Heating Up
By: Cesar | June 29th, 2007
A little bit of news here, a little bit of news there …
- Item: Valencia lose out on Forlan, Cesc (?), target Belletti, Caneira returns.
Our beloved look to lose Villarreal poacher Diego Forlan to Atletico Madrid, who are in dire need of a striker now that El Niño Fernando Torres is off to Liverpool. Fair enough. As some commentators pointed out, we’re ok with David Villa and Fernando Morientes. It would have been nice to have a backup striker … for instance, someone like Francesco Tavano, who is now off to Livorno in Italy (the whole Tavano debacle is one of many reasons I dislike Quique). But ok, I’m sure Juan Soler and his cronies will continue to look over the market place for an efficient backup.
What’s astonishing is the news that Valencia tabled an offer to Arsenal for midfield ace Cesc Fabgregas. Where does this come from? Goal.com reports that Valencia offered 20 million Euro for the Catalan juggler. Ok, we can offer this amount of cash for Cesc but can’t spend 2 million more for Sneijder? Oh boy … Anyway, suffice to say Arsenal laughed, patted Valencia on the back, laughed some more, and walked away.
Silly move if it’s true.
So now our heroes are working on getting Barcelona defender Juliano Belletti. The unlikely scorer of the goal that won the Champions League for Barca last year is out of favor at the Catalunyan capital. With Barca buying 23,765 new guys this summer, there’s simply no room for him. Valencia are eyeing Belletti as a potential replacement for Portugal international fullback Miguel. I hope they mean Curro Torres and not Miguel. Another oh boy …
But in good news, Valencia are taking Marco Caneira back from Sporting Lisbon. He’s been on-loan for the year & played solidly in his home country. Caneira offers support at center back and either left or right back. Nice move and almost like a new transfer.
Much needed if the Miguel rumors are true and if Asier Del Horno also leaves (it’s rumored he’s unhappy at our club).
– Item: Quique speaks
In the wake of winning the war against antagonist Amadeo Carboni, Mr. Flores spoke at length yesterday about the dubious experience.
‘I didn’t come (to Valencia) to wage a personal battle,’ Flores said. He mentioned that the battle was ‘difficult and complicated.’ Flores added that the problems had to do with sporting differences and said that he wishes Carboni good luck in everything he does.
“It was very sad and dissapointing to form a part of a cruel story where I think no one felt good participating. I came to this team with the idea of bringing them back to the heights of Europe and Spain and to win titles, not to wage personal battles.’
Hopefully, this silly chapter in Che history is just that … history. Let’s hope Flores’s relation with our new sporting director, Miguel Ángel Ruiz, is better.
– Item: New shirts
I’m really digging the new shirts. I’m not sure about the orange shirt with the blue shorts, but the new home kit is superb. Very high quality and classy, with the shirt being a replica of the 1941-42 Spanish League Champions. Look above for a promo pic of the shirt. I’m getting me one soon!
– Item: Barca
Talk about a spending spree. In the last week, Barcelona have bought Thierry Henry, Yaya Toure, Alex Rodriguez, Alf, my local butcher, a bucket of used golf balls and Eric Abidal. But there’s more. Christian Chivu might make a move there,too. New Galacticos anyone?
I’m still waiting to see how coach Frank Rijkaard plans to deploy Henry. A winger? Defender? Goalkeeper? Assistant coach? This could get interesting quick. (Yes, I’m jealous of their money. Can you tell?)
Some random notes:
- Hector Cuper might coach Real Betis this coming season. Remember when he coached here? Two Champions League Finals. Left us hanging to coach Inter Milan. But we did ok, getting some unknown coach named Rafa Benitez to take over.
- David Albelda renewed his contract. Yay!
- I mentioned Luis Garcia as being offered to us in my last post. Now I’m confused. Which one? The lad from Liverpool or the one from Espanyol?
- Real Madrid fired their coach Fabio Capello yesterday. He won the league. Last time they won the league in 2003, they fired their coach Vicente del Bosque. In 1998, after winning the Champions League, they fired Jupp Heynckes. In 1997, the same Capello won the league … and was fired.
What is wrong with these guys??
- The Copa America is all the rage this side of the world. Our diminutive friend Pablo Aimar scored a beauty yesterday in Argentina’s 4-1 spanking of my home country USA.
There’s also the Under-20 World Cup, taking place in Canada & starting June 30.
ESPN’s Soccernet.com did a preview of the tournament and mentioned a few names to watch. One of our youngsters made the list:
Juan Manuel Mata, Forward, Spain — Hero of Spain’s U-19 European Championship triumph, Mata has evoked comparisons with Raul with his ability to play as a lead striker or as a withdrawn secondary striker/attacking midfielder. One of the jewels in Real Madrid’s youth system, Mata recently signed with Valencia.
- Sincere thanks to everyone that reads the blog & writes in with comments. I love sharing my passion for Valencia with you and I’m happy to know there’s a community of people out there from all over the world that shares my passion. I get giddy and excited when I see the comments posted on here. I’m very happy with this community of readers and commentators. It’s tough sometimes being the only Valencia fan around a sea of Madrid and Barca supporters, but it’s great to know I’m not the only one out there.
Thanks!! And AMUNT!!!
Category: 
Subscribe
|
Print
|
Share
      |
Comments
-
Very good article Cesar, as ever. A bit unfortunate to miss out on Forlan, but Atleti need him far more desperately it seems as you say…and there is the money factor…perhaps better used in an attempt to get Milito from Zaragoza. Villa, Milito, Moro and Arizmendi…that would be amazing. But flip the coin, and it would be difficult to keep them all happy.
Great news on Albelda. He is still such a crucial part of this team. Thought the defence was pretty awful against Sociedad, even Albiol and Moretti who have had a good season in general..not sure where the signing of Alexis will leave Moretti…whereas Curro Torres can surely finally be shown the door. Do you really think that Albiol and Alexis are good enough? I think the team is going to miss the security that Ayala provided. Villarreal will reap the benefits.
Have some pictures from the Sociedad game, I could e-mail them to you so you could put them on here if you would like?
Posted from
United Kingdom
-
My parents are huge Barça fans, which is hard to live with sometimes. I rubbed VCF’s win in their faces though. Living in the States is a disadvantage for La Liga followers because they show Barça and Real Madrid every weekend and don’t pay attention to teams with less money but the same finesse and quality. Valencia had such a good shot at the title this year playing silky smooth ball. I wish more people would notice that you don’t have to buy Orion’s Belt to play beautifully. Your blog is fantastic, so keep at it
Posted from
United States -
I think Barca are rapidly running out of transfer funds. Good thing we’re nearly done in the transfer market.
Re: Miguel, where’s he heading to? I’ve always admired him a lot, and it would be a shame for Valencia to lose him.
You guys have been linked to the Espanyol Luis Garcia, not the Liverpool one.
Posted from
Australia
Comments are closed
Home 
