At the start of the 2016/17 Premier League season David Moyes will be in the Sunderland dugout and Gary Neville will be in a TV studio. Not so long ago, however, both were enjoying sunnier climes as managers in Spain’s La Liga. Moyes took the helm of comparatively lowly Real Sociedad and Neville was installed at Valencia by an owner who also happens to be his business partner, and yet both appointments were still huge news in England. The reason those appointments did make so many headlines is because it is today so unusual for British and more specifically English managers to score a top … [Read more...]
Valencia v Barcelona: Reasons to be Optimistic (at least, a little)
It looked like a pre-season friendly, a game of little or no relevance, with both coaches opting to rest most of their senior players and give their second-tier players some game time. But, as a Valencia supporter I have to admit that the return leg of the Valencia v Barca cup tie was far more interesting and entertaining than I had expected. No, los che didn’t win, and certainly should have. But the game had a number of positives, and in this season, the worst I can remember, we have to seize the positives whenever they appear. … [Read more...]
Could the threat of relegation actually be good for Valencia?
14th in the La Liga table, only 4 points and the same number of places from the relegation zone, not having won a Liga game for three months, their biggest defeat in any competition for twenty odd years less than a week ago; the figures make sobering reading for any Valencia fan. But the threat, and very real possibility, of relegation to the Segunda may be just what the team needs to drag itself out of this footballing mire in which it finds itself. Anyone who saw the first leg of the Copa del Rey tie against Barcelona could be forgiven for thinking it was a completely different team to the … [Read more...]