We’re all entitled to our opinions, but yes, Albelda is a player that is on the decline in my opinion. His passing was woeful against Chelsea, and surely the just reward for him was to ride the bench against Espanyol. In my opinion Marchena is the far better defensive stopper in midfield than Albelda. Albelda has been just flat out bad the last year or so. Okay, he was decent a few games last year – the Barça game comes to mind – but his bad spells far outweigh his good spells. Sure he’s the captain, but at what cost do you want to maintain ties to a player who’s best matches are clearly in the past?

As for Ayala, it would have been nice to have him around, but defense is a team game more than anything. If your offense relies so much on wing play, then your full backs will be overstretched and caught out in the middle of nowhere on any counter attacks, leaving just about any central defenders exposed as it happened yesterday against Espanyol. Case in point: where exactly was Miguel on the first goal and where was Moretti on the second? The lack of creativity from central midfield really taxes the wing and full backs, which is kind of why Valencia is such a predictable team to play against. Shut down the wings, dominate the center and you’ll get good scoring chances. It’s as simple as that.

And yes, Franky, I’ll stick by my opinion if it means that I’m crazy.

And to address the Wesley Sneidjer issue. Wesley and Ajax were not gonna sell him to Valencia. If Los Che had offered Ajax 30 mil, they would have said, lets see if Real or Barca are interested and what will they offer before we sell Wesley. Ajax wanted to sell him to any a team that can and will pay a premium for him. Most likely Real or Barca or someone who will pay with deep pockets. Valencia offered 15mil for him in May-June. Real said yea, Ajax “we’ll take Wesley at 20-25mil” in August. Ask yourself this if you were Wesley and his representative, do you want to go to the 3 or 4th place team in Spain and make 3-5 mil a year, or go to the 1st place team in Spain and make 10-15 mil a year with massive world recognition and attention.
If anyone who had the interest of the big clubs, will go there first before the 3rd or 4th place clubs, until the big clubs stop splashing the cash.

- Why did we not buy Wesley this summer, why? QQ insists on playing an uninspiring duo in central midfield which
forces all of our attacks to build from the wings. Combine this with starting the stellar world beating champions of Arizmendi and Angulo on the wings, leaving Joaquin and Silva to watch from the bench… you get the idea

- We miss Ayala so bad, at times our defenders looked like schoolboys today

If I had faith in QQ I’d say lets wait til we get more creative central midfielders in January and see how he fares, but I’d much prefer we sack QQ and get Jose, hell anybody with some sort of tactical acumen to see us play to our real potential

-All our players did was play from the sides with high high shots from the left mostly and im sure Espanyol’s goalkeeper (isma’el.. i think) is thanking Angulo and Arizmendi for the practice they gave him…

-Zigic played and was okay not good not bad cant blame the man 2nd game for him.

-Add our best player David Villa to the injured list…. actually add my heart to that list too.. so no more “Sucker” (VILLA) to tht sucker (QQ)

- Baraja scored and then just disapeared from the field

-Arizmendi lol i dont no what he was doing …
im heartbroken.. cant wait to see a boot on QQ’s ass with a shout ” OUT!!! “.

But what I really meant about the players is that we can’t just sell the whole team and get rid of our first cap (Albelda) our second (Baraja) and our third (Angulo) that just don’t make any sense at all.

Also yes, you’re probably right. If we sold those players you listed the big team wouldn’t go after them. But would we go after O’Shea (Man U), Finnan (Liverpool), Oleguer (Barcelona), Salgado (Real Madrid), Dacourt (Inter) Kaladze (Milan)?
No we wouldn’t!

I agree with you, we have to get rid of some players but the 8 you’re listing. That’s waay to much! Helguera has been playing well, Gavilan is a real talent, he’s just been really unlucky with injuries.

We need a rejuvenation in the team and get rid of the old players who had their peak about 2 years ago. But we can’t do it all in the same time.

Sorry for my earlier post but I felt insulted by your first post as well.

So what you’re saying is that I don’t like the team as much as you do? If you only knew better…

And cleaning out half the squad? Yeah you must be a huge fan (and extremely stupid). I agree we need to get rid of Baraja (and get another creative midfielder), Angulo (and get Pablo Hernandez who’s doing wonders at Getafe) and perhaps some other player.

But Gavilan? Are you stupid? Do you ever watch the games?
Why not get rid of Vicente, Villa, Joaquin and move the team to Santander and play 3-5-2?

Please..