Valencia Now Want Juninho

By: Inara | August 24th, 2007

Valencia’s sporting director, Miguel Angel Ruiz, is like a bad case of herpes. He just keeps coming back at the most importune moments.

For the La Liga illiterate out there, Valencia have been trying really hard to get a creative midfielder. It’s almost as comical as Lyon’s search for a striker.

Cesar at the Valencia Offside has all the details, but basically, they first tried to get Wesley Sneijder, then Lucho Gonzales, then Kim Kallstrom, then Borja Oubina, then Alberto Aquilani, then Manuel Fernandes, and then Rafael Van der Vaart, all the while trying to avoid getting Javier Casquero (who they might not get either).

The reason why none of these deals ever worked out? Bad negotiation tactics.

I’ve written about Valencia’s bungled pursuit of Kallstrom here and here, which ended when Aulas said €25m or no deal. Predictably, Valencia backed off in the hopes that Kallstrom would force the deal, which he didn’t. Instead, he extended his contract with Lyon.

And that was supposed to be it between Valencia and Lyon.

But, if the Spanish press is to be believed, Valencia have switched their attention to Juninho as a short term solution, at least until they can bring someone like Van der Vaart to the club.

While no spring chicken, he’s what I consider a luxury player, someone who makes a statement, a player a team can afford only when they have an equally talented roster, sort of like Andrea Pirlo (but in Juninho’s case, without the huge cost). He’s the type of player that ages well, his style doesn’t rely on super fitness, so at 32 I think he’ll play well until 35 if he can stay away from injuries.

Paul Le Guen adopted the 4-3-3 specifically to bring out the best in Juninho. He doesn’t have a lot of pace, nor is he particularly defensive, so his midfield partners need to be able to compensate (last year it was Tiago and Toulalan). His work rate is superb, and he can play for the full 90+ minutes without a drop in form, though we’ll have to see if that holds true this year. And he is all the more attractive because he just received his French passport.

For any club looking for a cheap, short term, and terrific buy, he would be it.

Talk about aging well.

Except he’s not cheap. Hahaha.

Apparently Lyon are asking for €10m, which seems reasonable to me, but I’m a Lyon fan whose sun, moon, and stars are represented by Juninho. He’s priceless, really.

To other people, that much money for a 32 year old is probably rather steep.

But let’s ignore the finances for a moment and talk about the plausibility of this transfer, should it prove to be real and not a figment of some reporter’s imagination.

Juninho recently signed a contract extension last May, but events since then may have altered his future plans at the Gerland. First off, he’s facing competition from Mathieu Bodmer, and Perrin has adopted the 4-4-2, which favors Kallstrom-Toulalan in the midfield. Perrin doesn’t want to deviate from that formation, so he will try to put Juninho somewhere else.

Which basically makes him sound like an unwanted decorative object that has to be wedged in between the important stuff.

Also, one of Juninho’s biggest regrets is that he’s only ever played for two real clubs (Vasco and Lyon), and because he’s in the French league, he’s missed out on the recognition that he surely deserves. However, he’s at that age where he’s thinking about his retirement, and right now, he holds a considerable amount of influence at Lyon and is considered to be the club’s “star” player.

To give that up for the uncertainty of a new team is pretty risky, because if he flops at Valencia, it’s not like he’ll have another chance elsewhere. But there has been a lot of infighting in the team, and recently Juninho handed in his captain’s armband because of the comments Sidney Govou made about him in the press. For Juni to give up captaincy (he was very proud of it) indicates that he’s quite upset.

He’s no longer happy at the Gerland.

But if he really wants to leave, I don’t think I would begrudge him that, because after six years of sublime service to Lyon, he deserves to make one last move, kind of like how Arsenal let Thierry Henry go. After all he’s done, it wouldn’t be fair to hold him against his will.

Lyon would be left with five midfielders (two DMs, three AMs), which is a bit light, but I’m sure Perrin can find some way to manage (in fact, I demand that Lyon immediately purchase Renato Augusto). But again, I’m not sure how serious Valencia’s interest is in Juninho, because Valencia are interested in just about everybody these days.