In the absence of signings, domestic players may arrive in the rest of the market. This is how Valencia faces the start of the league. Rubén Baraja’s men will open the competition this Friday 11th at 21:30, visiting a demanding field like Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán to play against Sevilla.
The Valencian coach vaa has to raise a litter of youngsters little more than 22 years old and who have no experience in the professional elite. In fact, if we don’t count the four discards that Baraja doesn’t have (Racic, Comert, Samu Castillejo and Marcos André), the average age of the team is 22.85 years. Some players like Diego López, Fran Pérez or Javi Guerra already played a game in the first division last season. López himself scored several crucial goals to salvage the Mestalla strikes, one of them against Real Madrid, but the rest don’t know what it’s like to be trained in the elite.
In the capital, Turia, there’s concern that the team doesn’t know how to handle thorny psychological situations when things aren’t going well. And it is that the number of veterans remaining in the roster is very limited: Jaume Doménech and Gabriel Paulista are 32, while Foulquier is 30 and captain José Luis Gayá is just behind at 28. From here we can find a number of young players, but they have already proven themselves in the highest category of state football: Hugo Duro and Tierry Correia (24), Hugo Guillamón (23) or Mamardashvili (22). The rest is the divine treasure of youth. And to Pérez, López and Guerra we must add names like Tejón, Tárrega or Alberto Marí. The latter provided the pre-season sensation with two goals but was injured earlier this month and has had surgery and will be out for three to four months.
Rubén Baraja and Valencia start a season this Friday that is expected to be difficult, on a pitch that is always as complicated as Mestalla, with such demanding fans and problems that go beyond the sport. We’ll see if the players are able to pull through the pressure that comes with it without reinforcements.