Soler destroyed Valencia
A couple of weeks ago, the Valencia CEO delivered a
message that the world has been waiting for what seems like an
eternity. Something we have long known but club president Vicente
Soriano and his henchmen refused to publicly acknowledge. We all
knew it, but we needed to hear it.
Apparently, they have a little bit of debt. OK - that we knew - but
Gomez dared to go where no Che had gone before: he admitted that
Valencia are likely to be forced into considering the sale of their
star players in order to stay afloat.
And right he was. Without an overzealous, happy-go-lucky Sheikh
handy, €450 million won't just fall out of the sky to save the
souls of Soriano & Co.
And they, of course, can only make feeble attempts to clear the
wreckage left by former president Juan Soler, who took a club on
the up and set them on a self-destructive downward spiral
completely unlike almost anything ever seen in the history of
Spanish football.
Firing, hiring, then firing some more seemed to be his solution to
just about everything. A four-year reign of unbridled
self-destruction saw the club crumbling long before the on-field
capitulation of last season and this. The cost of treating
employees behind the scenes (as well as some in the spotlight) like
disposable handywipes caught up with him in ways he quite clearly
never thought possible. He tendered his resignation in March 2008,
leaving the club resembling something of a post-iceberg
Titanic.
Caught between one stadium that is quite literally falling to
pieces and another that is halfway through construction and unable
to be completed due to the global recession (which has hit
Spanish construction about
as hard as every fan dreamt of hitting Ronald Koeman at this time
last season), the club really has nowhere to go, geographically or
financially.
It goes without saying that, like
every other pre-programmed, media-trained drone of a footballer,
not a single Valencia player has really
laid out on the table just how the
cracks showing upstairs have affected them at ground level.
They haven't even been paid in weeks. The fact of the matter is
that there aren't just cracks upstairs, there are full-blown
hemorrhaging, internal plate-shifting, earthquakes and debris
falling from the roof in the dressing room. Which, given the
current state of the Mestalla, probably isn't that far from
reality.
The bottom line is that not even having Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and
Lionel Messi on their books - just for the purposes of selling them
- could save Valencia at this point. At very best, they would be
able to break even, temporarily, before the creditors come back,
maneuvering for more Mestalla
money that
simply isn't there anymore.
So by now you can imagine, while any attempt to make or save money
seems futile, every little really does help. The club has to sell
any assets it can, and those most readily available and marketable
are the players.
This is a club that was one of the main representatives in the
Spanish national side that won EURO 2008. It's not a bad squad,
even if many of the recent signings have left something to be
desired.
David And David - Valencia's Two Goliaths
Since falling off the international
radar as they did last season, Valencia are now a club known only
for two players: David Villa and David Silva. The rest may not as
well exist.
Both staked their claim to being world class stars at EURO 2008,
with Villa in particular shining, finishing as the tournament's top
scorer.
And it has been Villa who has carried on this run of incredible
form into the domestic season, often single-handedly winning
matches for Los Che, scoring spectacular and vital goals on a
regular basis. He is considered by many as the best striker in the
world, yet he is playing at the worst 'big' club there is.
His loyalty to Valencia has been commendable, if not somewhat
dumbfounding. It's not his hometown club, and in fact, he had
already been very prolific before joining in 2004 from Real
Zaragoza. He has enjoyed next to no success at the Mestalla on a
team level, yet he has been all too eager to stay when leaving
would have been not just easy, not just lucrative and not just
successful - but all three.
Only now is his future finally becoming a matter of public
uncertainty. The player himself has said very little, but it is
becoming increasingly obvious that David Villa will leave Valencia
this summer. Barcelona are heading the way for his signature,
possibly as a replacement for the prolific yet problematic Samuel
Eto'o.
Coming in behind are Man City, who have the money but not too much
else going for them at the minute. Kaka's decision to stay at AC
Milan set a monumental precedent. Many will now follow suit, and Villa, for one, is more than
likely to follow his example. City would only stand any chance of
interesting him if they win the UEFA Cup.
Real Madrid were close to signing him last summer, but wouldn't go
the extra mile that was being asked of them by Soriano, who was all
too eager to keep new coach Unai Emery on his good side. Now, the
Merengues have brought in Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who is scoring goals
as freely as he did in the Eredivisie. Is there still room for
Villa? Maybe. A bidding war of Clasico proportions for the country's
finest could take place this summer.
Then there are Chelsea and Liverpool, who are both looking to
revamp over the summer with new managers and new contracts in the
air. Either of them could yet venture to Villa's villa as a
surprise bidder and maybe, despite the striker's apparent
preference for remaining in his homeland, gatecrash the Spanish
party. The man himself, meanwhile, seems almost entirely
disinterested.
It's not unfair to even say that Villa's loyalty is greater than
Silva's, which is more than a little confusing, as it is the latter
who came through the ranks with the club.
He's considerably younger than Villa and a more versatile player
with exceptional technique. He can be deployed all over midfield,
but tends to operate best as the central playmaker behind the
strikers; think of him as a more free-moving Juan Roman Riquelme or
perhaps a slightly more savvy Joe Cole.
He was allegedly the subject of interest from Manchester United
late in the summer but announced that he would only leave Los Che
for another club in Spain, "such as Barcelona or Real
Madrid".
As such, Juventus may be hard-pressed to land him as their
successor to Pavel Nedved, as has been reported sporadically in the
continental press over the past few weeks. There has been fleeting
interest from English clubs, but none of it concrete.
There was a time that Valencia insisted they would never sell Villa
or Silva. Then there were murmurs that one had to go. Now, surely,
both will be on their way. If the club's current slide continues,
they may not even qualify for the UEFA Cup. They were second at the
turn of the year.
Villa and Silva aren't the be all and end all of Valencia. Shrewder
coaches and sporting directors worldwide will be keeping their eyes
open for some bargain hunting this summer.
Raul Albiol has been the unfortunate victim of attempting to be
part of a defence so tragic, it is only made to look good because
Atletico Madrid somehow do that much worse every week. He
nevertheless is a young, promising prospect of great physical
stature - he impressed in Spain's win over England - and he has
been linked with Arsenal on more than one occasion.
There are also the wingmen, Joaquin and Vicente, once the pride of
Spain and now all but forgotten. The former remains an inconsistent
enigma, while his left-sided compatriot has finally gotten over the
worst of his injury worries. Both could find themselves on the move
this summer. They're not young anymore, but still have a couple of
good years to offer.
There is also the rising star of the season, who has by and large
been enshrouded by cloud after cloud of catastrophe, in Juan Manuel
Mata. The versatile Real Madrid youth product was snapped up by
Valencia and has come into his own, more or less serving as Los
Che's second most decisive forward of the season. He has scored and
provided goals in equal measure and could easily end up at a
Spanish rival, or even in England.
The Portuguese pairing of Manuel Fernandes and Miguel are also
likely to attract interest. Fernandes in particular, with many
years ahead of him and substantial Premier League experience
already under his belt with Everton, is almost certain to
return to the world's most lucrative league this summer.
Any kind of substantial recognition is otherwise sparse when
concerning the remaining players at the club. Warhorses such as
Ruben Baraja, David Albelda, Miguel Angulo and Carlos
Marchena are likely to follow the club right the way down to the
ground. Because that's where they're heading, and what a shameful
moment it will be for Spanish football.
