Llorente promises quality reinforcements in the summer

Valencia CF president gave a press conference and it was mostly about the financial situation, at least that's where the media took it, but it was interesting as he also said how there would be quality reinforcements in the summer and he guaranteed that the team would be a lot stronger next season.

In fact he was asked about the finances and he claimed that the club is in good shape and that even though there was still a big debt problem, the club is not in a crisis and that said he felt he did a good job as the president of the club in the past 4 years.

Obviously as he was pressured about his presidency and the summer elections, he said he would step down in someone came in with tons of cash, but that that wasn't going to happen and then he went on to say that there will be quality reinforcements coming in the summer.

David Albelda won't renew his contract

David Albelda announced that he won't be renewing his contract with Valencia CF. He announced: "My idea is to finish the season and think about other things, there is 95% chance that I will leave."

"I'm thinking about going abroad, I've never played outside of Spain, but the decision can change", he added "I've always wanted to leave while I feel good". No doubt he wants to experience life outside Spain and I can see him going in Italy where his age players play all the time, maybe even England in one of the weaker teams.

So there you have it, huge decision by David Albelda to not renew his contact. If he does end up leaving and there is still 5% chance that he can stay, but is he leaves it will be very hard to find a suitable replacement for him as he has been a rock at the back and has shielded Valencia's defenses perfectly for over a decade.

Offers rejected for Rami and Cissokho

Valencia CF rejected last day offers for Adil Rami and Aly Cissokho. Russian power house Anzhi sent a last day 12 million offer in a bid to get Adil Rami, but Valencia CF obviosly rejected that offer, first of because it was too small and the team only has 3 central defenders.

Valencia CF got as much as 8 offers from West Ham for Aly Cissokho and Valencia CF considered the offers, but Aly Cissokho said he wanted to stay at Valencia CF and Valverde said he would use him more often at left back, but as a central defender as well.

As you know Cissokho was almost exclusevely used by Pellegrino, but since the arrival of Valverde he has opted out for Guardado at the left back spot and Cissokho has found it hard for playing time, which will only increase with the arrival of Jeremy Mathieu back in the squad.

Record month of January

This past month of January has been record breaking in visits to the blog. In fact the past 3 months have all been record breaking, but this month was significant with a big mobile audience for the first time. In fact 1/4 of the audience came from mobile devices landing directly to the mobile sites.

The blog had over 45.000 pageviews in total as measured by blogger, this includes mobile.

The biggest article was the match preview of real madrid vs valencia cf in the first leg of the cup with over 600 pageviews. The most read page was the transfers page, though unfortunately it was a non eventful winter in the transfer market, with only Javi Guego reaching a personal agreement with Valencia CF, but would only come in the summer as a free agent.

As far as the browsers go, Google Chrome was the dominant browser, followed by Firefox.

Here are the top 10 visitor countries according to blogger, though I have different data from Google analytics

Entry Pageviews

United States 8443

United Kingdom 3336

Netherlands 1453

Spain 1322

Sweden 1247

Norway 1070

Malaysia 948

Germany 763

Belgium 499

Indonesia 414

Here are the Google Analytics stats:

1. United States 1,279

2. Malaysia 467

3. Indonesia 378

4. Spain 282

5. Trinidad and Tobago 230

6. Poland 221

7. Egypt 207

8. (not set) 168

9. Bulgaria 152

10. Lithuania     150

About 20% of the visitors were from the USA.

The longest average visitors duration was from Ghana at 24 minutes, followed by Zimbabwe with 10 minutes.

Ricardo Costa to be offered contract extension

Valencia CF is set to offer central defender Ricardo Costa a contract extension. His current contract ends in 2014 and Valencia CF are looking into extending in till 2016. This is going to be an extension, which means same salary and details with just extension of the contract for two additional years.

Ricardo Costa has been the preferred central defender to Victor Ruiz and has partnered Adil Rami in most of the matches. Neither of the central defenders have been amazing, but hes been consistent and bring in huge experience to the side.

Ricardo Costa is 31 years of age, not the youngest of players, but for a defender these are their best years up till age 33.

Gago transfers to Atletico Velez?

Fernando Gago is on the verge of transferring to Argentinian Club Atlético Vélez Sársfield on a half a year loan deal. The club has written on their official website they have reached personal agreements with Fernando Gago and are waiting on Valencia CF to give the go ahead.


We know that Valencia CF has given the go ahead as well  because Gago was not seen in training today and even if not the South American transfer window closes on 11th of February, so there is plenty of time for Gago to leave.

Valencia CF eight place in 2013 UEFA Club Ranking

Valencia CF finds itself in eight position in the latest UEFA club ranking which combines the coefficients of the past four seasons and the start of the 2012/13 campaign. With 100,833 points Valencia CF managed to get 8th place ahead of Inter and Atletico Madrid.

To find other Spanish teams, one has to go all the way down to 22nd to find Villarreal CF (66,833 points), then Sevilla in 37th place(54,333), and Athletico Bilbao in 40th place (51,833). Even further down is Málaga at 62nd place (34,833) and Levante UD at 78th place with 24,833 points.

Here are the top ten by seasons:                                  08/09      09/10      10/11      11/12      12/13         Pts:

1FC Barcelona	ESP	28.662	30.585	36.642	34.171	20.771	150.833
2FC Bayern München	GER	22.537	30.616	24.133	33.050	20.671	131.008
3Manchester United FC	ENG	28.000	28.585	36.671	16.050	19.228	128.535
4Real Madrid CF	ESP	14.662	22.585	33.642	36.171	19.771	126.833
5Chelsea FC	ENG	25.000	22.585	26.671	33.050	13.228	120.535
6Arsenal FC	ENG	22.000	25.585	22.671	22.050	18.228	110.535
7FC Porto	POR	17.357	21.000	31.760	12.366	19.750	102.233
8Valencia CF	ESP	13.662	19.585	21.642	25.171	20.771	100.833
9FC Internazionale Milano	ITA	13.275	34.085	21.314	20.271	10.150	99.096
10Club Atlético de Madrid	ESP	17.662	24.585	9.642	34.171	10.771	96.833

You can find the full table on the Uefa website.