Valencia's winter window: Patching up the summer shambles
How Los Che addressed their desperate squad situation with three key January signings, repairing the damage done by their flawed summer planning.
Valencia have finally addressed their summer transfer market blunders with a trio of winter signings aimed at steering the club away from the relegation dogfight they’ve been flirting with all season.
The three amigos arrive at Mestalla
After spending much of the first half of the season bouncing in and out of the drop zone, Valencia have brought in Sadiq, Unai Núñez and Guido Rodríguez to patch up their paper-thin squad. The club had initially hoped to shift more players to make room for additional reinforcements – with Raba, Santamaría and even Ramazani considered for the chopping block – but couldn’t quite pull it off.
With those departures failing to materialise, plans for another winger and Aston Villa’s right-back Nedeljkovic had to be shelved. Bit of a shame, that.
Fixing past mistakes
The winter business essentially amounts to a belated correction of Valencia’s summer transfer cock-ups:
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Sadiq: Corberán had been crying out for this striker profile since summer, but Valencia’s lowball offers to Real Sociedad scuppered any deal. The penny finally dropped in January, with Los Che now paying roughly what they refused to cough up five months ago. On the bright side, they’ve discovered Lucas Beltrán in the meantime, who they might even try to keep if Fiorentina play ball.
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Unai Núñez: Central defence became priority number one due to Diakhaby’s fitness concerns, Copete’s poor form, and Tárrega not hitting last season’s heights. The plan changed when Diakhaby got properly crocked, prompting Valencia to secure Núñez on loan from Celta (after terminating his Hellas Verona spell). Comert, who’d barely featured, now finds himself fourth-choice.
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Guido Rodríguez: This signing addresses the summer failure to replace Barrenechea and the sidelining of Guillamón. Baptiste Santamaría hasn’t cut the mustard, proving neither defensive nor offensive enough for Valencia’s needs. Rodríguez, struggling for minutes at West Ham, took a pay cut to make the move happen, with Valencia paying a small fee to secure him until at least June.
Looking ahead
Beyond these January fixes, Valencia have two summer deals already in the pipeline. Dutch centre-back Justin de Haas will arrive on a free from Famalicão, bringing left-footed ball-playing qualities to the backline. Meanwhile, Malian midfielder Aliou Dieng is set to join from Egypt’s Al-Ahly when his contract expires, adding physical presence to the double pivot.
Corberán now faces the tricky task of managing the squad’s fringe players like Raba and Santamaría, who know their minutes will be limited for the remainder of the campaign. Not exactly what you’d call a proper Charlie for the gaffer, is it?