The abyss created by the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo is obviously considerable. However, with coffers weighed down with £80 million, Sir Alex Ferguson decided against shedding the bulk of it on a replacement. He was even frugal with travel expenses, opting to sign Antonio Valencia from up the road at Wigan Athletic, for a fee around £16 million.
The Ecuador international arrives at Old Trafford on the back of three years at Wigan. Overzealous fans of the Premier League will know Valencia well, thanks to Wigan’s quota of televised games. He’s a pacey, direct winger, not renowned for his goalscoring but more for his chance creating ability. At international level however, he usually commands a central position in midfield. Mental notebooks out then, although it’s unlikely that he’ll take up this role often (if at all) at United, especially when you consider the alternatives in wide positions…
Pre-season should give us more clues, but I think it’s fair to say that most of us expect Valencia to be a starter. With new boy Obertan out of the picture for a few months, the only other wide men are the much maligned Nani, who is far from proving his doubters wrong, Park, who to be fair has performed well for the last couple of years and Tosic, who has very little top-level experience. Of course Rooney, Fletcher and Anderson are options but departures elsewhere and the ageing Scholes and Giggs means they will surely be needed in their primary, central positions.
What we really want to know is what he offers to us fantasy football managers. On the face of it, there’s little to get to excited about. His stats are distinctly average, with just 3 goals and 5 assists last season (3 goals and 4 assists the season before last). Naturally, his output at United has the potential to increase in both areas but in the Fantasy Premier League game, there’s another concern. Valencia’s standout talents in a workmanlike Wigan side helped him reap 21 bonus points last term; you’ve got to wonder just how severely this will drop once he’s on the pitch along with bonus darlings Rooney, Vidic, Berbatov and Carrick.
In that particular game he’s priced at 8.5 million. That puts him in the same bracket as the likes of Cahill, Barry, Ashley Young and an injured Mikel Arteta – all proven fantasy favourites with far stronger returns than Valencia in previous seasons. The problem here is that this quartet all sit out the mischievous Gameweek 2. So does this make Valencia worth a punt early on?
Potentially he may prove to be an ideal piece in the United jigsaw, and Valencia’s assist count could certainly tick from the get go thanks to the clinical Owen. But until Valencia shows us some form to justify his price, whether it be in pre-season or in the opening league fixtures, caution is advised. His consistently underwhelming point tallies whilst at Wigan suggest that even if does up his returns at United, he’ll still trail others in his price bracket.