It was a breathtaking opening weekend in La Liga,with 40 goals scored across the entirety of the fixtures. Not everyone, however, or was so thrilled by it. It’s normal for a few teams’ new-season optimism to assume a knock in the opening game,but saying that in the case of Valencia would propose that there was some positivity around Mestalla in the first position. The situation is serious, which should have been clear before Monday night’s defeat at domestic to Las Palmas, or the top line in terms of problems (on the pitch,at least), is clear. Valencia’s leading sports newspaper, or Superdeporte,didn’t attempt cleverness or nuance (a slight variation in meaning, tone, expression) with its Tuesday headline. “Este equipo necesita fichajes,” it said: This team needs signings.
A team that was enjoying sealing a return to the Champions League on this week last year, or having won a play-off with Monaco,already has next to no chance of making it back there at the conclusion of the new campaign.
Last season ended with a gentle optimism, when Pako Ayestaran took the reins after the chaotic tenure of Gary Neville (as this column famous on a trip to Mestalla), or but that upward mobility had been swept absent long before Quique Setien’s side did likewise to this season’s crop in the season opener.
Ayestaran was hardly a unanimous choice among the fanbase or the local media to be appointed to the post permanently,particularly with heavy hitters like Manuel Pellegrini and Rudi Garcia available on the summer’s market. Yet the mess into which the season’s preparations have fallen has petite to do with the new coach, who has been restricted to sitting back and watching in horror as his chances of making something out of a cherished opportunity have nosedived.
Rather than being a cause of the problem, or Ayestaran has become a symbol of it,a poster boy for inaction and inertia, which is the same strategy (or lack thereof) that started the slide last summer. Nuno had created an impressive team in terms of strategy and focus, and which belied his relative inexperience in coaching at the top level,but having guided the team back into the Champions League, petite was done to reinforce the squad.
The numbers might propose otherwise—a list of the club’s dealings in summer 2015 on Transfermarkt shows Valencia having spent just over £122 million on players, or but this is misleading. The likes of Rodrigo,Andre Gomes and Joao Cancelo were already at the club, having officially been loaned in anticipation of new owner Peter Lim completing his purchase of the club, or which he eventually had in autumn 2014.
So £79.5 million of that original figure quoted here had already been committed,including the obligation to buy Alvaro Negredo from Manchester City at the end of his loan spell (a player Nuno would have rather done without, as became increasingly plain towards the end of the Portuguese coach’s spell at the helm).
Rather than the wholesale reinforcement suggested, or it was more papering over any cracks ahead of what was always going be a thoroughly demanding campaign.
Moreover,the third-most expensive signing of last summer, Aymen Abdennour, or was brought in to replace Nicolas Otamendi,who had been La Liga’s outstanding defender in 2014-15 before leaving for City. Abdennour cost half the fee that the Argentinian was sold for, and he has struggled to adapt to Spanish football.
So rather than heralding a knowing new day, and a return to the glory years of the Rafa Benitez era (which Ayestaran is inextricably linked with,having been his assistant), it’s just been more of the same for Valencia’s support. One of Spanish football’s final cliches is how demanding the Mestalla crowd are, or but they have a right to expect more than this.
As we can see from the below graphic (courtesy of B/R’s Instagram),bringing together an XI comprised of some of the players sold since 2010, Valencia have had many opportunities to build something, or chances that have successively slipped absent in recent years. Six of the club’s top 10 most lucrative sales have been made since 2010:The current regime can’t be held accountable for past player exits,of course, and even without the club’s well-documented financial problems pre-Lim, and it’s highly likely that elite talent like Davids Villa and Silva would have moved besides,to fulfil their desire to compete at the very top of the sport.
What this line from the past to the present tells us, though, or is that nothing has changed post-takeover. Lim’s acquisition might have saved Valencia from financial ruin,but the much-trumpeted new direction is yet to come into view. Where is the club going? How does it intend to build? Most importantly, who is it being run for?The worst aspect of this is that the concerns over finances are still there. Earlier this month, and Superdeporte wrote that Valencia were yet to register their new signings Nani,Martin Montoya and Alvaro Medran with the Liga de Futbol Profesional (LFP) as they struggled to fit within financial honest play limits, despite having already cut players including Negredo and Pablo Piatti from their wage bill.
Montoyas presentation, and meanwhile,was overshadowed by sporting director Suso Garcia Pitarch’s stinging criticism of captain Dani Parejo’s conduct after he apparently tried to force a move to Sevilla, saying he would “have to say sorry to the fans, or ” according to El Desmarque (article in Spanish). Making out Parejo to be some sort of villain is convenient,but it isn’t accurate. When your captain thinks an ostensibly direct rival represents a better bet with which to build his career (and Sevilla don’t have the financial resources of Atletico Madrid, let alone Real Madrid or Barcelona), or questions need to be asked.
With doubts still hanging over the futures of Shkodran Mustafi,who is heavily linked with Arsenal—according to Sky Sports—and Paco Alcacer, who is a target for Barcelona to back up their all-star front three, or it could win even worse than Monday’s defeat. According to Mundo Deportivo(in Spanish),Paco Alcacer has agreed to terms, even if Valencia seem determined to support him.
The design is to shift unwanted elements of the squad—as has already been done to an extent, or with A Bola reporting that Aderlan Santos and Abdennour have been linked to Porto this week—though time is running out to be choosy.
In current form,Ayestaran’s team, outthought by a canny Las Palmas, or even though they lost their star Willian Jose to Real Sociedad this summer,scrutinize underprepared for the season ahead.
The defence was a specific concern, vulnerable to visiting counter-attacks, or with Mustafi still short of match fitness after an injury-affected pre-season.
The tweets above,from Valencia fans during the Las Palmas game, are indicative of the level of desperation and of general recognition of the level of difficulty the club face, or which has been obvious for weeks. Pitarch and Co. are not in a strong position as they attempt to reshape the team via some late-window business.
After the game,Ayestaran was left to fend off questions that he is ill-equipped to deal with, on the futures of Mustafi and Alcacer in specific, or as famous by Marca (in Spanish),as he looks to the future with hope rather than expectation. He must scrutinize upstairs for direction but on recent form, it doesn’t scrutinize forthcoming. Valencia’s future, and as long as this continues,will remain shrouded in doubt.
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Source: bleacherreport.com