As The Mestalla Turns

By: Cesar | July 13th, 2009

I’ve decided to take a mini-VCF vacation. There are several reasons I’m taking a hiatus (summer time in New York impedes my blogging schedule), but the main reason is that I’m burned out by all this Dalport/Villa transfer/Soriano stuff.

I didn’t fall madly in love with VCF because of these muppets and they won’t take that love away from me. I’m as passionate a fan as I’ve always been.

But like VCF themselves, I need to sit on the sidelines from time to time to lick my wounds, recharge and get ready for the coming season.

For the next few posts, I’m looking for guest writers. So if you’re interested in reaching the VCF community here on the Offside or the World Wide Internets, please reach out to me and get to writing … I’d love to have your opinions on Our Beloved on the site!

First in line is the gracious Kyle Coppess, author of the wonderful Loco 4 Los Che news site and VCF super fan.

We’re used to Kyle’s insightful commentary and news tidbits. Today, it’s his opinions we’re interested in! Thanks and the floor is yours!!

“As The Mestalla Turns…”

If Valencia wasn’t a Mexican telenovela soap opera before the last week, it sure as hell is now.

Previously on “As The Mestalla Turns…”: Vicente Soriano, who everyone thought had vanished, made a dramatic emergence from the football wilderness, and proclaimed to be leading a mystery investment group that had just bought 51% of Valencia and Los Che’s stadium, Mestalla, and the ground it sits on for €500 million. Happy Fourth of July American Valencianistas!

On the next episode, Vinny revealed that Inversiones Dalport a.k.a. Dalport Investments had not only taken control of Valencia, but that they were planning on canceling the capital increase of €92 million.

After that, things started to get weird. Here is a list of some of the strange shenanigans:

1) When the Monday press conference happened, there was almost no mention of Inversiones Dalport on the internet. The only things on the internet about them were people on message boards saying that basically the company is a big scam. A pyramid scheme.

2) Not only was there almost nothing about it on the internet, there is nothing recorded about the company anywhere. In the whole world! Nothing!

3) When a website did appear, http://inversionesdalport.com/, it consisted of the name of the company, an email address, and saying it would be updated. That’s it.

4) Then there was the company logo, which they had ripped off from a children’s coloring book! How can a company that is willing to pay €500 million for a football club and stadium not afford a website domain name for €50? Also, they can’t afford someone to design a company logo? Or build a decent website? They have to be worth a few BILLION easily.

5) Then Jose Garcia Roig, a Board member at Valencia, had this to say about Dalport Investments: “Inversiones Dalport is nothing more than a name. It is a ghost (fake) company that has no history and is not registered in Spain. It is located in Uruguay and acts as a tax haven. Before these companies were opaque (not transparent), which benefited the Argentines who used them, but now it seems someone with Valencian roots has invested in this company”.

6) The headquarters of Dalport Investments was eventually found. It is located at 11 Geranio Street in Boadilla del Monte, Spain. It is about 15 kilometers (9 miles) west of Madrid. The town has a population of approximately 42,000 people. Within the same house is another company, Cron Developments. So two companies share the same HOUSE, and the same PHONE NUMBER???

7) Then there was the employee of Dalport Investments that got cornered by Valencianista television reporters on Wednesday. He said there would be a press conference “Friday or Saturday” (which didn’t happen), that the company has offices in “Dubai (which it doesn’t), New York (nope), and Miami (uuhhhh…no). “ He also said “I do not think it is important whether or not a company has a website.” Maybe he is right…if the company is a Mom and Pop shop that sell lemonade for €0.50, but that is not okay for a company that is, as Soriano said, “global”, and has €500 million to toss around like it is loose change they found under the couch cushions.

This wasn’t so bad, but still ridiculous. Natalia. Oh Natalia, why couldn’t you be the one buying the club, and not this Victor Vicente Bravo coño… Anyway, this website www.inversionesdalport.com/~natalia popped up a couple days after the company finally got around to throwing something together. However, now the page doesn’t work any longer. Clearly this company doesn’t make its money from public relations…

9) We finally see Señor Bravo, and he looks like a damn cocaine dealer. Slick suit, greasy slicked back hair, evil mustache, and the “I’m a real badass” shades.

10) Newspaper Levante decided to secretly record a private conversation involving Vinny, Victor, and government official Rafael Blasco. The meeting got leaked to the press, and Vinny decides to sue Levante. Things revealed at the meeting include:

1) One item discussed was the fact that Dalport Investments has not actually bought 50.4% of the club yet. Soriano said at the meeting, “We want to make the actual purchase of the shares”. According to reports, the deal to buy the shares included a termination clause. This clause states that if the shares are not paid for by a certain date that the deal would become void. It has been rumored that the date that the shares need to be bought by is July 30.

2) As far as the old Mestalla goes, it seems it has not officially been sold yet. At the meeting Bravo said, “The plot is going to sell”, suggesting that is has not been sold yet. He also said, “In this life, you cannot always physically have the money”. You can draw your own conclusions as to what that means.

And before Vinny went to court, he said, “I strongly call attention to the fact that there is someone using clear and obvious criminal methods to try and discredit our operations and the steps we are taking, which is not enough, to create a splendid future for Valencia Club de Futbol”.

And all of that led Superdeporte to make this cover on Saturday…

At the tops it says, Soriano’s accusation: A plot to bring down his project. On the left it says that the leak of the meeting between the three main characters could arouse a war between everyone. And at the bottom is implies that there is a spy involved.

Wow…spies, lies, secret recordings of secret meetings, mystery bad guys…I mean, new owners, shady businesses, accusations…This really is a Mexican telenovela soap opera.

A recent poll from Las Provincias said that 70% of Valencia supporters did not like Soriano and what was going on. My question is…It was only 70%? On this blog it seems that 90-95% of us are against Soriano. Not even necessarily Soriano, but this evil/mystery company Inversiones Dalport.

I do not know what can be said about them that hasn’t already been said by others. Clearly Johnnie Walker was against them from the start, even when some of us almost shit our pants in excitement. Tristan White as well has done some excellent investigating on Inversiones Dalport.

Basically until someone comes out and shows some proof that Dalport Investments at least exists, I won’t believe any of it. However, we all know Vinny S. will not be the one to do this.

Until any news comes directly from Señor Coño’s mouth, I mean, Victor Vicente Bravo’s mouth, any news related to these people is nothing more than goal.com gossip to me. Something to talk about, but not to take seriously. Seems Manuel Llorente and the Valencia Board already feel this way. They have told Vinny S. to vete ya!
As far as real news goes:

Renan could be going on loan to Segunda Division Champions Xerez (pronounced like Hair-eth, -eth as in Beth). His agent is working on it.

Vicente Guaita is going on loan to Recreativo Huelva.

Emiliano Moretti has gone to fellow Europa League side Genoa. He could have returned to Italy last summer, but wasn’t able to. Now he has and I wish him the best of luck. I thought he had his best year in two or three years last year, to be honest.
Angulo’s contract might be terminated.

Miku was quoted as saying, “I don’t want to sit. My intention is to play at the highest level and to show that I can do it.” If Miku feels his future lies away from the Mestalla, there are many clubs after him. Top teams from the Netherlands and Belgium are after him, as well as La Liga sides Osasuna, Valladolid, and Malaga.

Manuel Fernandes will be fit and ready for the start of the season.

And Manuel Llorente has come out AGAIN and said no offers have been made for David Villa, by Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea, New York Red Bull, or FC Sydney. Okay, I made the last two up. But you get the point. However, considering all the chaos that is going on, it has been rumored heavily for the last week that Villa wants to have a meeting with Soriano, Llorente, or Bravo, whoever is in charge, so that he can discuss his future.

All of these stories and more can be found at my website, Loco4LosChe.com http://loco4losche.com/blogweb/index.php.

AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I love that we don’t have a cookie cutter club, like Chelsea or Man U, I love that our club has personality and it has lots of stories to keep us interested, but this is beyond crazy now. Pure insanity.

That being said, I love the club, and will stick with it no matter what ridiculousness goes on.

I would like to thank fellow Valencianista 7amanito for letting me use this pic. I think it really symbolizes the passion and love that not just he has for the club, but the passion and love that all of us that read this blog have for Los Che. 7amanito is a fantastic photographer. I highly recommend you check out some of his others pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/7amanito/. They are QUALITY!

Next week, on “As The Mestalla Turns…”

Vinny S. cuts the brakes on Manny L.’s car, Villa tells the jefe, “I want out! I want to go to MLS! It’s L.A. Galaxy or nothing!”, and Asier Del Horno begins training…at Manolo’s! However, Hugo Viana and Ever Banega form an evil alliance to try and sabotage the appropriately named, “Oven Man” del Horno. Dun-dun-duuunnnnnhhh…