The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Eli Junior Kroupi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings1 Dec 2042
Leo Díaz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The words a physio says slowly. 51 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Mirandés the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Valencia will enjoy reviewing.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7.68, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Eli Junior Kroupi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Eli Junior Kroupi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valencia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Eli Junior Kroupi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Valencia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The phone has started ringing about Aimar Vargas again, and this time the name on the line is Leganés. Valencia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valencia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Ryan Janssen will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Valencia escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Eli Junior Kroupi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Gonzalo Díaz damages knee ligaments — 100 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 100 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad26 May 2042
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ryan Janssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Gonzalo Díaz damages knee ligaments — 107 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 107 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Gonzalo Díaz damages knee ligaments — 114 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 114 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Valencia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Eli Junior Kroupi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
SquadWords at Valencia training over how hard people work
Gonzalo Díaz damages knee ligaments — 128 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 128 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
7 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad28 Apr 2042
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Luken Beitia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Gonzalo Díaz damages knee ligaments — 135 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 135 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Espanyol the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Valencia will enjoy reviewing.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valencia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valencia can pretend not to have heard.
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Valencia are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Apr 2042
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ryan Janssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valencia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valencia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The goal that put Las Palmas ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Valencia equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eli Junior Kroupi provided it, and the 8.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 2‑1 win over Atlético Madrid, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Valencia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aimar Vargas did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad3 Mar 2042
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ryan Janssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A 3‑1 win over Deportivo La Coruña, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 6.86 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings24 Feb 2042
Aimar Vargas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.01
A mark of 8.01 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Valencia heard it as anything else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Riccardo Giacalone and Valencia agree another 3 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucas Fernández. 3‑1 against Mallorca, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Manchester City paid $51.4M and Valencia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Manuel Medina was one of the reasons people came, and $51.4M does not replace that by itself.
The chase for Riccardo Giacalone ended with $2.7M changing hands and Athletic Bilbao out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Valencia, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valencia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 Feb 2042
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ryan Janssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 17 actions, 6.80, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The name of Sergio Martín has come up in conversations Valencia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucas Fernández. 2‑1 against Real Sociedad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
24 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Valencia have had the benefit of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Valencia who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad6 Jan 2042
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lekso Otinashvili is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Valencia would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings30 Dec 2041
Víctor Martínez, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Valencia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Valencia is running low.
Squad30 Dec 2041
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ryan Janssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valencia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
94 minutes played. Eli Junior Kroupi found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Espanyol went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Valencia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Valencia is running low.
Squad2 Dec 2041
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Manuel Medina was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Valencia know it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valencia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.99 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dmitri Simakov. 2‑1 against Real Madrid, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad25 Nov 2041
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lekso Otinashvili is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pedro Cabrera signs something — a contract at Valencia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
BoardroomThe Valencia production line keeps running
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Valencia are no longer polite ones.
Squad18 Nov 2041
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ryan Janssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Manuel Medina signs something — a contract at Valencia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
6.95, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Valencia and Almería, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Valencia, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Eli Junior Kroupi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 7.87. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Valencia and Villarreal in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Vladimir Zadiraka knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Player ratings4 Nov 2041
Manuel Medina was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad21 Oct 2041
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad7 Oct 2041
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ryan Janssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valencia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Chances created: 5. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
In brief
BoardroomThe Valencia production line keeps running
MarketThe clock does Raúl Santana’s negotiating for him
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 95th minute. Málaga will replay every second of the added time for a week.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad26 Aug 2041
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Manuel Medina was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Alavés the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Valencia will enjoy reviewing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Alavés will make the call about Manuel Medina this week. Valencia have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Boardroom19 Aug 2041
13 academy players handed senior numbers at Valencia
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valencia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Alavés for Manuel Medina was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad29 Jul 2041
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad17 Jun 2041
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ryan Janssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Valencia have had the benefit of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Valencia training over how hard people work
SquadSergio Martín has become a man the manager trusts
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Víctor Martínez, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valencia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 May 2041
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ryan Janssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Víctor Martínez has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Víctor Martínez in the middle of it, and Getafe unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings6 May 2041
Raúl Santana was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Eli Junior Kroupi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
6 goals in one match, Manuel Medina on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Valencia and Espanyol.
Player ratings29 Apr 2041
Manuel Medina was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.49. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 7.01, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dinis Souza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Valencia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Dinis Souza has agreed terms with Elche for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad8 Apr 2041
Getting past Sergio Martín has become the hardest job in the division
12 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Valencia support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Valencia and Villarreal, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Valencia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings4 Mar 2041
A brace, and Manuel Medina takes the afternoon — 9.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Manuel Medina provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Valencia have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad4 Mar 2041
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ryan Janssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
7 goals in one match, Manuel Medina on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Valencia and Barcelona.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad18 Feb 2041
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eli Junior Kroupi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ryan Janssen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valencia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valencia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eli Junior Kroupi provided it, and the 8.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Eli Junior Kroupi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Valencia and Zaragoza.