Alvaro Negredo: Could he be returning to the Premier League in January?

Back in the summer of 2014 more than a few eyebrows were raised when it was announced that Alvaro Negredo would be leaving Manchester City to join Valencia CF. Although technically a loan deal, a compulsory purchase clause was included which meant the move would become permanent at the end of the 2014/15 season.

It appeared to be a really smart move on the part of Valencia, less so for Manchester City. In fact the deal actually went ahead despite the protests of Manuel Pellegrini, who saw the big target man as a key member of his squad. The deal was brokered at boardroom level as Sheikh Mansour and, the then Valencia owner in waiting, Peter Lim are good friends. With it being late in the transfer window, City were reluctant to do the deal but a private phone call between the owners secured the move, much to the head coach’s dismay.

The reason it was initially a loan deal was pure and simply to avoid Financial Fair Play regulations. Valencia had failed to qualify for even the Europa League after a dismal campaign and couldn’t afford to have a €28m outlay on their books in case they underperformed again. It wasn’t just in the Negredo deal either as Andre Gomes, Joao Cancelo and Rodrigo all arrived on loan before their moves were made permanent in the summer after Champions League qualification was secured.

Negredo arrived to a lot of fanfare. The supporters, albeit happy with Paco Alcacer, knew that Negredo offered something different in attack and the striker had a glowing reputation in his native country from his time with Sevilla. He was the star signing the soon-to-be-announced Lim era needed. It didn’t even matter that he arrived injured, although missing preseason did have a knock-on effect to his performances.

I think it’s unfair to say his time at City was disappointing as he averaged over a goal every two games during the first half of the season before losing form from February onwards. He scored 5 of City’s 9 goals against West Ham in the League Cup semi-finals as they went on to win the trophy alongside the Premier League itself. You can understand why Pellegrini was loath to lose him. Let’s not forget he scored an impressive 23 goals in all competitions for Manchester City.

It didn’t quite go according to plan for Negredo at Valencia though. He failed to appear for Los Che until the end of October and it took another month for him to be fit enough to start a game. He wasn’t the beast some saw in England, nor the shark as he’s affectionately known as over here. There were moments of class but more instances of poor first touches and questionable finishing.

Negredo, to his credit, returned this summer in arguably the greatest shape of his career and looked ready to showcase his talent in the Champions League. There were, however, some concerns behind the scenes. After a decent enough showing in the opening set of preseason games he was dropped from the squad for the PSV match. It didn’t take long for rumours to circulate that Nuno didn’t see him as part of his plans going forward and his name was being pushed onto the desks of the big Milan sides that were scouring the market for established strikers at the time.

Those rumours came to nothing and instead Negredo found himself starting the opening 3 fixtures in La Liga as well as the crucial second leg of the Champions League playoff game against Monaco, scoring a wonderful chipped goal which meant Valencia eventually went through on away goals. He was then bizarrely dropped from the squad for the Betis game and didn’t come off the bench against Espanyol, this despite Valencia being 1-0 down for most of the match.

While he wasn’t playing in the league he was first choice when it came to European nights, starting against both Zenit and Lyon. Once again, Nuno decided he was worth putting back into the league side and he played the following two La Liga fixtures. In the second of those he missed an open goal against Athletic Club with the score at 1-1; Valencia would then go on to lose 3-1.

And that was that. He’s failed to make the last three matchday squads in the league as well as the home match against Gent in the Champions League. No explanation was given apart from his absence being down to “technical reasons”. Some claimed he had a falling out with Nuno after the Athletic game and was being frozen out. His best friend, Rodrigo de Paul, also found himself out in the cold at the same time. The fallout made sense to fans already upset with Nuno’s growing influence at the club that, in some part, contributed to the then club president Amadeo Salvo and director of football Rufete leaving Valencia before the start of this season.

That theory was shot down this week as it was revealed Nuno had decided to drop Negredo four days prior to the Malaga game. There was no argument or ugly exchange of words, only that Nuno didn’t see him as being the right option to have on the bench. If you think about it, that’s actually worse. One thing is your manager dropping you because you’ve had a tiff; another is because he doesn’t rate you as good enough.

Negredo – and De Paul – have actually been restored to the squad for the away game versus Gent tonight but it’s unclear as to whether he’ll be given a chance or is only there due to a lack of numbers with Rodrigo Moreno being out until 2016 with a knee injury.

Nuno tried to downplay the rumours by saying it was a question of Negredo needing to improve his displays in training and that “nobody wants Negredo back with us” more than him, stating the coaches were working hard to get Alvaro back into the first team picture.

In Valencia however they continue to believe Negredo’s future lies elsewhere and the name of Tottenham Hotspur has been mentioned more than once, perhaps originally on a loan deal as they look for an experienced alternative to Harry Kane instead of the very raw Clinton N’Jie. Spurs are also interested in his teammate Sofiane Feghouli so it would make sense to enquire as to Negredo’s current situation but they won’t get a free run at the forward.

Interest in signing the former Spanish international remains high in both Italy and France, so if he were made available for transfer in January he wouldn’t be short of offers. Selling Negredo could leave Valencia short in the strikers’ department but Nuno has shown faith in Santi Mina recently. Nuno might believe Mina, alongside Paco Alcacer and Rodrigo Moreno – bar any setbacks from his injury – are good enough to bridge the loss of Alvaro.

Negredo is the highest earner at Valencia and he’d probably need to lower his wage demands to secure a move to similar level side outside of Spain. It’ll be an interesting couple of months for Valencia and Negredo as things could change in an instant if Nuno were to lose his job before the January transfer window opened. But for now it appears very much like Alvaro Negredo will be searching for pastures new come January.