if you know Porto surely you must realise by now that they do not sell their best players for less than their release clause Ref: Falcao, Hulk, Anderson etc.So regardless of if he wants to leave, the release clause has to be met as Porto are not struggling financially so they have no reason to accept less, plus James had no problem renegotiating his contract to increase the clause. If you watch James as regularly as I do , you will also have seen that he goes to ground on almost any challenge and also he is a lot more technically gifted than pacy and whilst you might say that Nani is not an out and out winger, he can go on the outside but James does not have the pace to go on the outside and when PL defenders realise this, they will figure out that he prefers to come infield so that already is a conundrum. But If you are going to buy him as the No. 10, Thats different because that is what he is, but then you have to ask how many No. 10's are required at the club as Utd have a few already and are having to play them in different positions that they are accustomed to.
....and? So does Nani, and so did Ronaldo when he first came from over there. Rodriguez is also just one option, one that Fergie is known to be keeping an eye on, I would also prefer to have Greizmann over Nani at the minute.
Ok I give you that but then the next question is where do you play him? And on the subject of preferring anyone to Nani, may I ask what you think Nani might have turned in to if he had been played predominantly on the right wing for the last 3 seasons considering that over that stretch he had been one of the most productive players in the PL, but instead he has been continuosly shunted to the left wing to accomodate Valencia and like I stated earlier I will forever believe that utd will never win a CL with players like Valencia and Young as first choice and even though I am not the greatest advocate of James at the stated release clause of £35-£38 million I believe that utd stand a better chance of winning a CL with him than with Valencia and Young as first choice wingers.
I never said I preferred anyone to Nani, but he's been poor far too often for top team player now, as for him playing on the right, he spends most of the time in field anyway so it doesn't really make any difference, a lot of his end product from the right was him cutting inside on to his left foot and shooting, something he often seems to screw up when he cuts inside from the left on to his stronger right foot, his crossing has always been very average too, even his corners rarely beat the first man. His major problem is consistency, he's only really managed to have a consistent run of about half a season and then its back to the frustratingly wasteful Nani, yes he's more than capable of producing one moment of magic, but too often the three of four games in between those moments he is nothing more than a passenger.
Consistency is the most overstated term used in football. What does it mean exactly? In terms of production, in the years after Ronaldo left utd, in the PL, 2009-2010, Valencia got 7 assists and 5 goals compared to Nani's 6 assists and 3 goals and Nani played mainly on the left that season, and the next year Nani finished top in assist in the league with 14 assists and 9 goals and granted Valencia was injured for the majority of the campaign Nani was played predominantly on the right, and not only did utd win the league that season, Nani was voted as Player of the year by his teammates. Last season Valencia had 13 assists and 4 goals to Nani's 10 assists and 8 goals whilst young got 7 assists and 6 goals mainly from the left but once again Nani was deployed mainly on the left wing to accommodate Valencia because of his lack of versatility because even Young can play on the right wing. And then this season there is this whole contract issue and granted Nani has started the season very poorly and then got injured for 9 weeks as well so it has been a terrible time for him but if there is one thing I believe, even though his time at utd might be up, he has been severely under utilised in this team and the biggest regret I have is that I would not have been able to see him at his best playing and linking up with RVP and Kagawa because whilst Rooney's chemistry with Valencia is based on being the main benefactor of his crosses, RVP does not rely on crosses to score so cosidering Nani is more of a give and go kind of player, with the confidence of the 2010-2011 season, his chemistry with Kagawa and RVP could have been dynamic but I guess considering how often SAF wil use him I will have probably until the end of the season to see how it works out.
Stats can often be misleading, by consistency I mean his overall performances, Valencia may not be as flashy or try as much of the Hollywood showboating but you know exactly what you are getting week in week out, even when he has one of his poorer games he poses a threat, when Nani has his all too regular poor performances he becomes anonymous, he offers next to nothing to the team, he just loses the ball and frustrates his manager and teammates, plus Valencia seems to have built up a much stronger partnership not only with Rooney but with Rafael down the right.
This Many of Valencia's crosses take major deflections in the box and result in goals he doesn't get assists for as well. Valencia works a lot harder than Nani, and I think Nani's work rate is underrated, but what Valencia lacks in the skill Nani has he makes up for it by putting in twice the effort.
