From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Nov 2026
The longest week starts now for Valencia
Beaten 1‑2 by Villarreal in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
Match4 Nov 2026
Valencia march on in the cup
Cádiz are out and Valencia go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match4 Nov 2026
Valencia win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 116th minute. Cádiz will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 9.39 — 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Pepelu runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 9.07 — 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Umar Sadiq, and the manager let it.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
At 23 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Nobody could get near Luis Rioja
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 146% of everything Valencia earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Dani Raba
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Filip Ugrinić falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Shots: 9, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Valencia will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad2 Nov 2026
José Gayà wants out of the spotlight
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 29 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market26 Oct 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of César Tárrega at his very best
Marked 9.62. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Valencia.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Arnaut Danjuma falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
21 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.95, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Alavés, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Pepelu
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near Luis Rioja
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Arnaut Danjuma 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Duro 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
The one thing Umar Sadiq could not do
Shots: 12, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Dani Raba's mistake
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
14 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
José Gayà dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Luis Rioja runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Umar Sadiq was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of José Gayà
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Guido Rodríguez's mistake
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ugrinić 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnaut Danjuma 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Adam Bareiro 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Diego López’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Valencia.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
241% of the income goes out in wages at Valencia
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Diego López was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.72. 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.56, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 30 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Match26 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Valencia
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Market28 Sep 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A defender's afternoon for César Tárrega
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Hugo Duro falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.87, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match19 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Valencia
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Valencia are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Arnaut Danjuma 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Luis Rioja runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
One of those days for Hugo Duro
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of César Tárrega at his very best
Marked 8.44. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Valencia.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Luis Rioja runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Valencia
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Valencia are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Arnaut Danjuma falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Real Sociedad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
José Gayà gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnaut Danjuma 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
227% of the income goes out in wages at Valencia
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Athletic Bilbao, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Hugo Duro gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Luis Rioja runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
César Tárrega was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.86. 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.43 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ugrinić 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 17 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnaut Danjuma 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
José Gayà in a row with a teammate
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Arnaut Danjuma was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.16. 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Umar Sadiq, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of André Almeida at his very best
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Valencia.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Luis Rioja runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
4.59. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Raúl Hidalgo has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jaime Montero has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. José Serrano is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vicente Méndez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Adam Bareiro gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Adam Bareiro has just signed for Valencia, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Arnaut Danjuma and Valencia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Javi Guerra
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market10 Aug 2026
A squad is not eleven players and a wish. Adam Bareiro arrives from Boca Juniors to make the number up properly, and the value of that will be argued about in March rather than today.
Market10 Aug 2026
24 months and counting on Luis Rioja
Still no offer on the table, and Luis Rioja’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Valencia say no — this time
The offer from VfB Stuttgart for Umar Sadiq 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stole Dimitrievski and Valencia agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Guido Rodríguez wants continental football; whether Valencia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnaut Danjuma 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.