Valencia fans should know by now that the storm clouds are never far away at the Mestalla.
And if they were hoping that a depressing, ‘everyone must go’ fire-sale was over, one of the most passionate and disillusioned fanbases in European football were sadly mistaken.
Cash-strapped Valencia staved off the immediate threat of financial ruin by raising almost £70 million over the summer, stripping and selling their prized assets while also releasing captain Dani Parejo and veteran defender Ezequiel Garay.
But it seems that things are going to get worse before they get better.
“Two difficult years await us and there will be additional sales of players,” the ever-unpopular CEO Anil Murthy told a Shareholders Meeting this week, via AS.
Valencia are not merely short of a few bob. According to SportsFinding, they are over £300 million in debt.
Murthy’s honest and equally demoralizing comments are unlikely to go unnoticed in England either, with the Premier League vultures smelling blood and picking the bones of the 2001 Champions League finalists.
According to The Mail, Wolverhampton Wanderers are keen on Valencia’s £40 million record-signing Maxi Gomez – a barrel-chested bull of a number nine capable of filling a Raul Jimenez-shaped void in Nuno Espirito Santo’s frontline.
Goal-shy Arsenal are also big fans of the Uruguay international while, earlier in the year, Spanish schemer Carlos Soler was also linked with The Gunners (Mirror).
Mikel Arteta is embarking on an almost unprecedented rebuilding project at the Emirates but, unless he can add a creative midfielder to a squad full of tidy passers but lacking defence-splitting match-winners, the Arsenal boss will be laying his foundations on quicksand.
Soler, labelled the ‘new David Silva’ by some, has six goals and four assists this season and scored a hat-trick against Real Madrid in November – albeit from the penalty spot.
A set-piece master, he feels like the ideal addition alongside Thomas Partey and Mo Elneny in midfield.
You might assume that even Valencia wouldn’t dream of selling a homegrown fans’ favourite who rose through the ranks at the Mestalla.
Ferran Torres, however, will tell you different.
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