Valencia

[spark]

Hes definitely closer to 6 feet than 5'8 these days. Ive always been a big fan and I hope he can at least write some kind of history at Valencia first before any talk of us or other teams hoovering him up to stagnate on the bench happens. Next year they should take that 7 from Jonas and give it to him.

 

[DonAndres]

Hes definitely closer to 6 feet than 5'8 these days. Ive always been a big fan and I hope he can at least write some kind of history at Valencia first before any talk of us or other teams hoovering him up to waste on the bench happens. Next year they should take that 7 from Jonas and give it to him.

I wouldn't want him to be wasted without playing time but he doesn't have to. We rotate quite a bit in La Liga, that'd give him a solid number of starts and an even greater number of sub appearances. He'd be regularly starting in the group stages of CL and early rounds of CDR, and in the tougher games he'd still be a very important weapon for us. This isn't even taking into account the number of injuries we could get.

Backup players can get a pretty good amount of playing time, even Keita always had at least 25 appearances per year for us. Theoretically Paco would be coming in after about 2-3 years when he's gotten some great development time at Valencia and we'd have let go of our fringe players and maybe one important one (Alexis?).

I find him to be a better option for a #9 than someone like Aguero who is not at all in the profile of a target man and would cost an insane amount of money while demanding many more games. Paco would be very economical and exactly what we are looking for.

 

[Jenks]

Former Valencia club president Juan Soler has been charged in a Spanish court with plotting to kidnap Vicente Soriano, who replaced him as Mestalla chief.

 

[DonAndres]

Paco is in amazing form, Valencia are lucky to have him. The underrated liga talent of this season. Developing consistency is his next step but given his age, no worries at all.

Pizzi is also only just starting his project at Valencia. The team and players will perform much better after he has an entire half-season under his belt, gets a transfer window (hopefully with new funds), and a preseason to rally the players before 14/15.

The 5-0 win vs Basel was outstanding, well done.

 

[jbarca]

Paco: 'This was my best night as a professional player and I hope to have more like this. '

I bet he does, like you say DonAndres, its holding to and maintaining this momentum that has to come now

 

[Antimilan]

Maybe they can beat a wounded, suspended, small-sized squad of Basel. Now the matter is more serious. I expect them to choke badly in the semis.

In the last game in February we totally outplayed and dominated them, it was a real plunder, only the goal was missing, very unlucky.

It will be a tricky encounter but I hope both matches will be good ones, and may the best go to the final !

 

[Antimilan]

.... bastards thought they could get away with some lucky goals.... NEVER !

 

[Andrew M]

.... bastards thought they could get away with some lucky goals.... NEVER !

Forgotten about Mbia's offside goal in 1st leg?

Lucky Sevilla

 

[Antimilan]

Forgotten about Mbia's offside goal in 1st leg?

Lucky Sevilla

Hard to judge from the referee's point of view... as always when I complained for errors against Sevilla in favor of Barca (for ex.)

And it is not lucky when you totally outplay and dominate the opponent in 3 of 4 halves from both legs. The only half, not even an entire half, only up to the 2-0, Valencia was a bit better, everything else spoke for the mighty Sevilla.

 

[Egert]

Feel sorry for Valencia, but Sevilla deserved it. Valencia was on his way to another comeback.

 

[linetty]

I am so glad Sevilla went through.

Sevilla-Benfica great finale

 

[instinct]

Peter Lim, a billionaire is the new owner of Valencia. Don't know anything about him, just saw the news on twitter

 

[AnfieldEd]

Peter Lim, a billionaire is the new owner of Valencia. Don't know anything about him, just saw the news on twitter

Valencia are doomed.

 

[Chainsaw]

Great news if true. More competition to La Liga.

 

[AnfieldEd]

Can you believe its 10 years ago that they won the league plus the uefa cup.

That Valencia team in the early 00's were majestic. The midfield especially was magnificent. Albelda, Baraja Sissoko and Aimar. I loved Baraja. IMO he was the best midfielder in the world in 03-04. I wanted to sign him for us so much. Then they have the perfect balance on the flanks with Rufute the hard working right winger with good technical ability and on the left Vicente who had pace and skill in abundance.

Then in defence they had the joint best central defender in the world in Roberto Ayala plus the underrated Marchena with Aurelio and Curo Torres as the full backs. With Canizares in goal.

Up front is where they were lacking though. They has Mista, Angulo and Oliviera. Had they signed in 2002 or 2003 a Crespo or Makaay or Morientes or someone of that ilk they would have won the CL one year imo.

It would be quite apt that 10 years - a decade - is the number of years in which another la liga club outside of barca and real win the league in Atletico tonight.

In some ways Atletico winning la liga would give it a huge lift.