Football Season Guide

Valencia

In


Pepelu (mid) Levante; Koba Koindredi (mid) Real Oviedo – end of loan; Uros Racic (mid) Braga – end of loan;

Out


Toni Lato (sp) (def) RCD Mallorca; Iago Herrerín (sp) (gk) AEK Larnaca; Edinson Cavani (r) (att) Boca Juniors; Justin Kluivert (r) (att) Bournemouth – end of loan; Samuel Lino (r) (att) Atlético Madrid – end of loan; Nico González (sp) (mid) Barcelona – end of loan; Ilaix Moriba (sp) (mid) RB Leipzig – end of loan;

Valencia have been on a downward trend for several seasons and that almost led to relegation in 2022/23, but they managed to stay up on the final day. After a difficult start to the season under Gennaro Gattuso and then under interim boss Voro, former player and club legend Ruben Baraja came back and managed to save the team by promoting several exciting youngsters from the B team, such as Javi Guerra, Diego Lopez and Alberto Mari. They’re now in the first team, and are part of the reason why Valencia have the youngest average age of all squads in the 2023/24 LaLiga season. What’s worrying for Valencia fans, though, is that the squad is weaker overall than it even was last year, as loanees Justin Kluivert, Samuel Lino, Nico Gonzalez and Ilaix Moriba have all returned to their parent clubs. Even if Edinson Cavani wasn’t as good as expected, he’s gone too and only one signing has been made, that of midfielder Pepelu. As such, another difficult season could be on the cards for Valencia. They’ll have energy and motivation thanks to the youngsters and presence of academy graduates in the squad, but the simple fact is that this is one of the worst squads in LaLiga, so they could be in another relegation fight.

Target


Survival. Valencia may be a historic and great club, but the sad truth of the matter is that this is one of the weakest squads in the competition, even Weaker than it already was last year. Promoting youth might not be enough, and avoiding relegation would be an achievement.