What are the results of Valencia’s summer business?

It is no secret to anyone that the Covid-19 pandemic has left an economic disaster in the world of football that few clubs have been able to handle without being significantly affected. The lack of income from tickets for matches or problems with TV rights (as in the case of Ligue 1) are some of the situations that have hit the clubs, such is the case with Spain’s Valencia.

Valencia CF had one of the most expensive squads in Spain six months ago, however, the pandemic left the club in a very complicated situation that led them to make a very important decision in the summer transfer window: put the whole team up for sale. The idea of the Valencia’s board is (and continues to be) to sell the players with the best market to earn considerable money for their sales and lighten the salary burden at the same time. Those players would be replaced with players from their youth teams.

This idea was put into practice in the summer and thus came the sales of Ferran Torres to Manchester City, Rodrigo to Leeds United, Coquelin to Villarreal and Kondogbia to Atlético de Madrid to which we must add Dani Parejo’s departure as free agent to Villarreal. In other words, many of the most important players in the team were let go and, in some cases, to reinforce direct rivals from La Liga. A big exception is the case of Jose Luis Gaya, who actually lowered his salary in order to stay in the club.

These players were replaced without making a single transfer, using players who had a current contract with Valencia or with players from the youth teams such as Yunus Musah, Lee Kang-in or Uros Racic. Six months later, Valencia is in the 17th position, one place above the relegation positions, although with the same number of points as Elche CF, who are 18th and have 2 games less than Los Ches. It is a critical situation considering that we’re talking about a historic club in Spain.

According to the statements by current Valencia president, Anil Murthy, the economic problems that the club still has force them to repeat this same policy for one or two more years, so that, if the trend continues, the future of this club does not seem very encouraging.