Ricardo Costa to be offered contract extension

Valencia CF is set to offer central defender Ricardo Costa a contract extension. His current contract ends in 2014 and Valencia CF are looking into extending in till 2016. This is going to be an extension, which means same salary and details with just extension of the contract for two additional years.

Ricardo Costa has been the preferred central defender to Victor Ruiz and has partnered Adil Rami in most of the matches. Neither of the central defenders have been amazing, but hes been consistent and bring in huge experience to the side.

Ricardo Costa is 31 years of age, not the youngest of players, but for a defender these are their best years up till age 33.

Gago transfers to Atletico Velez?

Fernando Gago is on the verge of transferring to Argentinian Club Atlético Vélez Sársfield on a half a year loan deal. The club has written on their official website they have reached personal agreements with Fernando Gago and are waiting on Valencia CF to give the go ahead.


We know that Valencia CF has given the go ahead as well  because Gago was not seen in training today and even if not the South American transfer window closes on 11th of February, so there is plenty of time for Gago to leave.

Valencia CF eight place in 2013 UEFA Club Ranking

Valencia CF finds itself in eight position in the latest UEFA club ranking which combines the coefficients of the past four seasons and the start of the 2012/13 campaign. With 100,833 points Valencia CF managed to get 8th place ahead of Inter and Atletico Madrid.

To find other Spanish teams, one has to go all the way down to 22nd to find Villarreal CF (66,833 points), then Sevilla in 37th place(54,333), and Athletico Bilbao in 40th place (51,833). Even further down is Málaga at 62nd place (34,833) and Levante UD at 78th place with 24,833 points.

Here are the top ten by seasons:                                  08/09      09/10      10/11      11/12      12/13         Pts:

1FC Barcelona	ESP	28.662	30.585	36.642	34.171	20.771	150.833
2FC Bayern München	GER	22.537	30.616	24.133	33.050	20.671	131.008
3Manchester United FC	ENG	28.000	28.585	36.671	16.050	19.228	128.535
4Real Madrid CF	ESP	14.662	22.585	33.642	36.171	19.771	126.833
5Chelsea FC	ENG	25.000	22.585	26.671	33.050	13.228	120.535
6Arsenal FC	ENG	22.000	25.585	22.671	22.050	18.228	110.535
7FC Porto	POR	17.357	21.000	31.760	12.366	19.750	102.233
8Valencia CF	ESP	13.662	19.585	21.642	25.171	20.771	100.833
9FC Internazionale Milano	ITA	13.275	34.085	21.314	20.271	10.150	99.096
10Club Atlético de Madrid	ESP	17.662	24.585	9.642	34.171	10.771	96.833

You can find the full table on the Uefa website.

No transfers in the winter

Well it seems there won't be any new signings at Valencia CF in the winter transfer window, nor any sells. There was a potential for Fernando Gago to leave and in his place to arrive Javi Fuego, but it counted on Viera being loaned out to Rayo Vallecano and with Viera now staying at Valencia CF, this whole deal seems to be over.

There is still one and a half more days left, but its highly unlikely for something to happen in 36 hours, so this means Fernando Gago is staying in Valencia CF, with Javi Fuego staying at Rayo Vallecano until the summer, when he obviously joins us as a free agent.

I guess the biggest reinforcement for Valencia CF this winter is Sergio Canales who has returned from injury and if he regains his full form and fitness can really help out Valencia CF in attack.

Sofiane Feghouli is also returning from the African cup of nations in basically less than a week now, so that will add some more options on the right wing and we are going to see some real competition on who is going to start there, with Pablo Piatti performing really good in Feghouli's absence.

Viera tweets "I'm staying in Valencia"

Jonathan Viera posted on his twitter account that he would be staying with Valencia CF. He said "After so many messages of support I can say that I'm staying in Valencia, thank you all". 

The last several days have been frantic and his future unknown, but it seems Viera has decided to stay and surely he's talked to the coach and come to some kind of understanding.

Jonathan Viera to leave Valencia CF

Reports have been coming out from Spanish media for some time now about the departure of Jonathan Viera and now it seems like a real possibility.

The club officials are debating whether they sell him with a buy-back option or to loan him out. Right now they are in favor of loaning him out to Rayo Vallecano in order to secure the services of Javi Fuego this winter transfer window.

If you are out of the loop let me tell you what is happening. Namely Fernando Gago has been frozen out of the squad because the team is looking to sell him, as the coaching staff and officials aren't happy with Gago's performances and feel like they don't need him, because as I reported from the start he is not a defensive midfield and has failed time and time again to protect Valencia's defense.

The match against Real Madrid was the last straw, coupled of course with the reports of Gago wanting to leave earlier in 2012 and they club wants to sell him. Of course they want to recoup the 4 million they spend on him in the summer, so the cheapest they will sell him for is 3.5 million euros, while at the same time Valencia CF is trying to buy Javi Fuego and are ready to pay up to 1.5 million euros to secure his services if they can get the money they want for Gago. If Gago sells cheaper than his asking price, then Valencia CF can offer only up to a million and even that is a stretch, so they want to use Jonathan Viera in the deal and loan him out for 6 months to Rayo Vallecano.

Its a delicate position and we'll see what happens, but there are only 3 days till the transfer window closes and we'll see how, if at all these deals pan out.

Personally I like Viera, if you look at his statistics, his team play, his individual performances he's been a good performer, who's only failed when the team has failed and is not due to his poor individual performances, but on the other hand now that Canales is back, he is really going to have a tough time getting into the team, so being loaned out for 6 months can flesh out his skills and he can regain his confidence and skills, while at the same time will help the deal for Javi Fuego go through. Of course all of this depends mostly on whether Gago is sold and if not, its going to be really tough doing any of this.

Algeria out, Feghouli to return soon

Algeria are out of the African cup of nations after they lost two games and are last place on the table with 0 points. They lost their first game against Tunisia and lost their last game against Togo as well.

They can't qualify for the next stage anymore, but still have a match to play in 2 days against Cote d'Ivorie who are the group leaders with 6 points.

Than means that Sofiane Feghouli will return to Valencia CF in a week or so and could even be in contention to start against PSG, depending on his physical status.

Deportivo La Coruna 2-3 Valencia CF

Well I predicted a 2-0 win for Valencia CF and wrote that I didn't expect a repeat of the first match between these two teams, but that is exactly what happened. We had a similar repeat of the play and result, though luckily Valencia CF managed to win this time, just barely in stoppage time.

The match started in a positive fashion for Valencia CF as Jonas Goncalves managed to score a goal in the 1st minute, after a good corner kick by Piatti.

After this early lead Valencia CF would control most of the possession, but would fail to seriously threaten Deportivo La Coruna's goal for quite a while.

Pizzi on the other side would threaten as he gets a ball from the middle, races down the right side, goes past Joao Pereira and shoots, but his shoot is blocked by Diego Alves.

Valencia CF would also threaten this time Jonas releases a great pass to Valdez who beats the offside trap, finds himself alone in front of goal, but his shot is too weak and Aranzubia has no problems saving.

Valdez would find himself with a good opportunity minutes later once again, this time Piatti finds him with a great cross and Valdez heads the ball towards goal, but Aranzubia has no problems with it.

All this wastefulness in front of goal would of course be punished as Riki manages to get away from R. Costa and heads a ball from a free kick into the net to make it 1-1.

Then just before the end of the first half Deportivo La Coruna would score again, once again from a counter attack and once again it would be Riki who would score, who managed to beat Ruiz and R. Costa, making himself space to shoot and scoring. Diego Valdez was also poor in this one and should have been able to prevent this goal.

Second half started with Viera taking the place of Jonas who wasn't very effective and has been rather poor and apart from his goal and one great pass wasn't too effective and wasn't providing width on the left.

This change will instantly pay off as Viera gets the ball in the 48th minute, starts an attack, quickly passes to Guardado and this one crosses towards Valdez, but his shot is blocked just barely.

Then just a minute later Viera gets the ball, passes one player and makes himself a space to shoot, but Aranzubia is well positioned and saves.

After some battle in the middle Banega finds himself in a good position and shoots from long range, but Aranzubia saves once again.

Then in the 62nd minute, just moments after Bernat came in, he would dribble past Manuel Pablo and passes into the penalty area towards where Valdez is and he is quick to react and scores to make it 2-2.

Banega found himself in a good shooting position in the 73rd minute after a cross was blocked, but the ball came to Banega who was deep inside the penalty area, but his shot was blocked by Pablo.

Copa Del Rey would have a chance on their own in the 78th minute after Oliveira puts a dangerous cross into the penalty area, but Joao Pereira was positioned well and headed the cross into a corner.

83rd minute huge chance for Nelson Haedo Valdez as he latches on to a great cross from Joao Pereira, along in front of goal he has time and sets up the ball with his head and volley's as the ball is falling down, but his volley goes straight into Aranzubia. Big chance wasted.

Just two minutes later another big chance, this time for Juan Bernat as he recieves a good pass in a dangerous position, but his shot goes above the goal.

88th minute chance for Pizzi after a counter attack by Deportivo, but his shot is blocked by Diego Alves.

90th minute Ricardo Costa scores a goal as he finds himself alone in front of goal and heads the ball into the net, after a great cross by Guardado.

The referee added 6 minutes of added time, after all of the injuries and interruptions that happened and the closing minutes were chaotic, but mostly for Deportivo who could have lost by more goals.

Bernat dribbles past 3 defenders in the 94th minute from the left side, then passes the ball into the penalty area, his pass only goes to a Deportivo defender, but his clearance is poor and the ball goes to Valdez who unfortunately failed to score.

Technical Details:

D. L. Coruna2-3Valencia

8                                                                          Corners                                                                       13
2                                                                          Dribbles                                                                        8
31                                                                        Tackles                                                                       26
18                                                                       Throw ins                                                                     27
17                                                                          Fouls                                                                         10
1                                                                          Offsides                                                                        7
70%                                                                 Pass Success                                                               84%
52%                                                                Aerial Success                                                              48%
36%                                                                  Possession                                                                  64%

 Line Up

Deportivo La Coruña				Valencia
		Aranzubia				Diego Alves
		Manuel Pablo	14'			A. Rami
		Zé Castro				João Pereira
		Aythami				Víctor Ruíz	55'
		Sílvio	17'52'			Ricardo Costa	90 (2)'
		Álex Bergantiños				É. Banega	85'
		André Santos	54'			A. Guardado
		Paulo Assunção	90 (3)'			A. Costa	37'
		Pizzi				Jonas	1'46'
		Riki	32, 45 (2)'70'			P. Piatti	31'
		Bruno Gama	14'77'			N. Valdéz	63'
		Coach: Domingos Paciência				Coach: Ernesto Valverde
Substitutions 54' Jesús Vázquez ON for André Santos 70' Nélson Oliveira ON for Riki 77' Camuñas ON for Bruno Gama				Substitutions 46' Jonathan Viera ON for Jonas 55' Juan Bernat ON for Víctor Ruíz 85' Canales ON for É. Banega

Player Ratings:
Diego 5 (FotM) - Had two good saves and had to take the ball out of his net two times, the second goal he could have and should have prevented.
Joao 6.5 - Beaten once by Pizzi and lucky that it didn't result in a goal, but was very active in attack and provided several very good passes into the penalty area.
Rami 6 - Not at fault for the goals, but was rather lethargic for most of the match and could have perhaps been more alert on few occasions.
R. Costa 6 - Beaten for the first goal as he failed to cover Riki, then failed to block Riki again for the second goal as well. Made amends at the end by scoring the winning goal for Valencia CF.
Guardado 7.5 (MotM) - Great performance by Guardado who didn't have too much to do at the back so he bombed forward time and time against, linking up well with Viera, providing several good crosses and assisted the third goal.
Ruiz 6 - Helped control the midfield, but fooled by Riki for the second goal and was otherwise simple in his passes.
Tino Costa 6 - Mixed performance by Tino Costa with some good passes and good moves, but did looses the ball few times in dangerous positions and was rather simple in his passing.
Piatti 7 - Very active throughout the whole match, provided the assist for the first goal from corner kick and provided several good passes in the penalty area, including one great cross to the lone Valdez.
Banega 6 - Mixed performance again from Banega as he was too adventurous with his passing at times and his passing was very inaccurate. He also lost the ball several times too easily, though he did have two shots on goal and linked up decently with Viera and Piatti.
Jonas 6 - Scored the first goal and had one great through pass to Valdez, but Valdez failed to score. Of course if Valdez scored he would have had assist to his name as well and a score of 7, with the reality though   those two things were his only contributions.
Valdez 6 - Scored a poachers goal from a great pass by Bernat, but he also missed at least three sitters. So he gets points for getting into good positions and beating the offside trap, but looses them because he failed to convert his great chances. If he was able to score from all his chances, he would have been man of the match with 4 goals scored.
Subs:
Viera 6.5 - Provided more width than Jonas and was a lot more active, instantly having an impact from his coming in, linked up well with Banega and had one great pass to Valdez, but again Valdez was very inefficient today with his chances.
Bernat 7 - Great performance by Bernat today, linked up terrific with Viera and Guardado and was always dangerous on the wing, providing several good passes and crosses as well as an assist to Valdez.
Canales N/A - Had some good moments in the game, but didn't play enough to be rated.