Will David Villa be left stranded in Valencia?
Friday 17 July 2009 12:00
The polymathic genius that is La Liga Loca used to think that it had a decent grasp of economics.
In its seven years teaching the subject at Rutland Poly, the blog would always opine that the standard operating procedure for something or someone in debt was to sell assets.
But this crazy notion has been made to look outdated and distinctly fuddy by Valencia, who have chosen to follow the theory that the best way to face a crisis is to do nothing and hope it goes away.
Despite the predictions from the blog over the past few months that Valencia would be stripped bare of its playing talent due to the club’s 500m Euro debt, the main departures from the club so far are the eternally injured Edu and Teresa the Tealady.
The terrific trio of Juan Mata, David Silva and David Villa are still Mestalla men, although the latter doesn’t sound very pleased about it at all.
"Someone get me out of here!"
It was widely expected that the Spanish striker would be shipped out to either Real Madrid or Barcelona over the summer, especially as both clubs are reported to have made hefty offers to Valencia for his goalscoring services.
Madrid made a 'multimillion Euro and Alvaro Negredo thrown in' bid only to see it being snook-cocked by current club president Manuel Llorente.
Meanwhile, the Catalan papers advise that Barcelona offered to pay Valencia 42 million Euro for Villa.
According to El País, this was eight short of what Valencia were demanding, but Villa was so desperate for the move that he offered to pay the difference himself.
But Valencia will only accept a “scandalously scandalous” bid for the prize, says Llorente.
It may be that the various suits supposedly running the club know more than they are telling in regards to Valencia’s immediate financial situation.
Or it may be that the mysterious Dalport group will hand-over the half-a-billion Euro of investment that it claims to have.
But considering nothing has been heard from them in nearly two weeks and that the company’s logo was taken from a children’s colouring book, it seems unlikely.
And it also seems unlikely that David Villa will be going anywhere this summer, especially as he has always turned down the chance of playing in the Premier League, the only place containing clubs with the means to buy him now.
Madrid’s interest in Villa ended when they made their move for Karim Benzema, while Barça have apparently grown tired of Valencia’s obstinacy and are on the brink of replacing Mad Sammy with Mad Zlatan.
And this leaves poor old Diego Forlán sobbing by the wayside at the Vicente Calderon screaming, “you can’t leave me here!” to his agent.
"Can I go now please?"
All this is not to say that there isn’t some financial activity to be found in Mestalla.
A group of current and ex-footballers have got together to buy some shares in the club. Around 2,400 Euro worth, in fact, per player.
“We are part of Valencia and are in a position to help the club,” announced David Albeda, whose last major contribution to the side was to take it to court last year, when dropped from the squad by Ronald Koeman.
Whether or not this laudable if not substantial contribution to the club’s accounts is enough to cover the shortfall left by the non-sale of Villa remains to be seen.
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About Tim Stannard and Simon Talbot
When he isn't fighting the evil forces of flamenco or attracting libel actions for La Liga Loca,
Tim Stannard is building his media empire in Madrid. As well as contributing to Football365 and doing odd jobs elsewhere, Tim also works in the glamorous world of television as a producer, script writer, news editor, coffee boy and stand-in fluffer.
Simon Talbot? Well, he's a man of mystery.