Valencia's number one issue

Diego Alves closes down Lionel Messi during Valencia's trip to Camp Nou in February 2012.
Photo courtesy of Maksur.

In the majority of cases, a goalkeeper's name tends to be the first on the team sheet not only because of his shirt number but also the command he has over his position. Suspicion of squad rotation has dissipated over the past two decades due to the physical demands of 60-game seasons played at modern-day intensity levels, but alternating goalkeepers remains the exception. For the best part of two seasons, however, Valencia's Vicente Guaita and Diego Alves have taken it in turns between the posts, with one of the pair being in favour for important domestic and European matches at different periods during that time.

After the veteran César Sánchez moved to Villarreal in the summer of 2011 and Miguel Ángel Moyà was loaned to Getafe, Valencia signed Alves from relegated Almería to compete with Guaita for the gloves. Having just earned a new contract thanks to a run in the side the previous season, Guaita began the 2011/12 campaign as Unai Emery's number one in La Liga but Diego Alves was selected for the club's Champions League fixtures. A hand injury that took longer to heal than expected saw Alves gain the advantage over Guaita for much of the winter but the latter proved he had left his troubles behind him that February with a demonstration of exemplary aerial strength and handling ability against, notably, Stoke City. Guaita regained his position in the league, but Alves was preferred for both Europa League semi-final matches against Atlético Madrid in April.

At the beginning of this season, Alves seized his chance with a typically acrobatic performance at the Bernabéu on the opening weekend of the season when Guaita was ruled out. Mauricio Pellegrino, who had taken over from Unai Emery that summer, kept faith with Alves when Guaita returned to fitness - in both La Liga and the Champions League - until the Brazilian made a costly error in a 2-0 defeat at Mallorca. Guaita was reinstated the following week but injury intervened again and the Spaniard found himself performing Alves' role from the previous season, that is warming the bench in the league but being trusted for European matches. The Spaniard's situation remained the same after the end of Pellegrino's brief tenure in December until interim coach Ernesto Valverde recalled him for the two league games prior to Valencia's Champions League last-16 tie against Paris Saint-Germain. Guaita was preferred for both legs against the French side but, since the beginning of February, he and Alves have been rotated in the league by Valverde, both getting two matches each before returning to the bench.

As if rotating goalkeepers was not uncommon enough, Valencia are doing it at a crucial juncture in the season. Los Che are in danger of missing out on a Champions League spot after a damagingly slow start to the season under the inexperienced Pellegrino, who would surely not have been appointed had the club's board not looked at the rejuvenation of Atlético Madrid under former player Diego Simeone and attempted to copy the model. Last Sunday, with Valencia sitting seventh at kick-off, Guaita was recalled to the starting line-up after serving his two games on the bench for a must-win home match against Real Valladolid. Alves, who had performed solidly in the 3-0 victory over Real Betis and the creditable 1-1 draw at Atléti, was back on the bench and watched on as his teammate made a superb save from Omar Ramos in Valencia's 2-1 win. The three points saw Valverde's side leapfrog both Betis and Malaga to go fifth, two points behind Real Sociedad. The two sides meet at the end of the month, when Alves is scheduled to play if the current policy continues.

Relationships between rival goalkeepers can be tense, as the falling out between Javi Varas and Andrés Palop at Sevilla proved last season, but so far there has not been any suggestion of ill feeling between Guaita and Alves over their situation. Both have won Valencia points in the league and both have made expensive errors, though Alves' showing at Mallorca was certainly less significant than Guaita's inexplicably poor performance in the home leg of the Champions League tie against PSG in the context of the season as a whole. The fact that the two keepers have remained impossible to separate for almost two years makes the current rotation of the pair seem like the fairest way to manage the situation. Many would have reservations about the effect that swapping between goalkeepers might have on the defence's organisation and communication but, with Valencia having been forced to select a different back four for each of the last seven games due to injury and suspension, continuity has been impossible anyway.

What seems fairly certain is that at least one of Guaita and Alves will not be at the club next season. As well as the strength of their performances drawing admirers, there remain pressing financial concerns that would motivate a sale. Club president Manuel Llorente resigned last Friday and Valencia's debts are still huge, with the local city government currently in charge of their affairs.  Barcelona scouts were reportedly at the PSG match at Mestalla and, despite Guaita being at fault for both goals, El Mundo Deportivo has suggested this week that the 26-year-old remains their number one target should they opt to deal with the task of replacing Victor Valdés this summer. Alves, 27, has his admirers at Camp Nou too, as Catalan newspaper Sport reported in February, and has been on Arsenal's radar since his days at Almería. The north London club have had Guaita in their thoughts as well according to Valencian daily Superdeporte, with the fact that the same clubs are competing for both keepers emphasising just how closely matched they are despite their differing styles.

For now, though, Guaita and Alves remain members of a Valencia squad desperately trying to reach next season's Champions League. The financial windfall earned from that might not keep both at the club beyond the summer, but the pair should still be playing in the competition come September regardless.

Local rivals compete to Basque in derby glory

San Mamés in happier times celebrating Athletic Bilbao's 2-1 win against Real Sociedad in April 2011.
Picture courtesy of Marooned.

The Basque derby between Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad, lacking the self-absorbed politics and egos that make modern-day Clásico contests between Barcelona and Real Madrid such suffocating experiences at times, has a case for being thought of as Spain's most historically charged local rivalry. Anybody familiar with the picture of team captains José Ángel Iribar of Athletic and Real Sociedad’s Inaxio Kortabarria walking out together holding the region's then-outlawed flag, the Ikurriña, just a day after Franco's death in 1975, will be aware of the strength of the region's identity and the importance of the Euskal derbia within it.

The two teams met in Bilbao last Friday, Sociedad emerging with a 3-1 win. Despite falling behind to a vicious Ibai Gomez volley on the half-hour that caused the home crowd to explode with joy - something they haven't done too often this season after last year's cup runs to the finals of the Europa League and Copa del Rey - la Real earned a quick equaliser through a back post header by young French winger Antoine Griezmann. A handling error by inexperienced Athletic goalkeeper Raúl Fernández allowed Imanol Agirretxe to bundle home the rebound from a free-kick halfway through the second period and Carlos Vela's cool finish ten minutes later sealed the victory.

Sociedad went into the game threatening to achieve something they haven't done in a decade: finish above Athletic in the table. Not since 2003, when Frenchman Raynald Denoueix's team came runners-up to the galácticos of Real Madrid by only two points, have the side from San Sebastián ended the season higher in the standings than their rivals from Bilbao. Denoueix's compatriot Philippe Montanier, who played under his predecessor for a year at Nantes, has la Real in contention for a European spot this season while Athletic flounder. The win leaves Sociedad sixth in La Liga while Los Leones, who have never been relegated, are now only three points above the drop zone.

Identifying the reasons why the two teams' fortunes have swapped over this season isn't too difficult. A spine runs through this year's Sociedad side from front to back, while circumstance and stubbornness have served to rid Athletic of theirs. With the talents of Spain's U21 stars Iñigo Martínez and Asier Illarramendi marshalling defence and midfield, respectively, Carlos Vela has been on hand to plunder eleven goals up front for Montanier's team. By comparison, Marcelo Bielsa's Athletic have used ten different pairings in central defence so far across all competitions, contributing to a goals against column that is the second worst in La Liga. Javi Martínez has been sold and Fernando Llorente ostracised, with the form of all but Ander Herrera, Markel Susaeta and Aritz Aduriz leaving something to be desired.

This instalment of the derby was also the last to be played at the venerable San Mamés stadium before the new incarnation of Athletic's home begins its life next season. Opened in 1913 as the first major purpose-built football ground in the country and later dubbed la Catedral as it was sited near religious buildings housing relics associated with the Christian martyr, Mammes of Caesarea, who gave the stadium its name, the atmosphere generated inside can verge on the transcendental. The old place deserved a happier send-off.

Derbies have a different flavour in Spain. While counties and regions in England still retain prominent characteristics that set them apart within the national culture, there is not the same level of support for these areas to be thought of as separate entities altogether. The "Catalonia is not Spain" banners seen inside Camp Nou are just a small example of a much larger campaign to bring about that region's independence. Athletic used an Ikurriña-inspired away shirt last season (that turned heads across Europe) while Valencia's third kit this year is based on the Senyera Coronada, the flag of the local community that is itself derived from that of the Crown of Aragon, which united with the Crown of Castile in the fifteenth century to essentially create Spain.

In a geographical sense the Basque Country straddles Spain and France, but it remains culturally distinct from both. Athletic and Real Sociedad both have proud traditions of nurturing talent, and a quick glance at their teamsheets every weekend is enough to notice that the player names have a look all of their own. The preponderance of harsh 'rr' and 'tx' sounds gives commentaries of the two teams' games a unique timbre, set apart from the rest of the league. This observation makes sense when it is coupled with the knowledge that Basque is unrelated to any other known language.

Local derbies remain the purest contests in football, since the earliest matches in the sport's history were between teams that shared regions or borders. Maintaining provincial rivalries in domestic competitions across Europe is one of the greatest arguments against there ever being a fully-fledged continental super league. Friday's game didn't determine the destination of any trophy, or settle whether la Real qualify for Europe or Athletic go down, but the significance of the fixture still needs no further introduction. The nature of the match and all others like it, as an expression of regional identity and a battle for local supremacy within an increasingly globalised and homogenised sport, is what makes derbies so important.

Sometimes television companies attempt to fuel rivalries by giving matches straplines, such as Sky's labelling of the first leg of the Champions League last 16 tie between Real Madrid and Manchester United as "The Perfect Match". Such hyperbole is nothing new, of course. Sky have been applying grandiose titles such as "Judgement Day", "End Game" and "Welcome to the Pleasuredome"* to Sundays in November or rearranged fixtures in early March for several years now as part of their coverage of the Premier League. The reason they do this is because, otherwise, there is no specific way to refer to the contest in the manner that a cup final or a local derby quickly and easily defines what the game is and what the stakes are.

A meeting between two of Europe's foremost sides, such as Madrid and United, is always a prestigious occasion, but any notion of rivalry is primarily based on the prize they're competing for and the personalities who happen to be involved at the time. Derbies are different. They provide their own narrative, such as the day when Iribar and Kortabarria walked out carrying the same flag, and their own reward, namely the satisfaction of being better than that other lot from down the road.

* A couple of these may have been imagined, but you get the picture.

Contract etiquette in the Bosman era

Barcelona's Victor Valdés ponders his future.

Photo courtesy of  Gerard Reyes.

Luxembourg is not known for its footballers. Indeed, as the answer to a question posed on the pages of the Guardian’s website recently revealed, the highest a player from the tiny landlocked nation has polled in the Ballon d’Or is joint 18^th, achieved by Standard Liège midfielder Louis Pilot in 1969 when he picked up a solitary fourth-place vote from one of the journalist judges. As the seat of the European Court of Justice, however, Luxembourg has had a profound effect on footballers’ way of life.

In December 1995, the court ratified the Bosman ruling. Footballers were now free to move between European Union countries once their contracts had expired without the need for a transfer fee. From a British perspective, it was the biggest change to the way in which players switched teams since the abolition of the retain and transfer system in 1963, which had allowed clubs to hold onto the registration of a player even after his contract had expired and so prevent him from turning out for another.

Just over seventeen years after the Bosman ruling, players’ contract renewal negotiations are scrutinised more than ever. Every June there are sighs of relief or resignation when a star with only a year to run on his deal is either tied down to a new one or rejects his club’s final offer; every January there is speculation as to which club a player with less than six months left of his contract is going to depart, as he enters the window when he can negotiate his own move.

There was a reminder again just over a week ago of the way in which forward-planning players have embraced the opportunities offered by an expiring contract when it was announced that Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdés would not be renewing his present deal, scheduled to run out in June 2014. The 31-year-old has won every major honour with the Catalan club since establishing himself as number one under Frank Rijkaard almost ten years ago and is seeking a fresh challenge in England, Italy or perhaps even Germany once Pep Guardiola has assumed control at Bayern Munich.

That Valdés would want to test himself with a different club in a different country at this stage of his career is not such a surprise. What has caused one or two raised eyebrows at Camp Nou is the timing of his decision. On the one hand, with just under eighteen months of his contract still to go, Valdés has been completely transparent by informing Barcelona of his decision now and given them plenty of time to find a successor. On the other hand, Valdés’ intentions were made known only hours after Bayern Munich had made the triumphant announcement that they had secured Guardiola on a three-year deal from next season. It made for an awkward few days for the club.

Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova has reacted to the news regarding his goalkeeper by confirming that Valdés will remain his number one, with the usual caveat that this will be the case so long as his performances continue to justify it. With Valdés having given the club a season-and-a-half’s warning, though, the suggestion is that Barcelona will sign his replacement in the summer. He will then either be sold at the end of the season for whatever fee can be raised or stay at the club if the new goalkeeper is loaned back to his former club. A third option would be for Valdés to stay for his final year but spend the season on the bench.

One player who is literally sitting out the closing stages of his contract, and who has handled his exit remarkably differently, is Fernando Llorente. The Athletic Bilbao striker, who scored a career-best 29 goals last season, has started only one league game this campaign after rejecting the Basque club’s final offer last summer. The terms of that offer were good – Llorente would reportedly have earned in the region of €4.5m per season by staying – so his desire to play in the Champions League, a competition Athletic have not featured in since 1998, seems the overriding factor. Juventus had been publicly courting Llorente for months, though, before he finally sealed a four-year contract with the Serie A champions last Thursday.

In announcing his intention to leave Barcelona with comparatively little of the preceding speculation that he was intending to do so that accompanied Llorente’s decision, Valdés avoided much of the vitriol thrown his international teammate’s way by his own fans, as Athletic’s stirring performances twelve months ago fade into memory and the team disintegrates. However, Valdés still hasn’t been immune from criticism in Catalonia. January is the busiest month of the season in Spain, with Copa del Rey ties sandwiched in between every weekend’s round of league fixtures, and last Saturday, just a couple of days after the news broke, Barcelona lost their first league game of the season at Real Sociedad. It may only have been a coincidence, but it only added to the argument that Valdés should have waited until the end of the season to speak.

There is still no easy way for a footballer to express his wish to play somewhere else. Though there is no longer the fear of a stubborn chairman or president refusing to allow them a move, the trade-off from the professional and financial freedom offered by the Bosman ruling and other changes to the transfer system like it remains the effect their plans can have on their team and the reaction of the fans to them.

Bouncing back: can Unai Emery lift Sevilla up the La Liga table?

Sevilla's Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán boasts one of the most vociferous
atmospheres in Spain when full. The stadium holds 45,500 and was built in 1957.

Photo courtesy of kevinpoh.

"Because I've bounced back. People bounce back. Dennis Hopper, Rolf Harris...there are others."

Last February, a few months before he parted ways with Valencia, Unai Emery published a book. It was called Winning Mentality. The irony wasn’t lost on fans of Los Che.  Valencia were on course for a third successive third-place finish under the Basque coach but they hadn’t actually won anything with him in charge, nor had they come particularly close to doing so. The last trophy they had lifted was the Copa del Rey in 2008, in the final throes of Ronald Koeman’s regime. Emery got nearer than he had before to ending that silverware drought in his final season, taking the side to the semi-finals of both the cup and the Europa League, but the gulf in points and quality that separated his team from the top two was what characterised the campaign.

Valencia beat Malaga to the final automatic Champions League spot but finished 39 points behind league winners Real Madrid and 30 behind runners-up Barcelona. With the news that his contract would not be renewed at the end of the season having already been made public several weeks earlier, Emery immediately signed a deal to coach Spartak Moscow.

Deciding to move to Russia was an unexpected career choice on the 41-year-old’s part. It highlighted that Emery is a coach with a sense of vocation, keen to test himself and his methods in other countries, but also suggested that the huge criticism he had received in his final months at Valencia was sufficient to require a break from Spain. To say things didn’t go well in Moscow, however, would be something of an understatement. Spartak had already been eliminated from the Champions League when a 5-1 defeat to local rivals Dynamo last November proved to be Emery’s final match in charge, barely six months into the job.

Perhaps Emery will consider a different title for his next book. With his dark hair and slightly self-conscious grin, penchant for blazers and habit of wearing trousers that look a size too big for him, some La Liga viewers have drawn comparisons between his appearance and that of Norfolk’s best-known fictional radio personality, Alan Partridge. Alan called his first autobiography Bouncing Back; in being named the new coach of Sevilla this week, Emery has done just that. “My first thought after Russia was to take a holiday and relax, but you can’t let an opportunity like this pass,” he said at his unveiling in Andalucía.

The vacancy at Sevilla came up on Monday when Míchel was finally sacked by club president José Maria del Nido after last Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to, coincidentally, Valencia. Los Rojiblancos picked up a meagre 19 points in the league before Christmas and, while the former Real Madrid player had taken them to the last eight of the Copa del Rey, a position in the bottom half of the table was simply unacceptable at the midway stage of the campaign. Having finished in the European places for eight years in a row prior to last season, Sevilla were only 5 points above the relegation zone after 19 matches.

Sevillistas yearn for a return to the glory years in the latter part of the previous decade when they won back-to-back Uefa Cups in 2006 and 2007 under Juande Ramos and were regarded, by the IFFHS at least, as the best side in the world for two years in a row. Throw in two Copa del Rey trophies and two third-place finishes in La Liga and it was undoubtedly the club’s most successful era since a short golden period after the end of the Civil War that reaped three cup triumphs and was capped by their solitary league title in 1946.

That Sevilla could not stop their most garlanded side in half a century from being broken up is, of course, entirely understandable. Losing three players – Dani Alves, Seydou Keita and Adriano Correia – to Barcelona between 2008 and 2010, then seeing them all pick up Champions League winner’s medals, had a grim inevitability to it. Most nations’ internal transfer markets operate like food chains, with the clubs at the top free to choose the best cuts from the teams below. What has precipitated Sevilla’s recent decline is their failure to replace those players. The pain of seeing the money made on player sales wasted so spectacularly – midfielder Tiberio Guarente cost €5m in 2010 but managed only 333 minutes in the league over the next two seasons due to injury, while centre back Alexis set Sevilla back €5m the same year and is currently on loan at former club Getafe – was compounded just before Christmas by the announcement that the club’s debt stands at €49m. 

Thanks to his time at Valencia, Emery is no stranger to working under economic constraints and watching on as key players are sold. Since the January transfer window opened there have been persistent rumours linking top scorer Álvaro Negredo and revitalised midfielder Ivan Rakitić – amongst others – with moves away from Sevilla. When Del Nido flew to London recently it resulted in talk linking Negredo to Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal rising to a crescendo. After scoring 53 goals in La Liga over the past three-and-a-half seasons, the importance of Sevilla holding on to the striker cannot be underestimated from a football perspective. However, while a €16m bid has already been rejected the feeling is that it would make financial sense to accept a fee of €20-25m for the 27-year-old Spain international. The player has already admitted that he would like to play in England and, with Sevilla not in Europe this season, he would be eligible for the Champions League.

Whether or not Negredo is sold during January, Emery’s assignment in Andalucía is a daunting one. The progress Atlético Madrid have made under Diego Simeone means they have assumed the position of Spain’s third power vacated by Valencia, and Sevilla are in no position to challenge for that role at the moment. Aside from Negredo, though, a squad also featuring World Cup-winning winger Jesús Navas, the bundle of tenacity and aggression that is Chilean midfielder Gary Medel, and the formidable potential of 19-year-old Geoffrey Kondogbia should still believe it can reach the top six. Emery will need to address the defensive issues and disciplinary problems that have seen Sevilla ship 28 goals and pick up 8 red cards at the end of the league’s first round, but the fact that so many other sides are interested in his new club’s players is a sign of the quality he has to work with.

Purple rain: why La Liga isn't proving heavy weather for Valladolid

Óscar González celebrates his opening goal against Córdoba during last season's Segunda play-offs.
Photo courtesy of Carla Delgado Arenas.

Ask a Football Radar analyst who their favourite side they cover is and you’re very likely to see a glint pass across their eyes before they tell you which one it is and why. When you watch teams play up to 40 or 50, even 60, times over the course of a season, and follow every bit of team news in between fixtures, it’s nigh on impossible not to get carried away by one or two of them.

In my case, I developed a bit of a thing for Athletic Bilbao last season. It began, in appropriately romantic fashion, one rainy autumn night at San Mamés when they played Barcelona at their own game only to succumb to an injury-time equaliser and draw 2-2. The relationship was solidified in the spring, when a sequence of pulsating performances in the league and Europe propelled them close to the top four at one stage and peaked with two victories over Manchester United.

This season, however, with Athletic bearing the physical and mental scars of last year’s brutal schedule of games that culminated in two cup final defeats, as well as being burdened by the fallout from Fernando Llorente’s exile to the bench, much of their old spark has gone. I’d still call them my favourite Spanish side, but there is another team that has made a strong impression since they were promoted last summer.

Real Valladolid regained their La Liga status at the second attempt last June, having been relegated in 2010. After coming up via the play-offs and beginning the season with a first team squad of only seventeen due to extremely tight finances, they looked like strong candidates for relegation. However, at the turn of the year they sat eleventh in the table – ahead of not only the two other promoted clubs but Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla too.

Their league position is not the most impressive thing though; what they earn the most credit for is achieving their standing by maintaining the positive playing style that took them up. Coach Miroslav Djukic has to be applauded for this stance, and he laid down the team’s ideology perfectly when speaking last July shortly after promotion:

“We are not going to park the bus and defend our goal but will stick to the philosophy that helped us reach La Primera. If we have to die doing so we’ll have done it by playing our own style of football. We are an aggressive and competitive team that wants the ball and always looks to go forward, so we should not be scared of being in possession and playing with attacking wide men.” 

Djukic has remained true to that defiant statement, setting Valladolid out to attack regardless of the opposition. As well as putting six past Rayo Vallecano at home in late September, the former Serbia coach’s team caught Sevilla cold at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán at the beginning of December with two goals in the first twelve minutes to collect their most impressive win of the season. They followed that performance up by giving Real Madrid an almighty scare the next weekend at their José Zorrilla ground, twice taking the lead and pushing the champions right to the finish despite losing 3-2.

What is also notable about Valladolid’s season so far is Djukic’s commitment to a settled side from which he seldom deviates unless injuries or suspensions intervene. This marks him out from most other coaches in the league, who either rotate due to large squads or busy schedules, or chop and change due to inconsistent results. While one or two coaches have still not really settled on an identifiable first choice eleven this season (José Luis Mendilibar at Osasuna, I’m looking at you), six Valladolid players have started every league game for which they have been available and fully fit.

Foremost among that number are right winger Patrick Ebert and support forward Óscar González. As well as contributing 10 of Valladolid’s 23 goals in La Liga between them before the Christmas break, their combined efforts assisted a further 8 of the tally too. Óscar is building upon a strong goal scoring record for the club dating back to when he signed shortly after their last relegation, while Ebert has proved beyond doubt to be one of the most inspired signings of last summer. Released by Hertha Berlin after they were relegated from the Bundesliga, the intensity of the former German U21 international’s performances and the constant attacking threat he provides – whether stationed on the wing, drifting inside, taking set pieces or shooting from distance – make him arguably the greatest exponent of Valladolid’s style of play.

While Valladolid’s team selection remains more constant than most, this is not to say that Djukic resists change when it is required. Goalkeeper Jaime Jiménez, a mainstay of their promotion campaign, lost his place during October after a couple of errors, one of which had seen him inexplicably gift Betis a late winner a few weeks earlier. Venezuela international Dani Hernández has since held down the position. Meanwhile, striker Javi Guerra – top scorer for the previous two seasons – didn’t score in the first five games and consequently made way for Manucho, despite the Angolan having been training with the reserves up until the end of August.

On the evidence of the first half of the season, the only threat to Valladolid retaining their place in La Liga remains their small squad. Though they were able to cope with recent injuries to first choice defenders Marc Valiente and Henrique Sereno by pressing full back Carlos Peña into action as an emergency centre half, it was hardly a long term solution. Swedish striker Daniel Larsson is the only reinforcement so far this January, providing competition for Guerra and the reinvigorated Manucho. Djukic mentioned over Christmas that a wide player is a priority, with key man Ebert currently recovering from a torn hamstring picked up against Madrid.

Whoever Valladolid end up signing, watching their fearless brand of football for the rest of the season promises to be a personal highlight.