the City's deputy Mayor Alfonso Grau, as well as representatives on Bankia who are the owners of the club, since they own all the debt.

Valencia CF after Eljero Elia

Sport Valenciano is reporting that Valencia CF is interested in Werder Bremen winger Eljero Elia and has already acquired to his agent about his availability. This players arrived to Werder this summer, but reports have it that he isn't happy there and is looking for a way out.

Valencia CF are supposedly willing to pay as much as 5 million euros for the player as they see him as the perfect replacement for Sofiane Feghouli, who is likely to leave in the summer transfer window for huge money, as PSG is very interested in Feghouli. Also Feghouli will leave Valencia CF to play in the African cup of nations with Algeria, so he will miss at least 1 month, possibly more.

Valencia CF was interested in the player last year as well and there were reports in the summer that Valencia  CF will purchase Eljero Elia, but that didn't materialize.