La Liga in focus: Copa del Rey has been kind to Gary Neville’s Valencia, but Barcelona might not be as friendly

Valencia's British coach Gary Neville speaks during a press conference at the Sports City in Valencia on February 2, 2015. Jose Jordan / AFP

Valencia travel to Barcelona on Wednesday for the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final. It is a daunting draw, one their fans did not want after they beat Las Palmas away to reach the last four. But at least they are in the last four.

Barcelona have not lost a game since their 2-1 defeat at Sevilla on October 3, 26 games ago; Valencia have not won a league game since November. That 11-game winless run has seen Valencia dismiss one manager and appoint another, who walked into an injury hit dressing room full of largely talented – but largely young – players.

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Gary Neville is determined to get things right in his first job in management; he has a huge task. He needs patience when there is little in Valencia, though the fans have been very supportive during games, waiting until after the match to show their dissatisfaction at players they label mercenaries.

Valencia overspent last summer on emerging talents, and became weaker as a result. Fans do not think that Valencia should be a factory for emerging talents, but a team for established ones which competes for trophies.

That is what they have known, but Valencia went through several financial implosions before the current owner Peter Lim arrived in 2014. They were a selling club and offloaded the family silver including David Villa, Juan Mata, David Silva and Juan Bernat.

Now they have money to buy and stave off suitors chasing talents such as Andre Gomes. Only very high offers for players who push to leave will be accepted, as when Manchester City bought Nicolas Otamendi for €40 million (Dh160m) last summer, but even that looks like bad business for Valencia. They miss the Argentine in defence and have conceded the first goal in every game since Neville took charge in December.

Valencia have 19 points less than at this stage last season, when they finished fourth. They are now 12th, only five points off the relegation zone as Neville searches for that elusive first league win. Last Sunday, at home to a Sporting Gijon side in the relegation zone, was a perfect opportunity and his team played well. They created chances, but captain Alvaro Negredo could not finish them off and Sporting scored a penalty to end Valencia’s unbeaten home record.

There is no let-up either as Valencia play 10 games in a month. In the Primera Liga, they have winnable matches against the only two teams with worse form than them. They play at a Real Betis side with the worst home record in the league, on Sunday, then home to Espanyol the following week. Valencia need a win. Both are only three points behind Neville's side, both are showing signs of improvement with Betis holding Real Madrid in their last home game and Espanyol, under new Chinese ownership, spending freely on players for the first time in a decade.

Valencia will also play at 18th-place Granada in February, whom Valencia beat 3-0 away in the Copa del Rey, albeit with a performance he was not happy with.

Valencia also have games in the Europa League against Rapid Vienna. The Copa del Rey run has been a bonus, but their league form has caused alarm. The arrival of Guilherme Siqueira, the 29-year-old Brazilian left-back, on loan from Atletico Madrid, should bring experience, but Valencia were frustrated in their efforts to sign another former Atletico player, Mauro Suarez, from Fiorentina. That the midfielder chose English club Watford over Valencia shows the financial might of the Premier League.

Valencia did a late deal to get another midfielder on loan before the transfer window closed, bringing in Denis Cheryshev from Real Madrid. The 25-year-old Russian, who has lived in Spain for so long that he says he feels almost Spanish, will add a much needed option on the left wing.

Cheryshev is the man whose ineligible presence on the pitch against Cadiz saw Madrid disqualified from the Copa del Rey earlier this season. Cheryshev was ineligible for Madrid because he was meant to be serving a suspension, but was included in Neville’s squad to face Barcelona on Wednesday.

It will be interesting to see how Barca fans greet him.

Shady agents and unwitting players to blame for dragging Barcelona’s name through the courts

For all Barcelona’s brilliance on the field, they keep getting embroiled with off-field controversies. The club cannot shake off court appearances. President Josep Maria Bartomeu was the latest to be called to court this week alongside Neymar in a long-running case about the murky deal which brought the Brazilian to Camp Nou in 2013.

That brought about the end of former Barca president Sandro Rosell, who has also been asked to testify, as have Neymar's parents. The original transfer was valued at €57.1 million (Dh229m) but Spanish prosecutors have found evidence of deals around it which make the transfer worth at least €83 million (Dh332.9m). Neymar was also found guilty of filing irregular tax returns in 2007 and 2008, losing an appeal. He still maintains his innocence.

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Two weeks ago, Javier Mascherano was in court, where he was found guilty of €1.5 million tax evasion relating to image rights. He accepted a suspended one-year prison sentence and a fine of €816,000.

His compatriot Lionel Messi was also in court over tax issues and will stand trial for tax charges on May 31 for allegedly failing to declare €4 million related to his image rights between 2007 and 2009.

With Luis Suarez also in court in 2014, albeit to appeal against matters of a more sporting nature, Barca’s venerated front three are all familiar with the inside of a courtroom.

The notion of Mascherano, Messi and Neymar studying tax codes and trying to bend the rules are inconceivable. The players maintain their innocence and as the cerebral Mascherano said: “I’m a professional sportsman and I don’t know a lot about legal and financial matters. Therefore I must rely on the people that manage these technical, and for me, complicated, issues.

“All my career I have been an honest and responsible person. I will take this experience that has accosted me as another experience from which I will leave stronger and calmed by the fact that I am once again within the law.”

The people surrounding the players are damaging their clients’ reputation. The players have little idea whether the advice they have received is the right advice, but ignorance does not mean innocence.

Barcelona deliberately do not rely on one agent. Their players are represented by many different agents and only the agent of Gerard Pique and Ivan Rakitic represents more than one player. Theirs is reputable agency with a background office where players are offered correct advice from well respected companies. The same cannot be said of the rest, who are managed by a mixture varying from excellent agents to speculative hustlers who struck gold when their client signed for the club.

Who players choose as their adviser is no business of Barca, yet it is their name, plus that of their contracted players, which is shamed when they break the law, even if it is unknowingly.

Player of the week

Real Madrid will face tougher tests at home than Espanyol, who never perform at the Bernabeu, but Cristiano Ronaldo, Luca Modric and Karim Benzema were all excellent as Zinedine Zidane's side won 6-0. Ronaldo's hat-trick meant he drew level with Luis Suarez at the top of the Pichichi with 19 league goals this term.

Game of the week

Barcelona play three games against Valencian sides in a week. Two matches are in the Copa del Rey, against Valencia, but on Sunday, in La Liga, they play at bottom-club Levante who were busier than any other Spanish club in the transfer window. Since making the signings they hope will keep them up, Levante have had to face Sevilla away and now play Barca. Tough times for both Valencian sides.

What else?

Sporting Gijon’s Jorge Mere is only 18, but the central defender, who has played for Spain’s Under 21s, was excellent against Valencia and a physical match for Alvaro Negredo.

Lucas Perez scored as Deportivo La Coruna were held 2-2 at home by second-bottom Rayo Vallecano on Monday. With 14 goals so far this season, local boy Perez has now scored more goals for Depor in one season than any player since Roy Makaay back in the days of “Super Depor” in 2002/03.

Sevilla were bottom of the league in September but are now fifth after 11 straight home wins in all competitions. Barcelona, Atletico and Real Madrid were all beaten at the Sanchez Pizjuan. It is just a shame that they cannot fix their away form; Sevilla have not won once on the road in 10 attempts and they have only scored five goals on their travels, the poorest record in the league.

In the second division, promotion-chasing Real Oviedo drew 1-1 against leaders Alaves in front of 22,634, the fifth biggest crowd in Spain at the weekend. Oviedo, who have averaged 15,000 at home, have the stadium and fan base to be a top-flight club.

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