FM22 - Valencia CF - Kitted Out For Success (22.3)

[Jogo Bonito]

Valencia season 2022/23 (preview)

This has taken longer than expected, but progress during the transfer window until now (the eve of the new season) has been slow and not very satisfying

New season aims included that we lower the wage bill, continue to reduce the average age, increase the domestic bias, and minimise the number of loan players

All of this had to be done whilst on a budget of £4 million and negative balance sheet - with extra pressures of CL football added to the mix

So how did we get on?

The loan number reduction has (until now) been achieved with complete success - none of the five loan players have been kept at the club

That's left a big hole in the squad though, with missing striker Paco Alcacer and midfielder Ilaix Moriba definite successes of our impressive first year

Centre back Omar Alderete and winger Sergio Arribas did OK and were considered again, but forward Hugo Duro was disappointing and never delivered anything

There's still one month of the window open though, so it's possible (if not preferred) that some loan players may come in to round the squad off

Transfer planning and those who were made available for transfer

Positionally, we felt we needed to recruit a new striker, central midfielder and central defender all of starting quality - plus a winger to cover both flanks

In order to do this, we were prepared to sacrifice a small handful of players - and one of those exits would mean a new starting right-back was also a probability

In addition to the five loan men leaving, certain sales had to be allowed in order to strengthen where we wanted

Goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili (Krasnodar, £8.75 million),plus defenders Toni Lato (Leganes, £2 million) and Eray Comert (Lugano, £3.4 million) were the first to depart

All three had been useful first-team squad members last term, but none were regular starters - and all of them were happy to move on anyway

Winger/forward Manu Vallejo (Young Boys, £4 million) who had been away on loan last year was also allowed to go as he would only have been a (useful) bench option

Right-back Thierry Rendall Correia, central defenders Gabriel Paulista and Mouctar Diakhaby, plus striker Maxi Gomez are also being offered out but remain here so far

The first three were regulars last term but transfer fees, age (in the case of Gabriel) and/or wage packets make all of them commodities we could shift on

However there have been no takers until now so it's hindered the progress we wanted to make with new arrivals joining the club

The top targets

Since February or March we had been looking to complete a pre-contract deal for Jaime Seoane, a central midfielder from Spain's second tier

Unfortunately we had a block on how much we could pay and the deal kept getting rejected - right up until the time Atletico Madrid stole him from us on 6th August

A second choice was found during those talks and joined on a free transfer in case our long-term and primary target could still not be secured (both would have been fine)

The incoming player does have a higher reputation and has served some big clubs - but he isn't Spanish and is costing more than three times the weekly wage of Seoane

The choice of a new central defender was to ideally pick up a Spanish left-sided player, but these area rare commodity especially with our finances

The man identified was Mario Hermoso from Atletico Madrid (them again) but although the player was keen, we haven't got too close to agreeing a deal with the club yet

A contingency plan, only necessary if the above doesn't join and one of Gabriel or Diakhaby leave, is right-footed option Dani Vivian of Athletic Bilboa

He has a release clause of just £11.75 million and his wage demands were also manageable - but he doesn't want to talk again after our board tried to restrict us on that too

The striker vacancy would ideally be filled by another Spaniard, and Alcacer was the preferred target after the goals he got for us on loan last season

Unfortunately, despite being listed as available by Villarreal we have not managed to agree a deal with them for a permanent transfer or even a loan yet

We hope that can be achieved eventually, otherwise we may have to levitate towards Borja Iglesias or confirm an option on Nigerian striker Terem Moffi (£9m, Lorient)

Numerous Spanish players were considered for the understudy winger role, but in the end we were forced to go for a bigger name (for free but on high wages) 

Again this player does not fulfil the Spanish preference, but he has played at a good level domestically and at international level

The new arrivals (to date) and missing pieces of the jigsaw 

Believing that one of Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City or Bayern Munich would follow up interest in Correia at £35 million, a new right-back was first to arrive

We were delighted to grab young Spaniard Pedro Porro for just £7.5 million from Man City after his loan at Sporting Lisbon ended - our best deal of the summer for sure

Unfortunately, Correia has still not moved on so the unreceived large transfer fee has held us back and we are currently overstocked with good right-back options

The new central midfield player signed as the Seoane transfer saga dragged in to it's fifth month was ex-Bayern Munich man Corentin Tolisso

The French international has had a quiet few years, but should easily be capable at our level and he can expect to start on a regular basis 

The third and final first-team arrival was one we hesitated on for some weeks, but hopefully the talent will be released and he will prove to be another nice addition

By no means our first choice, but eventually we took the gamble and confirmed the free transfer signing of ex-Juventus winger Federico Bernardeschi on 28th July

My two wide attackers had been very good last time out, so the Italian is going to have to try and force his way in to the side over time

In other news, Lucas Canizares (son of ex-Valencia player and now U19 coach Santiago Canizares) comes in as our 3rd choice goalkeeping option from Real Madrid B

And 17 year-old Spanish youth player Koke, a central midfielder, arrived on a free transfer from Valladolid B to join the U19 squad

The clear gaps that remain in the squad are for a starting central defender (we can then move one of ours out) and a striker who will take the burden of scoring our goals

Promoted in to the first team squad after spells away from the club on loan last year are goalkeeper Cristian Rivero and central defender Jorge Saenz (both purely as cover)

Midfielders Vicente Esquerdo and Martin Tejon, plus striker Andres Garcia (all Spanish and Valencia graduates) are also now in and around the squad for extra depth

And finally, striker Jose Manuel Lopez (a January signing from Lanus in Argentina) is now joining the main group after being given time to settle in quietly

2022/23 squad (pre-season friendlies now complete, but one month left of the transfer window) 

And as we mentioned pre-season just a moment ago, here is a brief summary of how we are looking ahead of the new campaign - not bad at all it seems

Good financial management (sales exceed spent sums and wage bill trimmed) plus competition payments and TV revenue sees a much better financial position here (for now)

And so, on 31st July 2022, the season opener is now upon us (we host Real Betis)

Hopefully we will get our final two players in (and one or two out) in order to take on the challenges of the new season with optimism

Edited April 18, 2022 by Jogo Bonito

[warlock]

A frustrating window but it looks like you've made solid progress. Improved the finances and made some good signings. Tolisso still looks like a player!

We all know what pre-season results are worth but definitely some cause for optimism there 

[Jogo Bonito]

On 18/04/2022 at 13:00, warlock said:

A frustrating window but it looks like you've made solid progress. Improved the finances and made some good signings. Tolisso still looks like a player!

We all know what pre-season results are worth but definitely some cause for optimism there 

Cheers. Yes it's slow progress I guess but some positive signs there, and things have seemingly got better still since then...

Season 2022/23

Our early form has been consistent, with four wins from five La Liga games - and one loss which came when Real Madrid scored all three in the final 10 minutes

You'll see a familiar name on the score sheet below, but one who was not mentioned in the previous squad review

The Champions League groups have also been drawn, and it will be a challenge for us to progress out of Group F

All the graphs look good, although it's too early to expect the league will end up like this

The financial graph again shows a rosy picture, but that's because European and TV money has been paid - monthly losses are still expected over the course of the season

On 3rd August, we were finally able to strike a deal to bring back Paco Alcacer after his successful loan spell last term

We needed a striker to lead the line and take the main goal burden, and the fee and wages were fairly reasonable for this move to take place

Towards the end of the window, Correia agreed a move to Bayern Munich (we had our two right-backs in place already) for a healthy £28.5 million

And that move allowed us to sign one of the two central defenders we had been interested in

Unfortunately we couldn't get Mario Hermoso from Atletico Madrid, but Dani Vivian was much cheaper and younger and adds to our growing Spanish contingent

The release clause deal of £11.75 million and reasonable wages made this just about affordable and he joined with hours left of the transfer window

Striker Maxi Gomez was loaned to Osasuna for a year as they are paying his full £49k per week wages, and that concluded our late transfer business

We now have a few tough months ahead, let's see how this goes...

[warlock]

All good stories have a strong beginning... just have to hope for a crowd-pleasing ending . KUTGW!

[Jogo Bonito]

11 hours ago, warlock said:

All good stories have a strong beginning... just have to hope for a crowd-pleasing ending . KUTGW!

Thanks mate. After some time feeling understocked to take on the extra fixture load coming our way this season, I just about managed to assemble a squad I'm content with.

I sacrificed a few players like Correia (very good, but had two Spanish right-backs already), Lato (Spanish and decent, but had two good Spanish left-backs already), Gomez (hope he scores goals on loan at Osasuna and we recall him and benefit from his confidence boost), Vallejo (Spanish and a decent squad filling wide attacker, but out of favour at the club in real life), Comert (would have kept this central defender, but he wanted to go after being under-used a little last season) and Mamardashvili (young and promising 'keeper, but not Spanish and was a good saleable asset to help finance other player signings).

I'm prepared to let Gabriel Paulista move on as he is 30+ and earning a lot of money, but need to ensure the team don't react badly for making that sale. Bernardeschi, despite being a new arrival, is also not likely to be here long as I hope to get a decent sale price for him (signed on a free) and replace him with another Spaniard for a smaller fee and on less wages. By next season, I'm hoping we can have an even higher % of Spanish players than we do now.

The main successes so far, apart from positive results on the pitch are these:

• I've got no loan players at all (a massive target achieved, we had five last year)
• I've increased the Spanish influence and now 17 of 26 (including promoted youngsters) who are able to play domestically and in Europe, are Spanish
• Finances are better (for now) and new signings are fitting in to a more sensible wage structure

[karanhsingh]

Hope you're doing well mate! Although logging on after so long, i was expecting to see this save a little further down the line

[Jogo Bonito]

2 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Hope you're doing well mate! Although logging on after so long, i was expecting to see this save a little further down the line

Haha. I can't really dispute that statement, will try harder 

Yes doing good thanks, and I hope the same for you. 

[karanhsingh]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Haha. I can't really dispute that statement, will try harder 

Yes doing good thanks, and I hope the same for you. 

Yes all good thanks. Work & life seems to be returning to normal now. Hoping it stays that way. 

[Jogo Bonito]

Season 2022/23 - Part 2

Playing time has been limited of late, but I've found time to make some small progress with Valencia

September and (in particular) October 2022 were fixture-heavy months due to the over-achievement of last year putting us back in to European competition

At the end of August we sat second after five league games, and September was a little disappointing domestically after a good start against Villarreal

Dropped points at home to Celta Vigo was one thing, but losing at Cadiz was poor in every sense

In contrast the month had seen an excellent start in Champions League Group F with tight and invaluable wins over strong German and Italian outfits

A 3-3 draw away to PSG was also a fine result, but being 3-1 up until very late on meant this was seen as a bittersweet outcome despite being huge underdogs

The league form in October was also a mix of good and bad with a heavy defeat at Barcelona and a 4-3 loss away to Atletico Madrid (also after being 3-1 up)

The draw against local rivals Levante wasn't good, but hard-fought wins over Sevilla, Alaves & Mirandes (in stoppage time) were useful and kept us in a reasonable spot

The 2-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao was our best performance in the league during the month, and hopefully that standard will be met more often again now 

October saw two European nights, and despite a narrow loss away to PSG, a second win over AS Roma confirmed qualification alongside PSG with one game to go  

The graph below shows we have dipped over this period, partly due to losing our stronger right-flank combination of Porro and De Frutos for most of this batch of games

The latter returned a few weeks ago, and the winger marked his return with a goal - whilst the former will be back soon and will be a big improvement at right-back

Left-back Gaya has been the outstanding player so far, although his assists tally is boosted by taking most of our set-pieces on the right side

You'll see that we have neither excelled in attack (10th best) or defence (8th best) but we have had to heavily rotate and both rankings should improve in time

Financially we have taken massive steps forward, partly due to sound business acumen but significantly due to obscene money you get for playing in the Champions League

The month of November is, of course, a domestic football tragedy due to the Winter Wonderland (aka 2022 World Cup in Qatar)

After our game in Germany on 2nd November, we have nothing else in the calendar until 1st January 2023

We'll make our transfer plans and report back after the winter window closes, but we did add one player on 14th October

Spanish international Isco had been a free agent since leaving Real Madrid in the summer, and I managed to secure him on a very low wage

The short term deal was by choice (and he took some convincing), but he should add quite a bit as we tackle multiple competitions

He was ineligible for the Champions League group stage, but will get included at next registration point (so far he has given two assists in three league games)

  

See you again soon, and thanks for reading

Edited May 15, 2022 by Jogo Bonito

[karanhsingh]

Solid and very busy couple of months there! 

Isco's physical stats have taken a real beating it seems  however if you can get the best out of his technical ability he may do a good job for you yet. 

[SixPointer]

Isco is great business, granted he is 30, but he is never going to be seen as a mobile or hardworking player, but what he does offer is that ability to make something out of nothing and has done so at the highest level!!

[Jogo Bonito]

On 15/05/2022 at 14:02, karanhsingh said:

Solid and very busy couple of months there! 

Isco's physical stats have taken a real beating it seems  however if you can get the best out of his technical ability he may do a good job for you yet. 

Sorry for the slow response! I'm not sure how he looked before as I've never managed him. But a short term deal seemed worth my time given the low wages and 'quality' that he may serve up occasionally.

On 16/05/2022 at 07:13, SixPointer said:

Isco is great business, granted he is 30, but he is never going to be seen as a mobile or hardworking player, but what he does offer is that ability to make something out of nothing and has done so at the highest level!!

Thanks for the endorsement, even though it has taken me ages to reply! It was a low risk move when I needed some extra support in the ranks.

In more surprising news, and after my laptop really struggled to 'continue' through the two-month stop for the 2022 World Cup, I have finally completed season 2 now. The update will be written up and posted in the next day or two, hopefully.

[Jogo Bonito]

Season 2022/23 - Part 3

The last update at the end of October 2022, saw Valencia sat 5th after 15 league games & having qualified from the CL group with one game to go

The dead CL rubber in Germany at the start of November didn't really matter - especially as a two-month break for the World Cup followed our defeat

However the return in January didn't go too well after a promising start, even if only one of the three losses was in La Liga

The Copa Del Rey campaign saw us fall at the very first hurdle to our affiliate club in the second tier - rotation or not, that was unacceptable

The transfer window closed with no arrivals or departures as nobody was prepared to take the players we didn't want off our hands

The only deal struck in fact was that the loan of Maxi Gomez was terminated just before the transfer deadline 

The Uruguayan striker hadn't scored a single goal for us last season, but had bagged 18 in 22 games on loan at Osasuna so we wanted to give him another chance

Two goals on his return to Valencia was sweet and despite the 2-2 draw with Real Betis, it was a nice welcome home for Maxi

February was a much better month as we went undefeated in four league games and managed to hold Liverpool to a draw in the Champions League home leg

Defensively the month was much improved with only one goal conceded in those five fixtures, but the lack of a goal in Europe made us big underdogs for the return

A point at home to then-leaders Villarreal at the start of March, and a comfortable victory over Cadiz teed up the European encounter nicely

But The Reds were much too strong for us at Anfield, and we can't have any complaints about being dumped out by them

The next outing was another tough one, but a really good display earned a convincing 2-0 win over Barcelona to keep us in contention for a Champions League slot again

Those hopes took a dip as April started with back-to-back defeats, but we fought back well to claim three valuable wins including over Atletico Madrid

By now it was a straight battle between Real Madrid and Villarreal for the title, with barely a point separating us, Barcelona and Atletico for 3rd-5th

Luckily May gave us some slightly easier fixtures, and despite a loss at Getafe we won all the others to comfortably take 3rd

The win over Real Madrid showed we could do well on our day, and that day saw us cement 3rd spot and them lift the trophy at our Mestalla Stadium

The last game of the term was against Espanyol, who we relegated despite a strong rotation and implementation of several teenagers to our side

The performance graph shows a much steadier run in the second half of the season, but don't be fooled by the gap to 1st & 2nd as we never had a sniff really

Paco Alcacer was top scorer again with 22 (19 in La Liga) but left-back Jose Gaya won the fans award and was voted Spanish player of the season

The high average rating and Player of the Match awards were justified, even if a large number of his 18 assists were from set-pieces

Financially the club improved due to European funding, not that the board gave any budget at all until after the season closed off

Below are the player stats across all competitions, with 48 games played in total during the year

Domenech and Isco have signed pre-contract deals with cash-rich clubs in the Middle East, whilst Tejon & Diakhaby are about to sign new ones to stay

It's been a fun two years at Valencia, finishing 2nd & 3rd in La Liga, making them 'more Spanish' again and improving the club financially

But Mario Kempes has just retired as Chairperson and been replaced by a random Lithuanian businessman, so it's a natural time for me to pass on the baton too

Thanks for reading, and sorry it's been so slow just to get two seasons completed

Adios amigos y hasta luego...

 

[SixPointer]

Another good season!! Jose Gaya 18 assists from LWB. Does he take set plays?, or is this part of your tactical plan?

[Jogo Bonito]

41 minutes ago, SixPointer said:

Another good season!! Jose Gaya 18 assists from LWB. Does he take set plays?, or is this part of your tactical plan?

Thanks! Yes the numbers are skewed by the fact he takes the corners and free kicks from the right - but he did make quite a few in open play too.

He was actually an orthodox left-back in a 4123 formation (one DM, two MC, with my IF (left) and AMR supporting the AF in attack. The right back Porro had similar attacking ability but didn't seem to create quite as much number-wise. I imagine that's partly down to the IF on the left (Guedes) moving inside and allowing Gaya to bomb in to the space on that side. Porro had a right-footed winger ahead of him and probably supported behind rather than beyond.

[warlock]

3 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

a natural time for me to pass on the baton

Two good years, and you're leaving them in a better position than you found them, I think.

Off to Yorkshire then 

[karanhsingh]

Very good job at Valencia! Only 5 points off the top as well.

Definitely an interesting club to manage with all the financial problems and you did an excellent clean-up job. Where to next?

[Jogo Bonito]

19 hours ago, warlock said:

Two good years, and you're leaving them in a better position than you found them, I think.

Off to Yorkshire then 

Cheers, I did leave them in better shape yes. 'Appen you're right about Yorkshire.

7 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Very good job at Valencia! Only 5 points off the top as well.

Definitely an interesting club to manage with all the financial problems and you did an excellent clean-up job. Where to next?

Thanks mate. Yes two decent seasons, the first one was way over expectations, the second was a bit patchy but ended up quite well.

Time to start my first EFL save of FM22 with Bradford. I've only managed Palermo & Valencia in this edition so far, less than 4 seasons IIRC.

[KlaaZ]

Odd thing about Seoane, in my game I actually managed to sign him up in the Serie B playing as Parma for a mere 1.1M. 

[Jogo Bonito]

28 minutes ago, KlaaZ said:

Odd thing about Seoane, in my game I actually managed to sign him up in the Serie B playing as Parma for a mere 1.1M. 

That is strange. I wasn't even able to get him on a pre-contract as my board wouldn't allow me to pay him £7.5k per week. The issue was my board rather than anything else, but hope he has done well for you at Parma. IRL he is very likely to be at a new club in La Liga next season, he had a good year and is quite sought after it seems.

I had a good time with Parma in FM21 which I wrote about on this forum. Now I just content myself with buying Parmalat yogurts and milk over here 

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by Jogo Bonito

[karanhsingh]

12 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Cheers, I did leave them in better shape yes. 'Appen you're right about Yorkshire.

Thanks mate. Yes two decent seasons, the first one was way over expectations, the second was a bit patchy but ended up quite well.

Time to start my first EFL save of FM22 with Bradford. I've only managed Palermo & Valencia in this edition so far, less than 4 seasons IIRC.

Wow didn't realize there has been no EFL for you as yet! And it's already June