What is going wrong at Valencia?

Valencia are hanging on to fourth place in La Liga at the moment but there is a real danger that they could be caught and end up outside the crucial top four places.

So what is going wrong at the club?

Manager Unai Emery is being jeered and whistled at by the fans and there is much talk of their best players being sold to alleviate financial difficulties. Just yesterday, the rumour surfaced on Goal.com that David Villa has given the go ahead to his people to arrange a move to Barcelona.

Imbalanced

The criticism of Emery seems a little unfair as he has inherited a badly imbalanced squad that needs additional strength in certain areas but he doesn’t have the money to do so.

As the Sky Sports Spanish football expert Guillem Balague says, the current Valencia side looks to be divided completely in two with six defenders and four attackers. They are woefully short of class in the midfield area and too often lose control of games by being overrun in that area.

Leaving

Their star player, David Villa is still scoring goals and is constantly rumoured to be leaving the Mestalla. He recently signed a contract that would keep him at Valencia until 2014, but realisation has dawned at the club now that one or two star players may well have to be sold to help the financial position.

There is a €100 million buy-out clause in the contract and Barcelona, whilst almost certainly not being prepared to pay that much, may well get pretty close to it.

It is well known that Villa has several friends at Barcelona and he recently filmed a commercial with Lionel Messi. If Villa is prepared to go, Barcelona is the most likely destination.

Defeats

On the pitch, December saw defeats to Real Madrid 1-0 and Barcelona 4-0. January started well with a 3-1 victory over Atletico Madrid but has also seen a home draw with Villarreal and defeats to Athletic Bilbao and Mallorca together with an exit from the Copa Del Rey.

The 3-2 victory over struggling Almeria did little to calm the nerves as they were lucky to hold off an excellent second half performance from the visitors.

No likelihood

It seems to me that there is little the thirty-seven year old Emery can do to change things at the moment. He brought in Tottenham’s recently released goalkeeper Cesar Sanchez to stand-in for the injured first choice keeper. Sanchez did well against Almeria making one exceptional save that rescued the three points. There is no likelihood of anyone else arriving and Sanchez will hardly be the difference between Champions League qualification or not.

There does seem to be trouble ahead for the third most popular team in Spain. Their days of Champions League finals, just eight years ago, seem to be in the dim and distant past. It is only five years since they won La Liga for the sixth time and last season they won the Copa Del Rey for the seventh time.

Crucial

With this season being their last in the Mestalla before moving to the 75,000 seater Nou Mestalla in the Summer, it is crucial that they compete in next season’s Champions League. After last season’s disappointing tenth placed finish hopes were high that having kept the likes of David Villa and David Silva in the Summer, this would be a season that saw a resurgence for the club.

An eleven game unbeaten start to the season had raised hopes for the fans but defeats in November to Racing and Sporting gave concern for what may lie ahead. They certainly need to steady the ship quickly if the new stadium is not to be an expensive albatross around the necks of the club.

Fighting

Games coming up at Osasuna who are fighting for their lives and tough games against Malaga and Deportivo should tell us more about the future of the club before the end of February. We will also know if they have progressed in the Uefa Cup against Dynamo Kiev. A fit and scoring David Villa should help the cause, but the question is, for how long?